SED Freightman

Agreed that grade and tonnage of material required could determine the origin particularly as both terminals are operated by Tarmac (CRH). However the terminal at Angerstein is set up to handle marine aggregate, although I guess the wharf could handle other aggregate / stone if necessary. Which brings me back to the question of why rail from S London when there are no doubt plenty of nearer ports that handle sea dredged aggregate, although most would involve road delivery to Norwich but would possibly be cheaper per tonne delivered. It would be interesting to have confirmation of the actual product being conveyed, unfortunately it is not possible to determine this from beast66606's photo of 6Z43.

Thanks for publishing these old documents, interesting to see that Jack Ilett was on the course, he was Station Manager, Maidstone East when I started in 1978.

Tarmac at Angerstein Wharf usually despatch sea dredged aggregate which I would have thought could be much easier to supplied to Norwich via the nearer East Coast ports. I wonder if there is a large construction project underway that requires additional supplies from farther afield.

All joking aside bearing in mind the comments on risk assessments etc. assuming the Signaller is of average height and looking at the way his legs are bent, is the upper handrail a bit low thereby creating a risk of him falling overboard ?

Colonel Stephens led the way with the intoduction of HV clothing perhaps !

How very true. One of my early trips out from the DMO was to view the loading arrangements at Tilmanstone Colliery with our Terminals Inspector. On the return trip up the branch (73 + 10 ld MCV) whilst creeping around the sharp curve from the EKR to the main line the inspector advised the guard that we would alight and throw the points so they could set back into the yard. With that Basil opened the door, suggested I follow, then climbed down and alighted. I followed, down the steps with the loco brushing through the undergrowth at about 5mph, then looked for a clear area in the cess to land on. A large dry manhole cover hove into view which appeared to provide the requisite safe landing area. As I dropped off the loco steps the manhole cover tilted away from the train, luckily I managed to keep my balance. Lesson learned.

The shunters at Garston Car Terminal were in the habit of sitting on the leading end of propelling moves into the terminal rather than walking alongside. In RfD days one of them unfortunately fell off and under, they were found several Cartics back as the movement failed to stop despite the driver loosing radio contact with him. Sadly a case of lax operational standards, sloppy working and a failure of management to monitor local working pactices. Sidings can be very dangerous places despite the generally low speed of movements.

68001 also appeared in Royal Mail red livery. 68004 was stopped and robbed at Merstham on 8/3/1989 whilst working from Brighton to London Bridge.

At least two MLV's received the red Royal Mail livery (68004 / 68009) in the late 1980's. I vaugely recall that one may have been robbed in the Redhill area in 1989/90, resulting in a rapid repaint into Network Southeast livery.

With railfreight having become something of a niche product and pretty much all but construction related traffic having been eliminated from London, the surprising thing is that Swindon are still forwarding scrap. Although there are still plenty of small scale scrap merchants around London I guess that even if they were on rail connected sites they could not generate trainload quantities and if they could they would then be restricted to selling to rail connected facilities rather than whoever is paying the best price at the time. A scrapyard I had some dealings with in North London would despatch lorries to various destinations depending on the grade / type of scrap and the price they would be paid, which changed almost daily. Not a problem when despatching several lorries per day whereas movement by rail would have restricted the number of potential buyers and tied them into relatively long term contracts.

I don't doubt that the 2-axle wagons were used from Willesden, perhaps during the short period ASW owned Sheerness they went there, but perhaps they went elsewhere such as Cardiff or Sheffield.

The Willesden scrap yard was originally operated by Ferrous Fragmentation Ltd who despatched fragmentised scrap to Sheerness Steel in blocks of 16t minfits. When the VB wagonload network was wound down the traffic switched to short block trains of Sheerness Blues (102t bogie opens). Ownership of the terminal swiched to Mayer Parry Recycling and more recently to European Metal Recycling. I have no knowledge if any other rail served destinations were supplied from Willesden, but after rail traffic had ceased some consideration was given to supplying Celsa at Cardiff. Another nearby small terminal at Willesden was operated by MG Gasses, previously Distillers MG and I think originally ICI.

In the early days of diesel operation it is unlikly that any precautions against spillage were taken particularly at old steam sheds where as you suggest heavy ground contamination would already have been present. Fuelling aprons and oil interception were perhaps only found at new or rebuilt depots to begin with, however an increasing awarness of environmental issues and particularly the risk of prosecution, as mentioned by The Stationmaster at Westbury, resulted in new or upgraded facilities being provided in later years.

I forgot to mention that in addion to the fuelling areas being equipped with concrete aprons, BR generally provided something similar on sidings where tank cars were discharged into depot storage tanks. In more recent times since oil deliveries have switched to road transport, the road tanker discharge area may also be provided with an unloading pad with dedicated drainage equipped with oil interceptors.

Pretty much all fuelling points constructed by BR were equipped with fuelling aprons (usually concrete) and were equipped with drainage systems with oil interceptors and waste oil storage. Come privatisation and although the bigger operators that inherited ex BR depots generally continued to construct / maintain fuelling aprons some of the new entrants adopted what could be termed a more cowboy approach to environmental protection. This resulted in such things as the use of portable drip trays, and relatively cheap permanent drip tray arrangements of varying suitability, with the use of such items depending to some extent on the location and perceived risk of prosecution for oil pollution.

There are actually two aggregate terminals at Stewarts Lane, Tarmac (originally Marcon), located south of the South London Line viaduct, and the much newer Days Aggregates terminal on the former loco depot site. To answer the Fat Controllers question, Rom River were roughly where the warehouses can be seen in Rugd's photo, their siding was connected to Wandsworth Rd goods yard and received re-bar from Sheerness Steel. In the 1980's there were also the remains of Battersea Goods, laterly an S&T depot, now obliterated except for the Battersea Loop used by aggregate trains serving Stewarts Lane.

Johnster, I'm sorry for the temporary diversion of your story onto thoughts of Brains Dark and the pubs that dispensed it. Comments by others have got me thinking about a few visits to the Cardiff area in the late 1980's by a group of mates. I remember visiting the Ninian Park (pub) and also a pub en route there from Cardiff Central that had a skittle alley (on right hand side of Tudor St perhaps), thete was also a very modern pub in a basement near the castle. We once ventured out to Radyr and had lunch in a pub near the station, afterwards the landlord was so impressed that we had travelled from Kent that he gave us each a bag of Brains branded items including a glass pint tankard ! Returning to topic, thanks for explaining the situation with land reclamation, I guessed the origin of Seawall Rd but not Long Dyke, and assume the very large drain running below Celsa's sdgs on the East side of Tidal Yd may also be related to former reclamation work. The photo below shows Long Dyke Jn looking East in 2010, although I believe it was subsequently abolished, from your description I guess the yard was originally behind me. Walking here from Castle Works was quite risky as the residents of a block of flats adjacent to the branch had taken to lobbing used nappies off their balconies onto the track !

Greatly enjoying reading about your exploits, particularly the fishing trip. Have found M Philou's maps and an old Rail Atlas of great help in finding some of the locations, but no such problem with the BRSA Club at Barry. After visiting Woodham's scrapyard with a mate on 21/04/1981 we happened across the club en route back to Barry Station, our BRSA Beckenham Branch cards were examined and we entered to discover the delights of Brains Dark.

Thanks for explaining the origins of GKN at East Moors, the slag tipping operation sounds even more impressive than the Celsa melt shop at Tremorfa. I am looking forward to further instalments but am not sure if I should be dissapointed at missing out on a visit to the asbestos clad Splott Park Rd Cafe.

I am really looking forward to reading further installments of your thread and can only echo Rivercider's comments. I found Philou's maps most helpful in following your shunting movements. Cardiff is a long way from the SED, although towards the end of my 36 year career I did gain an intimate knowledge of the lines within Tremorfa and Castle Works along with the Imperial Cafe in Splott !

The WTT commencing 01/05/1972 referred to previously shows the following :- 7G53 2120 SX Newhaven to Norwood Up Yd arr.0014 Call East Croydon 2351-0006. Formation - East Croydon, Stratford, Bricklayers Arms, Norwood, brake van. 8E77 0103 MX Norwood Up Yd to Stratford. Formation - Stratford LIFT, Temple Mills, brake van. Convey continental traffic received by 2120 Newhaven.

Amalgamated Roadstone were using the goods yard at Ardingly prior to closure of the Branch, however their leased area was susequently extended to include the old station. I recall the then depot manager in the 1980's saying that when he started work there he had commuted by train from somwhere along the East Coastway line.

These look as though the mixer drum would be filled with a dry mix before setting out for the worksite with water being added to the drum on arrival.

These wagons look similar to those used for the in situ construction of mast bases etc. on the St Pancras - Bedford electrification, was the photo taken in Bedford yard? I would guess that both the mixer drum and hopper would be filled with aggregate before departure to site. On arrival at the worksite, water (from the cylindrical tank) and cement powder (from the small covered hopper on the next wagon) would be added to the mixer drum as necessary. When the first mix had been used, the larger hopper could be raised and emptied into the mixer drum and the processs repeated.

I'm very sorry to hear that having enjoyed quite a few cups of tea in Neasden Junction SB whilst involved with the development of the Aggregate Industries stone terminal on the adjacent Charringtons CCD site in 1999/2000.