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oil trains to Earley


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morning,

 

looking through a colleagues spotting records primarliy for the 70s he often used to record the power at Earley on the oil train. It seems an almost daily runner with a variety of Eastern, Southern and occasional Western power. Did Southern 73s return the empties east? or was it a mixture of refinaries that served Earley? Any information on this terminal very welcome as it certainly saw a variety in power up front!

 

thanks,

 

NR

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'Southern'  locos would suggest trains from Isle of Grain via Hoo Jct, whilst 'Easter' would be Thameshaven via Ripple Lane. I would imagine the train engine would work the empties back. I'd have thought an electro-diesel would be pretty unlikely, as it would have had to work in  specially, having no booked workings in the area. Was Earley where Colin Massingham and others kept one of their preserved hydraulics?

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I first remember the workings in the 70's with ED's on Grain workings. E60xx in those days.

Later there were Ripple Lane working usually with a 37.

 

Trains would arrive on the down, with the assistance of the station railman operating the frame, would runround using the two trailing crossover, setback then haul forward into the headshunt. The train was then split into the two sidings with the loco waiting in the headshunt during discharge.

 

D821 was stabled for a number of years in the Reading Gas Works (new works) sidings on the up side (north) of the GW mainline just west of where the Kennet joins the Thames. Just east (other side of the Kennet) was Earley Power Station.

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When I lived in Earley and used to travel into London by train, the oil train seemed to be hauled by a Stratford Class 37.  The staff at Earley station hated it as it arrived about 08.00 during the rush hour and had to back into the sidings, holding up trains in both directions for about 20 mins.

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5 minutes ago, jools1959 said:

When I lived in Earley and used to travel into London by train, the oil train seemed to be hauled by a Stratford Class 37.  The staff at Earley station hated it as it arrived about 08.00 during the rush hour and had to back into the sidings, holding up trains in both directions for about 20 mins.

 

We now go to the station to listen to inconvenienced travellers.
 

Quote

You see that oil train to Earley?

Yes?

It's too early,

 

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23 hours ago, West Junction said:

I first remember the workings in the 70's with ED's on Grain workings. E60xx in those days.

Later there were Ripple Lane working usually with a 37.

 

Trains would arrive on the down, with the assistance of the station railman operating the frame, would runround using the two trailing crossover, setback then haul forward into the headshunt. The train was then split into the two sidings with the loco waiting in the headshunt during discharge.

 

D821 was stabled for a number of years in the Reading Gas Works (new works) sidings on the up side (north) of the GW mainline just west of where the Kennet joins the Thames. Just east (other side of the Kennet) was Earley Power Station.

Technically the sidings on the Up Side were Reading Low Level East Sidings although often known locally as Kings Meadow Sidings and formed one end of the triangular junction through to Huntley & Plamers.  They were nothing to do with the gas works which could only be accessed off the SR lines.

 

As far as the Earley tanks are concerned the only information I have is pre 1970s - Winter TT 1968 to be exact.  At tha time, and in the preceding Summer timetable if a derailment report is correct, the Earley tanks were worked from Feltham (I think probably originating from Thameshaven) using a JB, E6007 series ED on SWD Diagram 153.

 

Daily - 05.55 Feltham arr Earley 06.54 shunt 07.00 - 08.40.  then 08.45 Earley - Wokingham and shunt there arriving back at Earley at 11,18 then shunting 11.25 - 12.30 finally departing for Feltham at 12.41, arriving there at 13.56.

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On 28/02/2020 at 14:16, jools1959 said:

When I lived in Earley and used to travel into London by train, the oil train seemed to be hauled by a Stratford Class 37.  The staff at Earley station hated it as it arrived about 08.00 during the rush hour and had to back into the sidings, holding up trains in both directions for about 20 mins.


When I used to see it - only occasionally - in the late 70s and early 80s it was as often a Stratford Class 47 as a Class 37.

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3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Technically the sidings on the Up Side were Reading Low Level East Sidings although often known locally as Kings Meadow Sidings and formed one end of the triangular junction through to Huntley & Plamers.  They were nothing to do with the gas works which could only be accessed off the SR lines.

 

 

There were sidings on the up side where the Warship was stabled along with an industrial shunter.

Rail Centres Reading - Laurence Waters 

Steam naphtha reforming plant (New Works) was opened opposite the old works connected by new sidings to WR low level at Kings Meadow.

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45 minutes ago, West Junction said:

There were sidings on the up side where the Warship was stabled along with an industrial shunter.

Rail Centres Reading - Laurence Waters 

Steam naphtha reforming plant (New Works) was opened opposite the old works connected by new sidings to WR low level at Kings Meadow.

 

Some of the Low Level East sidings survived (albeit no longer connected to the main lines) until the area became a Network Rail compound as part of the Reading station rebuilding project.

 

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Many thanks your replies on Earley oil traffic to date, helping to build a classic picture. Below is a snapshot of observed oil traffic to Earley in Nov/Dec 76. I assume the oil depot has now closed to all traffic.

 

Earley oil train power variety

011176  73105

021176  47114

051176  37261

081176  73105

101176  73140

151176  73140

221176  73004

021276 73105

101276  73138

141276  37264

151276  37064

161276 73121

 

so obviously at least 2 refinaries served Earley back then

 

cheers

 

NR

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I'm not sure when it closed but I think by sometime in the 1980s after which a housing estate was built on the site.  Then things took a very unexpected turn -

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/a-suburban-house-a-resident-struck-down-by-illness-and-the-riddle-of-a-radioactive-garden-5361033.html

 

https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2010/03/09/alleged-buried-shell-nuclear-reactor-at-earley-reading/

 

http://rayfox.info

 

You also need to think about which oil depot!!  This photo  a site on the Up side at Earley which is where the goods yard was originally situated,  But after the A329(M) was built the oil depot was rebuilt on the Down side at the Wokingham end of the station.

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p598839012/h18B1492D#h18b1492d

 

Edited by The Stationmaster
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6 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

This traffic is both before my time (first commuting from Reading Feb 1994) and after my period of interest (pre-Grouping) but can anyone say when this traffic began?

 

I would hazard a guess and say quite early!

 

Mike.

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1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I would hazard a guess and say quite early!

 

 

Ho ho. I had stopped commuting by train by the time we moved to Earley but my wife still goes that way on her way to Oxford so the late and early jokes long since wore thin - especially when she misses her connection at Reading General. 

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11 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

I often thought Earley was like one of those places on the Isle of Wight... "Earley where you are late...."

 

Hardly - are you confusing us with Woodley? Mostly upwardly mobile families with two working parents for as long as we've been here. Asda not Waitrose (cf Woodley).

 

It was front five coaches only in my commuting days - I think the platforms were extended about the time the 4-VEPs were retired.

 

As a partial answer to my question, looking at the OS 25" maps on the NLS website, I note that the layout is the same in 1932 as in 1910, differing from the 1898 layout by the addition of the down refuge siding and second crossover at the Reading end; no sign of any particular provision for oil traffic - or were the tanks just unloaded in back siding of the goods yard?

 

We're no closer to resolution of that other mystery traffic at Earley, skins:

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Hardly - are you confusing us with Woodley? Mostly upwardly mobile families with two working parents for as long as we've been here. Asda not Waitrose (cf Woodley).

 

It was front five coaches only in my commuting days - I think the platforms were extended about the time the 4-VEPs were retired.

 

As a partial answer to my question, looking at the OS 25" maps on the NLS website, I note that the layout is the same in 1932 as in 1910, differing from the 1898 layout by the addition of the down refuge siding and second crossover at the Reading end; no sign of any particular provision for oil traffic - or were the tanks just unloaded in back siding of the goods yard?

 

We're no closer to resolution of that other mystery traffic at Earley, skins:

 

 

 

Don't confuse the original site - in the goods yard on the UP side (shown in the picture I linked above) - with the new specialised purely oil terminal site which later replaced it on the DOWN side at the Wokingham end of the station.   I am reasonably sure the change probably occurred as a consequence of the construction of the A329(M) which would have interfered with access to  the Up side as well as possibly impinging on the railway boundary on that side.    

 

I can't readily put a date on its construction although I can remember it opening - Wiki article suggests that it was due to open in 1973 but the collapse of Loddon Viaduct in late 1972 led to the opening of this section being delayed until 1974.  I therefore suspect that the transfer over to the new site probably occurred sometime c.1970 -73.  Earley signa box was closed in 1973 so it might even have been that late..

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9 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 

It was front five coaches only in my commuting days - I think the platforms were extended about the time the 4-VEPs were retired.

 

 

Yes, that would be about right - they were my commuting days as well! (We may have travelled on the same train without realising!)

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4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

I can't readily put a date on its construction although I can remember it opening - Wiki article suggests that it was due to open in 1973 but the collapse of Loddon Viaduct in late 1972 led to the opening of this section being delayed until 1974.  I therefore suspect that the transfer over to the new site probably occurred sometime c.1970 -73.  Earley signa box was closed in 1973 so it might even have been that late..

 

However the articles you linked to about the radioactive substance suggested Shell had been using the site in the 60s....

 

The new terminal appears on the 1970 OS map, but not on the 1962 one - which doesn't show either terminal!

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11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ho ho. I had stopped commuting by train by the time we moved to Earley but my wife still goes that way on her way to Oxford so the late and early jokes long since wore thin - especially when she misses her connection at Reading General. 

 

You've found my level!

 

Mike.

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2 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Yes, that would be about right - they were my commuting days as well! (We may have travelled on the same train without realising!)

 

I think we did - I believe I recognise you from your profile picture. I was usually getting a train that was IIRC at 07:29, from Reading.

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I usually caught the 0824 to Bracknell and the 1720 back, but I daresay there might have been odd occasions owing to service disruption etc when we wound up on the same train.

 

(I also used to catch a later train home on Tuesdays).

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23 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

I usually caught the 0824 to Bracknell

 

I did go through a period of getting the 08:24 as far as Martins Heron and getting a lift with a colleague from there, after he'd done his school run.

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20 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

However the articles you linked to about the radioactive substance suggested Shell had been using the site in the 60s....

 

The new terminal appears on the 1970 OS map, but not on the 1962 one - which doesn't show either terminal!

That I think only increases the oddity in respect of the radiation story.   The strange thing about that was that it seemed to be only the one person who ever suffered from the effects of, allegedly, radiation and that the story subsequently fizzled out. 

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