Goods Yards and Freight Handling

[Fat Controller]

The present-day form of Kingsland Road might be more modelable- only roads 2-8 (inclusive) remain, according to Quail, and of those, 7 and 8 are single-ended, with access from the east.

It was one of the start points for the first Air-Braked Network (precursor of Speedlink) in the early 1970s, loading Open ABs with rolled board from St Anne's Board Mill, which was then coupled to Cov ABs, loaded with tobacco at Temple Meads goods depot, for trunking to Glasgow. Bristol had quite a lot of freight back then.

[Rivercider]

The present-day form of Kingsland Road might be more modelable- only roads 2-8 (inclusive) remain, according to Quail, and of those, 7 and 8 are single-ended, with access from the east.

It was one of the start points for the first Air-Braked Network (precursor of Speedlink) in the early 1970s, loading Open ABs with rolled board from St Anne's Board Mill, which was then coupled to Cov ABs, loaded with tobacco at Temple Meads goods depot, for trunking to Glasgow. Bristol had quite a lot of freight back then.

Yes, road 1 Out was removed early, I believe clearance was very tight to the down main as seen in the following photo.

Those 8 double ended roads did handle a lot of local trip work, many of them only short formations which would be modelable,

 

A view from the east end, road 1 Out is already lifted, 20/9/83

 

The pilot today is 08950, with its attendant brake van.

On the left is a mixed rake possibly cripples for Barton Hill or repairs for East Depot engineers,

to the right of the pilot are VGAs in Guinness traffic. The car carriers were there because imported

cars from Portbury were being loaded to rail at Temple Meads, 20/9/83

 

cheers  

 

.

[ForestPines]

It sounds like the modern arrangement has been renumbered compared to the diagram above. Currently five of the double-ended sidings survive, one of them now disconnected at the east end. The double slip at the west end appears to be clipped and scotched in such a way that only the two sidings furthest from the main line can be accessed at that end. I suspect they are modern 5 (the one that's now single-ended) and 6. There is a gap between 4 and 5 where at least one road has been taken out. The only part of the yard regularly used is the two single-ended sidings reached from the east end. They are used by Colas to stable tampers - they are roughly in the positions of sidings 11 and 14 on the above diagram.

[ForestPines]

There are no stops on the former double-ended siding incidentally - just a concrete sleeper turned upside down on top of the rails. A nice little detail to model!

[witherbrow]

great thread gives plenty of ideas for alternatives to a standard loading bay for rail freight wagons :)n 

[floss_4]

 The only part of the yard regularly used is the two single-ended sidings reached from the east end. They are used by Colas to stable tampers - they are roughly in the positions of sidings 11 and 14 on the above diagram.

I'm trying to work this out. The tamper sidings are on the edge of the current site. If this equates to roughly sidings 11 and 14 does that mean the sidings 1 to 9 at the bottom of the plan were across the road?

[ForestPines]

That seems highly unlikely looking at the geography. Those sidings were, I assume, in an area that nowadays is full of lots of semi-derelict-looking buses. It's hard to see, looking at Google Earth, just how all that track could have fitted into that space.

[Fat Controller]

Looking at this view, there is still quite a bit of track visible, if not in use:-

http://goo.gl/maps/lWttt

There is a through road with a Freightliner 66 at the western end, an empty road, then another two 66s on a through road. There's a gap that looks as though a track's been removed,followed by a further two loops. There is a fence, then two long single-ended sidings, one of which has some sort of unloading area (civil's compound?)at the left-hand end. Finally, at the eastern end, there are two, possibly three, short single-ended roads, which would have continued into the concreted apron. By my reckoning, that's still some or all of eleven roads, which would be quite substantial for a model, and more than is shown in my Quail map. The area with the semi-derelict buses is just a small part of the larger unloading apron.

[Rivercider]

Looking at this view, there is still quite a bit of track visible, if not in use:-

http://goo.gl/maps/lWttt

There is a through road with a Freightliner 66 at the western end, an empty road, then another two 66s on a through road. There's a gap that looks as though a track's been removed,followed by a further two loops. There is a fence, then two long single-ended sidings, one of which has some sort of unloading area (civil's compound?)at the left-hand end. Finally, at the eastern end, there are two, possibly three, short single-ended roads, which would have continued into the concreted apron. By my reckoning, that's still some or all of eleven roads, which would be quite substantial for a model, and more than is shown in my Quail map. The area with the semi-derelict buses is just a small part of the larger unloading apron.

The fenced compound with the two long single ended sidings was a Signals Department depot after the yard ceased to be used for revenue traffic.

There were one or two Satlink vehicles there including a red/yellow GUV I think, though I don't remember seeing them move.

The depot in the triangle the other side of the main line is a S&T depot as well.

I seem to remember a stoneblower or similar stabled in one of the short roads at the east end at various times.

 

cheers

[Rivercider]

The present-day form of Kingsland Road might be more modelable- only roads 2-8 (inclusive) remain, according to Quail, and of those, 7 and 8 are single-ended, with access from the east.

It was one of the start points for the first Air-Braked Network (precursor of Speedlink) in the early 1970s, loading Open ABs with rolled board from St Anne's Board Mill, which was then coupled to Cov ABs, loaded with tobacco at Temple Meads goods depot, for trunking to Glasgow. Bristol had quite a lot of freight back then.

Already posted elsewhere but this shows traffic from Temple Meads Goods

Pilot 08900 draws two Cov-ABs out of the shed, they are loaded with NCL traffic one each for NCL Glasgow and Edinburgh. 10/5/80

They will be taken to Kingsland Road and the loco to work the West Depot - Mossend combined Freightliner/Speedlink service

will collect them before going down to West Depot.

By this date this was the only daily traffic from Temple Meads Goods, though we did get the odd imported ferryvan off the train ferry from time to time.

The two rail sidings still in use were no.s 13 and 14 which gives an indication of the size of the shed.

 

On the left of the picture, are those 'wheeled boxes' a road haulage equivalent of the BRUTE? 

 

cheers

[Rivercider]

Kevin,

That ferry-van's an Italian one; for some reason they left the ventilator covers in galv. finish, rather than painting them in the same brown as the body, as other railways did.

Not sure, but that middle vehicle from Premier looks as though it might be a Mastiff. Just did a bit of Googling- Premier were based around the corner at Day's Road, St Philips. The original firm's gone, but the owner was on of the founders of the Palletline network. They also did work for Speedlink at Exeter, I believe.

Here is a crop of a photo showing the Premier Transport siding at Exeter Central

Blue Circle Cement are using most of the former goods yard at Exeter Central, Premier Transport are using the siding on the right

50003 is departing on the 09.38 Exeter St Davids - Waterloo, 11/3/83.

 

I dont have any other pictures showing Premier Transport at Exeter Central, but instead here is a trip heading that way:-   

33021 runs through Exeter St Davids on the Exeter Central trip, 9/7/85

Presumably the Cargowaggon is loaded with Guinness, is the other ferry van similar to the one seen earlier at Kingsland Road?

 

cheers 

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Aft'noon all,

 

Another of my Flickr pictures...this one including part of the goods sdgs/yard at Hereford in the mid-eighties....clearly with timber traffic present, as well as unidentified van traffic. 

 

 

Another lightly photographed sdgs were the reception roads at Buxton. Here in the mid eighties they contain a mixture of independent snowploughs and breakdown train vehicles. 

 

 

The man made tunnel vantage point for the first Tunstead yard pic can be seen at the top of this pic. The rat thrash whilst banking on full power between the rock faces, with the sounds echoing and rebounding around, was of high order. 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[eastwestdivide]

Back to Rochester, I dug out a selection from between 1982-1984, showing a variety of traffic:

Parcels in SR 'B' vans. Note the wide hard standing between sidings - plenty of room to load/unload. That's the top of a china clay slurry tank in the foreground (I think, unless it's a big van), and the end of that siding is all grass on the top right

 

The obligatory internal users, in use to store bits and bobs

 

Belgian ferry wagon with steel sections

 

More steel, coils on BPA wagons (boplate). A few years before, there was regular traffic on BDVs (bogie bolster D) with over-length rod (rebar?) using an interesting variety of 4-wheel runners in between.

 

It wasn't always an 08/09 doing the shunting - by this time, the train loco did the work

 

You wanted dereliction and weeds?

 

coiled tubing of some sort (rubber or plastic I think)

 

track machine stabled (rail grinder), also yard crane in background, again, a wide gap between the sidings. Goods shed mostly with no roof - it wasn't in use by then.

 

plus one from 1979, apologies for the quality, but Instamatic...

Cory's 'Thalia' in the process of moving some 16T minerals of sand between their wharf and the yard:

 

 

And recently, the view towards the station where the roofless shed was (compare the rail grinder picture)

[eastwestdivide]

Looking back over those, there's a couple of things on the materials handling side:

here's a crop, best I can do, of the crane

 

and in that corrugated shack are two spreader bars (? whatever the correct term is), for handling awkward lifts

[Fat Controller]

Already posted elsewhere but this shows traffic from Temple Meads Goods

scan0005.jpg

Pilot 08900 draws two Cov-ABs out of the shed, they are loaded with NCL traffic one each for NCL Glasgow and Edinburgh. 10/5/80

They will be taken to Kingsland Road and the loco to work the West Depot - Mossend combined Freightliner/Speedlink service

will collect them before going down to West Depot.

By this date this was the only daily traffic from Temple Meads Goods, though we did get the odd imported ferryvan off the train ferry from time to time.

The two rail sidings still in use were no.s 13 and 14 which gives an indication of the size of the shed.

 

On the left of the picture, are those 'wheeled boxes' a road haulage equivalent of the BRUTE? 

 

cheers

I think those wheeled boxes were actually a type of container used by BR before NCL took over the Sundries operation (Type SW)

[The Stationmaster]

I think those wheeled boxes were actually a type of container used by BR before NCL took over the Sundries operation (Type SW)

Quite agree Brian - they do look very much like SW (= Small Wheeled) containers but repainted into a different livery.

[Rivercider]

Quite agree Brian - they do look very much like SW (= Small Wheeled) containers but repainted into a different livery.

Thank you both, I can see what you mean now.

It looks like they were stored out of use at the back of the depot, as there were some present in an earlier photo taken in January 1980. 

 

cheers

[Fat Controller]

Thank you both, I can see what you mean now.

It looks like they were stored out of use at the back of the depot, as there were some present in an earlier photo taken in January 1980. 

 

cheers

There were similar in conception to the BRUTE, but couldn't be towed, which meant their use would be have been limited to carry small consignments from loading dock, on to wagons, then back on to another loading dock at destination. It looks as though they could be locked, which would make them useful for more valuable/pilferable items.

[Ramblin Rich]

 Very interesting thread, thanks to those adding pictures

Going back to Keeny (Rivercisder)'s post:

 

33021 runs through Exeter St Davids on the Exeter Central trip, 9/7/85

Presumably the Cargowaggon is loaded with Guinness, is the other ferry van similar to the one seen earlier at Kingsland Road?

 

cheers 

 

I wonder if the ferry van is heading to Barnstaple? The North Devon freight thread included the fact that there were ferry vans in relation to glass traffic at Barnstaple

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Aft'noon all,

 

The near white out conditions around some quarries etc is a very modellable subject as in this pic of more uncommonly photographed sdgs....again within the confines of the then ICI works at Tunstead. The far left lines connect 'the dogs home' shunters cabin adj to Great Rocks signal box with Tunstead yard via various silo loading points and the large limestone crushing plant.  

 

 

see my Flickr site for the remaining text.

 

This view shows more of the hidden sidings...this time with the night hoppers from Northwich at the top of the picture waiting collection by one of the ICI Sentinel locos before being shunted down to the crusher/loader for refilling with limestone clasts. The BR loco is likely to have left them there before returning to Great Rocks but BR locos also used these roads to access Tunstead yard as required. 

 

 

This one shows the Granular loading plant at Steetley, Dowlow with a hopper for Mossend awaiting loading. This was a shared loading point with lorry traffic  

 

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[Rivercider]

Another of the freight depots in Bristol was Lawrence Hill, I visited a couple of times in the early 1980s.

The London Brick traffic had long since finished, and the weighing of scrap from Stapleton Road had also finished.

The china clay traffic for St Annes Board Mills had also ceased. 

 

Here are two pages from the TOPS Implementation Survey dated August 1972.   

Traffic details and anticipated daily wagon movements.

Plan of the yard. 

 

A general view of the yard from the overbridge at the north end, 08338 is the yard pilot, 22/4/81 

 

cheers

[Fat Controller]

Another of the freight depots in Bristol was Lawrence Hill, I visited a couple of times in the early 1980s.

The London Brick traffic had long since finished, and the weighing of scrap from Stapleton Road had also finished.

The china clay traffic for St Annes Board Mills had also ceased. 

 

Here are two pages from the TOPS Implementation Survey dated August 1972.   

scan0016.jpg

Traffic details and anticipated daily wagon movements.

scan0017.jpg

Plan of the yard. 

 

scan0018.jpg

A general view of the yard from the overbridge at the north end, 08338 is the yard pilot, 22/4/81 

 

cheers

That brought back a few memories of the early-mid 1970s; I used to live in Montpelier at the time, and catch the train to Lawrence Hill to visit Max Williams' shop. In those days, the yard pilot was an 03. I don't recollect seeing any china-clay wagons there, but what I do remember seeing was a rake of 35t tanks (like the Airfix one), painted green and lettered something to the effect of 'on hire from W H Davis'. They were parked on the only siding left on the site of the former Midland station; I believe they may have taken molasses to Distillers on the Avonside branch.

[Rivercider]

Here are a few views of Lawrence Hill from the early 1980s, one or two of them may have been shown before.

 

Yard pilot 08338 is drawing empty vanwides and a Cov-AB from the goods shed.

Aberthaw Cement traffic included bagged cement which was unloaded in the shed. 22/4/81

 

The shed viewed from the main line side.

The corrugated extension to the shed provided cover for loading the bagged cement onto lorries.

This is a crop of a picture of 31406 on a Portsmouth - Cardiff working, 2/6/81

 

A view over the fence from the platform.

37071 waits to work 7C62 the afternoon departure for Severn Tunnel Junction, 03382 is shunting the goods shed road, 6/5/80

 

08338 is shunting Aberthaw Cement empties 22/4/81

 

cheers

[Ramblin Rich]

Great stuff, Kenny. I love the mix of air & vacuum braked vans & old Presflows & straight tank PCAs too

[Rivercider]

Great stuff, Kenny. I love the mix of air & vacuum braked vans & old Presflows & straight tank PCAs too

Thanks Rich

 

If I recall correctly the Cov=ABs allocated to the Aberthaw Cement 'bagged' pool were all from the batch that were fitted with vacuum pipes.

This meant they could be marshalled at the front or middle of the train from Aberthaw with vacuum fitted presflos in the rear

enabling the train to run fully vacuum fitted, (at least 2 , and later 3 PCVs with working brakes needed on the rear).

Later on, when the PCAs appeared in the working, marshalling the trains became more complicated with either a vaccum or air fitted head

and a brake van required. This did not last long as the vanfits and presflos were on their way out, then the Aberthaw traffic ceased altogether.

 

cheers