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Goods Yards and Freight Handling


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Yes looks like you are right about the tanks. I do recall that both vacuum and airbraked tanks were in use when I knew the yard from 1978 (I worked in Bristol TOPS Office from 1978 - 1985). As Paul Bartlett suggests the airbraked replacements came into use approximately 1983 perhaps this was the last year of the vacuum ones.

 

In Lawrence Hill Yard the long siding/branch still remains, as well as one short siding just by the bridge, which was long enough to detach a crippled wagon from the Avon waste train if needed.

 

There are a few more various shots of the Lawrence Hill area on my Flickr site, though most of the yard views are now on this thread,

 

cheers 

The vacuum-braked tanks (I would say identical to the Airfix/Dapol ones) belonged to one of the hire companies; either E G Steele or W H Davies- I remember seeing them in about 1975.

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The vacuum-braked tanks (I would say identical to the Airfix/Dapol ones) belonged to one of the hire companies; either E G Steele or W H Davies- I remember seeing them in about 1975.

If they were blue, DAVS48xxx TSVs I think I saw them at Leicester, early 80s, which could be on a Bristol-Peterboro-March route?

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I had forgotten them as http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/davismolasses Interesting if they were substituting for the slightly earlier but similar UM tanks.

 

Paul

Coo, they faded badly in a few years. Here's the one I photographed, in about 1982. Leicester I think, or poss. Nottingham, a train of them headed by a 37:

post-6971-0-65100000-1389698448.jpg

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I have now posted most of my photos relevant to this thread, though there are a few more with some interest.

Here are a crops of a couple of shots showing traditional coal yards in the background, with 16t mineral wagons in the sidings.

 

Traffic like this would soon be a thing of the past, most small coal depots, including these two, were closed in the early 1980s,

A handful of yards were modernised with equipment to allow unloading of hopper wagons,

and those later became part of the Speedlink Coal Network. 

 

post-7081-0-64400900-1389714184.jpg

Roath Coal Yard Cardiff with 37138 passing on a train for Severn Tunnel Junction, 17/9/81

 

post-7081-0-15714200-1389714227.jpg

Port Talbot, 37273 passes light diesel, 37291 and 37231 head west with an empty MGR set, 7/7/81

 

cheers 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

While looking for something else I noticed this photo that includes the Grade II listed Transit Shed at Exeter St Davids

The shed was built in 1864 and used to transfer goods between broad gauge and standard gauge wagons 

this use ceased in 1892 when the remaining broad gauge track was converted to standard gauge.

 

The photo could be captioned 'Ancient and Modern' 

post-7081-0-30721400-1391347116.jpg

The Transit Shed, by then 117 years old,  hosts a modern ferry wagon.

Exeter Middle Signal Box overlooks the scene and a class 31 loco stands beyond the shed, 9/3/81

 

cheers 

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks for posting this photo - do you know what traffic the ferry wagon was carrying?

Hi John

 

sorry I do not  know what the ferry wagon was conveying.

There was not much wagonload traffic by then, but it may have been Guinness from Park Royal for Premier Transport to unload.

Premier Transport unloaded from the NCL shed adjacent to platform 6 at St Davids, and at another time used a siding

up at Exeter Central and the guinness arrived in ferry wagons and VGAs,

 

cheers

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Here are two views of Meldon Quarry in 1981.

At that time new plant was being installed but not yet in operation.

 

post-7081-0-08011800-1394199291.jpg

An overall view of Medlon Quarry taken from the new main office car park.

The pilot here had previously been provided by Newton Abbot,

but on the closure of Newton Abbot Laira became responsible for providing the loco. 

Lairas 08668 had only recently arrived at Meldon when seen shunting a mixed raft of engineers vehicles, 9/7/81

 

post-7081-0-04839100-1394199320.jpg

The new plant at Meldon Quarry was not yet in operation at this time, 9/7/81

 

cheers

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Here is a photo recently posted on another thread.

 

At Bridgwater fertilzer traffic from Ince & Elton for UKF was handled in a private siding.

M Thomas was the firm responsible for handling the unloading and in the Speedlink era other traffic was handled.

 

post-7081-0-34378900-1394629351_thumb.jpg

VGA 210406 was one of a pool of five VGAs allocated to a flow of adipic acid from ICI Wilton which was loaded in 1 tonne bags.

Staff from M Thomas are unloading it into the warehouse at Bridgwater, 9/8/83.

 

cheers 

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From 1978 - 1986, I worked at Wellington (Salop) station. During this period there were two Goods Yards (upside was Queens Street but I forget the name of the downside) which were opposite each other. They were served by Trip workings from Bescot and Shrewsbury and shunted by a resident 08 "shunt hoss". Traffic received and dispatched during this time included

Household coal in 16T minerals.

Sugar beet mainly in 12T ventilated vans or Vanfits although on two occasions, redundant cattle vans were used. The sugar beet traffic came about after closure of Allscott Sugar Beet Sidings some 4 miles away. Most of this traffic was for Peterborough or Cantley BSC factories when the local factory was working to capacity. Or incoming from Kidderminster after their factory closed.

Molasses outbound in tanks as far afield as Stirling (I can't remember any air-braked though).

Concrete pipes on bogie bolsters for a contract in Ireland (the supplying company provided equipment to load).

Steel inbound for GKN Sankey.

Potatoes inbound in 12T ventilated vans.

Munitions and stores items, again in ventilated vans for C.O.D. Donnington.

Warflats loaded with military vehicles from Mini cars to Tanks in and out of the C.O.D.,tripped down the old Stafford line by the 08. Very busy during the Falklands conflict.

GirdWags for traffic from Adamson Butterly works at Horsehay (we even had a specialist C&W engineer to keep these old GWR vehicles running).

VDAs brought bagged charcoal from Spain for a local DIY agent; I think it was under the brand of Sun Charm.

On one ocassion, we received and delivered an ex-GWR Autocoach for the Horsehay (now Telford) Steam Railway who have sidings opposite the Adamsom Butterly works.

During the late 1980s, the only yard traffic were bulk Cinzano tankers from Italy containg concentrate for bottling. These vehicles had a specially built Customs bonded area in the downside yard.

Quite diverse traffic for a Market town.

Staff consisted of a Goods Clerk, shunter on two shifts, a Senior Railman 3 Railmen and 2 locomen. The only access to a forklift was if it could be borrowed from a non BR source. Otherwise it was all "hanballed".

The Yard was one of the last general goods depots to be closed in the West Midlands.

Today, both sites are Supermarkets. 

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Are you sure that it wasn't bagged beet pul loaded in Vanfits?  You wouldn't get much sugarbeet into a Van and it would make quite a mess - the wagons normally used for beet off the were opens as they were simpler to load - just drop the beet in using a front loader or tip it if there was a loading bank.  You wouldn't get much into a van unless there was boarding installed across the inside of the doors and there would be a major cleaning task afterwards.

 

The bagged pulp came  back from the beet mills in vans in order to keep it dry.

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Thanks for the detailed information Branksome71B. All very interesting stuff!

 

VDAs brought bagged charcoal from Spain for a local DIY agent; I think it was under the brand of Sun Charm.

 

 

I'm intrigued by this traffic. Would this have used one of the ferry fitted VDA's or was it transhipped in the UK?

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I'm intrigued by this traffic. Would this have used one of the ferry fitted VDA's or was it transhipped in the UK?

They were ferry fitted VDAs.

 

Are you sure that it wasn't bagged beet pul loaded in Vanfits?  You wouldn't get much sugarbeet into a Van and it would make quite a mess - the wagons normally used for beet off the were opens as they were simpler to load - just drop the beet in using a front loader or tip it if there was a loading bank.  You wouldn't get much into a van unless there was boarding installed across the inside of the doors and there would be a major cleaning task afterwards.

 

The bagged pulp came  back from the beet mills in vans in order to keep it dry.

We never used opens at Wellington, and you are correct, it was bagged. When Allscott Sugar Beet sidings were open, opens were used. During my tenure, these trains were hauled by Class 24s, 25s and very rarely 40s being supplied from Bescot.

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They were ferry fitted VDAs.

 

We never used opens at Wellington, and you are correct, it was bagged. When Allscott Sugar Beet sidings were open, opens were used. During my tenure, these trains were hauled by Class 24s, 25s and very rarely 40s being supplied from Bescot.

What VDA's were 'ferry fitted'?   A gauge change would have been needed to go to Spain (or Portugal).

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What VDA's were 'ferry fitted'?   A gauge change would have been needed to go to Spain (or Portugal).

We always described freight received from the Continent as arriving in ferry fitted vans, it was not unknown to have SNCB or DB registered 4 wheeled vehicles arrive with this traffic . I do not know where the Spanish traffic started it's journey, the vehicles received were from Port of Dover via a Speedlink service to West Midlands and from Bescot on Trip19. When I am able (in about 2 months) I will post photos taken of Wellington yards and it's traffic during the period.

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We always described freight received from the Continent as arriving in ferry fitted vans, it was not unknown to have SNCB or DB registered 4 wheeled vehicles arrive with this traffic . I do not know where the Spanish traffic started it's journey, the vehicles received were from Port of Dover via a Speedlink service to West Midlands and from Bescot on Trip19. When I am able (in about 2 months) I will post photos taken of Wellington yards and it's traffic during the period.

Always interested in photos of ferry vans, or the Cinzano tanks.

 

Jon

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201098 for one, certainly had the 'anchors' fitted to the solebar in this shot on Paul Bartlett's excellent site

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvda/h27235480#h27235480

Nice picture, but the 'anchors' on the solebar are for shunting with a rope, not for chaining down to the decks of a train ferry.  In the picture below you can see both the towing lugs and the 'eyes' use to tie the vehicle down.

post-2484-0-41527200-1394791573_thumb.jpg

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The early days at Dolland's Moor there, Ernie.. There were a couple of VDAs that went as far as Dunkerque; I believe they were used to store/transport wagon sheets. I saw them there on one of my jaunts to Port Ouest and Grande Synthe, in the days when the Baldwins were still in use.

Shunting with a cable is still used in one of the Peugeot factories (Sochaux?)- instead of driving cars the length of a train, twin-wagons are pushed on to a transverser, loade, then moved sideways to the end of an adjacent road. There, they're coupled to the rear of the previous wagons, which are pulled forward by a winch.

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Nice picture, but the 'anchors' on the solebar are for shunting with a rope, not for chaining down to the decks of a train ferry.  In the picture below you can see both the towing lugs and the 'eyes' use to tie the vehicle down.

attachicon.gif437042880165 Dollands Moor CNV00022.JPG

Ahh... so that's what they are for - thanks for the information Ernie. Just to clarify then, a 'ferry fitted' wagon would have to have the 'eyes' on the solebar but it would not necessarily have to have the anchor 'towing lugs' fitted?

 

It would therefore appear unlikely that VDA's would work through from Spain to the UK. There must have been some transhipment somewhere - any ideas?

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201098 for one, certainly had the 'anchors' fitted to the solebar in this shot on Paul Bartlett's excellent site

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvda/h27235480#h27235480

Definitely not a ferry vehicle - apart from Ernie's comment it is clearly not marked as a ferry vehicle lacking not only the anchor symbol but also the required RIV numbering for working internationally.

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Ahh... so that's what they are for - thanks for the information Ernie. Just to clarify then, a 'ferry fitted' wagon would have to have the 'eyes' on the solebar but it would not necessarily have to have the anchor 'towing lugs' fitted?

 

It would therefore appear unlikely that VDA's would work through from Spain to the UK. There must have been some transhipment somewhere - any ideas?

I suspect most of the stuff coming in from Spain back then would have gone to the Transfesa depot at Paddock Wood and been reforwarded from there although continental vans definitely worked through in the past of course.

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