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Closed Freightliner Terminals

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RichmondCommu

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G'day,

I can think of three. Nottingham (which I think is now a civil engineers depot full of new track), Holyhead and York Way (London) Freightliner Terminal which I think only lasted three years! Why anyone thought York Way would make a good location for a container terminal beggars belief! Can anyone think of any others?

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!
 
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Wath Yard

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Stratford, Dudley, Stockton, Newcastle (Follingsby), Dundee, Edinburgh, Clydeport, Pengam, Bristol, Aintree.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Swansea (Danygraig) also had one, and Harwich.
 

ex-railwayman

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Ahhh, now you're on my territory, what years would you like, I can remember these for you from memory -

Sheffield was the first to close in the mid 70's.
Greenock, Harwich, Kings Cross and Dudley were closed in 1986.
In 1987 we lost Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Hull, Nottingham, Swansea and Manchester Longsight.
Stockton closed in 1989, as did Glasgow Gushetfaulds, I think.

The Royal Seaforth Docks weren't Freightliner jurisdiction, so, cannot confirm their closure date.

I can't quite remember when Coventry shut down, it was only open for a few years, nor, Plymouth, or, Holyhead.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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Legzr1

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I assume this was one in Newcastle, though I'd appreciate if anyone can confirm or deny that. :)


That looks like TCFD and did operate as a small 'depot' for single wagon loads of produce for a few years.

That died a death and the 'depot' was used for storage of wagons-for-repair between Tyne and Gateshead Shed/C&W (all unfitted class 9's pulled by an 08).

Gateshead shed/wagon repairs closed so that was the beginning of the end for TCFD - it continued on for a while as a run-round location for coal trains from the Durham colleries but has been closed for many years now (as have the colleries).

By the way,it's on the other side of the river - Gateshead,not Newcastle ;)
 

RichmondCommu

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Ahhh, now you're on my territory, what years would you like, I can remember these for you from memory -

Sheffield was the first to close in the mid 70's.
Greenock, Harwich, Kings Cross and Dudley were closed in 1986.
In 1987 we lost Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Hull, Nottingham, Swansea and Manchester Longsight.
Stockton closed in 1989, as did Glasgow Gushetfaulds, I think.

The Royal Seaforth Docks weren't Freightliner jurisdiction, so, cannot confirm their closure date.

I can't quite remember when Coventry shut down, it was only open for a few years, nor, Plymouth, or, Holyhead.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

Now then! According to the Middleton Press the York Way (presumably Kings Cross) closed in 1968 having only opened three years before we may be at cross purposes. Also, where was the Sheffield freightliner terminal?

Thanks for your reply!
 

ex-railwayman

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Now then! According to the Middleton Press the York Way (presumably Kings Cross) closed in 1968 having only opened three years before we may be at cross purposes. Also, where was the Sheffield freightliner terminal?

Thanks for your reply!

No, York Way was Maiden Vale, near Willesden I think, Kings Cross was a separate terminal, on the left hand side after you came out of Gasworks tunnel northbound from the station, if I remember correctly.
York Way didn't close until 1971, it had a direct service from Nottingham, which opened in June 1969, but, I wasn't working there at that time, so, can't give you any more relevant information.

The Sheffield FLT was situated on the old Masborough Sorting Sidings outside Rotherham, north of Tinsley Yard.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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142094

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Follingsby in Gateshead was a coal waste disposal point, and Tyneside Central Freight was more a Speedlink yard rather than containers.
 

ex-railwayman

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Where are the existing terminals?

Hmmm, Stratford, Leeds, Felixstowe, Tilbury, Southampton, Coatbridge, Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool Garston, Seaforth/Aintree, Bristol (although it's moved from its original location) and Manchester Trafford Park.

Barking (Ripple Lane) became Thamesport and Stockton moved and became Cleveland Container Terminal.,

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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sprinterguy

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Follingsby in Gateshead was a coal waste disposal point, and Tyneside Central Freight was more a Speedlink yard rather than containers.
While you are right that Tyneside Central Freight Depot dealt mostly with Speedlink traffic rather than Freightliners, there did used to be a Freightliner terminal at Follingsby. I've never been able to accurately pinpoint its' location, but I presume that it was under what is now the business park, on the opposite side of the Leamside line to the opencast disposal point. I have a picture of it, which I might be able to find time to scan.
 

sprinterguy

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And here we go: Typical generic Freightliner terminal to be honest. It closed on April 6th 1987, this photo (From a book I have) was taken a couple of weeks prior to that.
 

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38Cto15E

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The Tarton Arrow depots at Kentish Town and Glasgow handled containers, the Tarton arrow was about 50/50 Containers and vans.

I believe the Kentish Town depot is now Royal Mail.

If we had a 47 in good nick the driver could get it up to 100mph on the falling gradient on the down fast north of Leagrave.

The shunter in charge usually gave us a couple of cans of beer to help pass the journey, Happy days.:D
 

ex-railwayman

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there did used to be a Freightliner terminal at Follingsby. I've never been able to accurately pinpoint its' location, but I presume that it was under what is now the business park, on the opposite side of the Leamside line to the opencast disposal point.

The address was Follingsby Lane, Wardley, NE10.

When you departed from Newcastle Station you went through Heworth Station then turned right at Pelaw Jct which took you down to Wardley Jct and the Tyneside freight depot, which became an opencast pit, and the Freightliner Terminal. Having a quick Google looks like it's all now this Business Park you refer to.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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ChiefPlanner

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Longsight (now the wheel lathe) , Willesden , Bristol (now re-opened)

Park Royal , Par

Coventry was there for Chrysler traffic only from Linwood - not an open terminal.

The original plans were for many more terminals - Watford , Reading , etc - but the traffic mix changed from "domestic" to European and Deep sea from around 1979 onwards and most of the former was jettisoned as it was not profitable - e.g steel and tinplate from the Swansea area. Edinburgh's staple traffic was S&N beer in kegs for example , Nottingham was very much Boots traffic to Coatbridge. Dundee was semi - private with a contrat train to Kings Cross for Dundee, Perth and London shipping - replacing a block train of vanfits , and before that a ship !
 

Legzr1

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While you are right that Tyneside Central Freight Depot dealt mostly with Speedlink traffic rather than Freightliners, there did used to be a Freightliner terminal at Follingsby. I've never been able to accurately pinpoint its' location, but I presume that it was under what is now the business park, on the opposite side of the Leamside line to the opencast disposal point. I have a picture of it, which I might be able to find time to scan.

Spot on.

The odd container did arrive at TCFD but as you say it was mainly a speedlink depot.

The Leamside survived a little longer than Follingsby but was closed eventually - the Gateshead side remained open to allow coal trains to be loaded at Wardly up until the late-mid 90's (if I remember correctly - I was on the last train into Wardly collecting the last dreggs of 'coal' - complaints about the constant arrival of lorries carrying coal from Butterwell killed the place off <( Shame - it was the best job on the shed - there,load,back in a couple of hours)
 

ChiefPlanner

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The Willesden one is now used for the HOBC train.

Rail use better than no use , - there was significant investment in new cranes there for European channel tunnel traffic which was very short lived unfortunately.

(There needs to be a traffic history on Freightliner up to privatisation , before the corporate memory goes !) - e.g forays into containerised coal traffic , the war between Speedlink and Freightliner in the mid / early 80's etc.
 

Jonny

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Talking of the Leamside line, what about the sidings near Washington Station, just before Victoria Viaduct (here)?
 

142094

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142094 said:
That might have been the site of the old Washington station.

Before anyone else picks up on this, I've just realised that Jonny said that in his post as well.
 
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sprinterguy

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Talking of the Leamside line, what about the sidings near Washington Station, just before Victoria Viaduct (here)?
Those sidings represent the last remaining stub of the line to Tyne Dock, via Boldon Colliery, that diverged from the Leamside line at Washington and closed in 1966. I think that Washington station also had a small goods yard at one time.
 

ex-railwayman

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(There needs to be a traffic history on Freightliner up to privatisation , before the corporate memory goes !) - e.g forays into containerised coal traffic , the war between Speedlink and Freightliner in the mid / early 80's etc.

Hmmm, well, to be honest, Freightliner's corporate image and recent expansion into Poland and Australia won't be lost for the time being, I think the company will continue in containerised transport mode for quite some years to come.

It's only old duffers like me with their extensive personal knowledge and experiences that'll be lost in future years, I anticipate Freightliner will long outlive me........:D

There are books around about the company, but, unfortunately, it appears that the authors haven't done enough research, a lot of information hasn't been documented, especially from the 60's/70's/80s and some of what is printed is not always matter of fact.
I can only suspect that staff at Freightliner HQ are young and inexperienced in the company, and know very little about the olden days to be able to relay information to those who require it.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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Ploughman

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There was a container depot built at Hull, alongside the A63 to the West of Hull.

Never a hope of being a success as who would ship a container to there then transfer to road to go 5 mile to the docks. When it was easier to send it by road throughout.

Junction off the main still in use to serve the Stone terminal.
 

matchmaker

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Hmmm, Stratford, Leeds, Felixstowe, Tilbury, Southampton, Coatbridge, Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool Garston, Seaforth/Aintree, Bristol (although it's moved from its original location) and Manchester Trafford Park.

Barking (Ripple Lane) became Thamesport and Stockton moved and became Cleveland Container Terminal.,

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

There is now a busy one at Grangemouth. By the way, who remembers the brake vans that we at one time used on Freightliners? Not the converted container "caboose", but a modified LMS full brake. I remember seeing one going through Arbroath in the mid 1960's with "air braked, gas heated" on the side. I'm sure it was painted white, or a least a light colour.
 
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GearJammer

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If the rumors i hear are true you can soon add Freightliners Millbrook terminal to the list of closed terminals!

And if you want a really short lived terminal, may i sugest Portsmouth?
 

RichmondCommu

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If the rumors I hear are true you can soon add Freightliners Millbrook terminal to the list of closed terminals!

And if you want a really short lived terminal, may I suggest Portsmouth?

Given the growth in containerised freight on the rail network I would be very surprised if Millbrook was to close which I think is operated by DBS?

I think Portsmouth (Fratton) was a general freight terminal as opposed to an out and out container (Freightliner) terminal.
 
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