Sun Chariot
Established Member
That's my 21 year old son's bedroom!
The abiding memory was the "sweaty cheese smell"
The abiding memory was the "sweaty cheese smell"
Are sure that wasn't the sewage works in the case of Doncaster?We used to go to the avoiding line in the early 80s on our spotting trips to Doncaster, usually about 6 to 10 workings over about 6 hours, well worth it for us Manchester lads as it was 31/37s. The abiding memory was the "sweaty cheese smell" which when I get a whiff takes me right back to that location, the same with the brewery smell at Haymarket. Happy times.
That question helps explain what I was looking at in the distance from the bridge overlooking Down Decoy earlier today...Borderline O/T....but does anyone know why 56 098 was conveyed DIT behind 60 026 on 6E17, 12 32 Liverpool Biomass Terminal-Drax AES yesterday?
Spotted an interesting combination in Manchester on Tuesday. I think it was 4L90 Trafford Park to Felixstowe , headed by a 66 but with 2x 90s dead in tow. I don't often see these trains so was the loco combination something unusual and if so , for what reason?Sone highly interesting freights on the Gospel Oak - Willesden section of the NLL today. A problem near Camden Jn is causing all freights booked via Primrose Hill eastbound to go via Hampstead Heath. Does anyone know when these diversions are finishing?
(Picture shows Freightliner Class 90s passing West Hampstead on 4L97 Trafford Park - Felixstowe)
Hi there, this is quite regular if Freightliner need to rebalance their locos. However, what you saw is quite odd as usually the pair of 90s haul the 66 Dead In Tow apart from one time where I saw a 66 leading.Spotted an interesting combination in Manchester on Tuesday. I think it was 4L90 Trafford Park to Felixstowe , headed by a 66 but with 2x 90s dead in tow. I don't often see these trains so was the loco combination something unusual and if so , for what reason?
Was a definite pungent smell from my working days in Doncaster. It’s still there today but the smell has long gone. I was always lead to believe they Boiled animal carcasses to make glue ?Always thought it was agricultural, could of been the sewage works I suppose, it was very pungent. Another memory of those trips was travelling on the xc dmus over the Hope valley, we were only after locos so never gave them a 2nd glance.
Apologies if this has been asked already but does anyone what days the Local Cornish clay flows runs these days they seem rather sporadic and just wandered if there is a set plan to when and where they run to e.g. Goonbarrow Rocks or Treviscoe (Parkandillack) any help much appreciated.
Extremely helpful thank you very muchThe clay trains have been a bit unpredictable over Christmas / New Year, and the workings have changed slightly since the CDA wagons were withdrawn, as the same wagons are now used on trains to both Fowey and Cliffe Vale.
This is roughly what happens now:
The Goonbarrow to Fowey workings (6G09 out, 6G05 return) are most likely to run on Mon/Tue/Wed (as required). Potentially these could run from Treviscoe instead (used to be roughly once a week from Treviscoe to Fowey) but I'm not sure this has happened recently.
The weekly train to Cliffe Vale is usually loaded in two portions (at Treviscoe and Par Harbour), one on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. Could be Par Harbour on Wednesday and Treviscoe on Thursday or vice versa (running as 6B00 in the morning from St Blazey). The portion loaded on Wednesday is forwarded to Exeter Riverside (due to the weight of the combined train being too much over the Devon banks) as 6C53, returning light engine to St Blazey. The Thursday loading is booked to run as 6M53 to Cliffe Vale (picking up the Wednesday portion at Exeter) but quite often uses the 6C10 path as far as Exeter, giving an earlier arrival there. If there isn't a full train required at Cliffe Vale, the 6C53 on Wednesday might not be needed.
Return from Cliffe Vale is on Friday afternoon as 6V73 to Exeter, continuing to St Blazey as 6V74 on Saturday morning (6V74 sometimes runs early) and going forward to Goonbarrow early on Monday morning to resume the Fowey workings.
The usual caveats about freight trains being early / late / cancelled or changed at short notice apply.
I like this December shot of 6V74: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lineside_vigil/53405431988/
Thats a teasing headcode, is Highlander currently in service?Morning
Just spotted these new paths for 15th January.
Does anyone know how many times a week this will run - once it starts properly please?
Realtime Trains | 4M59 0733 Wembley Receptions 1-7 to Llandudno Jn Tc Gbrf | 15/01/2024
Real-time train running information for 4M59 0733 departure from Wembley Receptions 1-7 to Llandudno Jn Tc Gbrf on 15/01/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Realtime Trains | 6A59 1954 Llandudno Jn Tc Gbrf to Wembley Receptions 1-7 | 15/01/2024
Real-time train running information for 6A59 1954 departure from Llandudno Jn Tc Gbrf to Wembley Receptions 1-7 on 15/01/2024. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Thank you
Dave
Just spotted these new paths for 15th January.
Does anyone know how many times a week this will run - once it starts properly please?
Thanks AdrianAppears to forms these trains on 16th Jan (6V89 04:56 Wembley to Thorney Mill and 6O25 13:25 Thorney Mill to Tonbridge Yard)
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:R06016/2024-01-16/detailed
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:R06015/2024-01-16/detailed
I assume it's the slate waste traffic, which was running to Walsall last time I checked a few months back. I don't know anything about the contract or intended frequency, it might possibly be a one-off delivery or trial.
A Class 66 with tanker type trucks waiting at Dore Station presumably in a Southbound direction at around 9:10am.
A Class 66 with a number of containers waiting southbound outside Derby around 9:30am.
There was a Freightliner Class 70 with a number of containers looking to use a not via Birmingham route.
The whole place [Ripple Container base] looks abandoned [current status as of Jan 19]. The area around the scrap sidings have been cleared and there is no further Immingham movement. DB Soil removal traffic [not Biffa] has also ceased.Tbf a yard being empty could indicate traffic was flowing freely, as roads are being kept.clear.
The whole place [Ripple Container base] looks abandoned [current status as of Jan 19]. The area around the scrap sidings have been cleared and there is no further Immingham movement. DB Soil removal traffic [not Biffa] has also ceased.
January 19 2024.Not sure how that’s a “current status” when it’s 5 years ago.
Not sure how that’s a “current status” when it’s 5 years ago.
The area around the scrap sidings have been cleared and there is no further Immingham movement.
DB Soil removal traffic [not Biffa] has also ceased.
Switched back to running from Shap/Ribblehead, I'm afraid.What’s happening with the flow from Penmaenmawr Quarry to Tuebrook? Doesn’t seem to run much at all.
Thanks for these excellent summary posts that you write - much appreciated.Port Talbot coal and coke:
Although coal mining at Cwmbargoed ceased at the end of November, trains continued to run into January to clear coal stocks. The most recent departure of 6C83 was on 19th January, which may well be the final train. Replacing this traffic, a flow of coke from Immingham Bulk Terminal to Port Talbot started on 19th January, running as 6V66. Another coke flow has started running from Cardiff Docks to Port Talbot today (25th January) as 6Z36, both services hauled by DB using HTA hoppers.
Barking / Ripple Lane changes
I thought it might be of interest to take a general overview of Barking / Ripple Lane operations, recent changes and flows/trials that have run over the past few years:
Freightliner ceased operations at Ripple Lane in 2007, but the terminal survived, being taken over by Russells and from 2015 by DB (as Barking Intermodal Terminal). Until recently it was being used for Transfesa container traffic to and from Spain via HS1. The two early morning intermodal arrivals via HS1 (6L25 / 6L27) would usually have traffic for both Fords at Dagenham and the Barking terminal, tripped across from Ripple Lane Exchange Sidings by a 66 as 7X24. The return evening 6O20 / 6O28 departures to Dollands Moor would include traffic tripped across from Barking as 7X25. The X headcodes were for the huge 10 foot 6 inch "mega-combi" containers, well out of gauge once off HS1.
The terminal in action during 2022: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sludgeulper/52553753333/
And a video from 2021:
Video: DB Cargo UK's Barking Intermodal Terminal | Channel: DB Cargo UK
I don't think any containers have been loaded at Barking Intermodal Terminal since the first week of December - some of the Barking traffic is now being loaded at Dagenham instead, along with the usual Ford automotive component traffic.
I can't remember if it was mentioned in this thread, but there was a one-off trial in June last year of lorry trailers on pocket wagons from Cologne to Barking via HS1:
https://www.railjournal.com/freight/london-cologne-intermodal-service-to-launch-in-september/
https://www.railfreight.com/railfre...service-suspended-shortly-after-inauguration/
These were the type of "pocket" wagon used: https://gueterwagenkatalog.dbcargo....gory/T3000e-Sdggmrss-T3000es-Sdggmrs--9121260
Another unusual working, in April last year, was the Ukraine aid train (I think it ran via HS1 with the containers being transhipped from the UK wagons in Berlin):
https://uk.dbcargo.com/rail-uk-en/news/uk-news/UK-Rail-for-Ukraine-7579734
https://www.dbcargo.com/rail-de-en/...er-launch-of-rail-aid-link-to-ukraine-7331014
Before they switched to Tilbury, the DRS Daventry - Purfleet trains used to call at Barking to load/unload containers. Not sure exactly when that stopped, but this is an interesting shot from 2018:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35502189@N03/42977842330/
And I can't imagine the "China Train" from 2017 (which used the adjacent "Eurohub" sidings) has much chance of being revived, given its route through Russia and Belarus!
https://www.modernrailways.com/article/first-freight-train-china-reaches-uk
Another unusual trial at Barking Eurohub was a delivery of Vauxhall cars from Ellesmere Port in 2016, which were transhipped onto German wagons for movement through the tunnel. There's a link to a video of this train in this 2021 post about Ellesmere Port freight: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/ellesmere-port-docks-lines-sidings.213237/post-5041554
At the time, there was a proposal to turn the "Eurohub" site into a car import/export hub, but instead it became a spoil terminal for FCC. The spoil traffic later transferred across to the adjacent "H Group" sidings (where trains for the Cemex terminal in the old "Stora" sidings run round), with the Eurohub becoming a scrap metal terminal for Ward Recycling:
https://uk.dbcargo.com/rail-uk-en/news/uk-news/DB-Cargo-UK-welcomes-Ward-to-Barking-6375140
The last Immingham scrap train for Ward Recycling (from the Barking Eurohub sidings) ran at the end of August. There were 6 scrap trains after that, which ran from Barking to Cardiff Docks (not for the Celsa steelworks, but for export through the Ward terminal in the docks), but the last of those ran on 5th October.
A 2022 scene with loaded MBA wagons in the scrap sidings, with Transfesa wagons visible in the Intermodal terminal (I think I'm linking your own photos here!):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sludgeulper/52257146055/
The last spoil train loaded in the "H Group" sidings adjacent to the Eurohub ran at the end of November. The FCC spoil traffic (a daily train to Peterborough and another to Tinsley) continues from the other three London terminals. The combination of origins and destinations can vary, but a typical pattern recently has been Neasden to Peterborough, Bow to Tinsley and a new Cricklewood - Burton flow (all via Acton).
There were also some Bow to Appleford spoil trains last year. More unusually, there were a handful of spoil trains loaded at the old Westbury Cement Works sidings in October / November, which were also sent to Appleford. These sidings are generally used to recess or run round Freightliner Mendip services. One of the spoil workings is seen in the sidings at Westbury: https://www.flickr.com/photos/153712773@N08/53306392502/
Overall, it looks like there has been a general halt to DB Operations at the Barking scrap / spoil / intermodal terminals, with the scrap lost to rail and the other traffic transferring to nearby terminals (spoil to Bow, containers to Dagenham). Regular DB-hauled stone trains from Peak Forest to the Cemex terminal behind the old "Stora" warehouse still run, along with occasional GBRF spoil trains from the nearby Renwick Road Biffa terminal to Roxby.
Maybe it had been there since yesterday and had been stranded by the flooding near Appleby?and surprisingly a maritime blue DB 66 at Kirkby thore on a nice mixed rake of mea,s, surprised because it was shown as cancelled on rtt this morning.
That must be it, it's took its usual path south, a smokey 56105/049 headed that way on the logs , 096 (I think) spare at new yard.Maybe it had been there since yesterday and had been stranded by the flooding near Appleby?
Mea,s still at Kirkby thore, 66 went light to Tees .That must be it, it's took its usual path south, a smokey 56105/049 headed that way on the logs , 096 (I think) spare at new yard.