Small stations that retained their freight sidings into the 70s-80s

alistairlees · 25 Jul 2019

You beat me to it! I used to go past this on the bus to school every day.

Does Shipley count? The scrapyard (Crossleys) was active with both steam (yes really) and diesel until well into the 1980s. Went past that too every day on the bus!

RailUK Forums

73001 · 25 Jul 2019

I remember Gathurst (Wigan to Southport) having sidings which frequently had box wagons in; if I was lucky I'd see a class 25 or 31 on the front as well. This was well into the 80s.

Royston Vasey · 25 Jul 2019

Hitchin still does!

Cowley · 25 Jul 2019

As does Lostwithiel - along with semaphores (although rationalised since the 1980s)...

341o2 · 25 Jul 2019

I'd suggest Okehampton, now a minor station, the real reason for it's survival is Meldon Quarry

Cowley · 25 Jul 2019

341o2 said:
I'd suggest Okehampton, now a minor station, the real reason for it's survival is Meldon Quarry

Disused in the 1970s/80s, but it definitely had a few sidings.
In the same vein, Seaton Junction although closed still had a few sidings in the yard until about 1988, and the former up platform was used as the headshunt.
This photo is credited to Barry Lewis (from 1979).

simonw · 25 Jul 2019

Shirehampton had an oil train visiting the siding there until 1985.

Pyreneenguy · 25 Jul 2019

73001 said:
I remember Gathurst (Wigan to Southport) having sidings which frequently had box wagons in; if I was lucky I'd see a class 25 or 31 on the front as well. This was well into the 80s.

There was an explosives factory at Gathurst. The factory was connected to the goods yard via a narrow gauge railway, over a viaduct, if I remember correctly. I've no idea when it closed.

181 · 25 Jul 2019

Quite a few of the West Highland stations still have sidings, and some have been used for loading timber in the comparatively recent past (into the 21st century, I think), although I think the only regular freight traffic these days is to the aluminium works outside Fort William. Oil traffic on the Oban line lasted until the early 1990s, although I'm not sure if this involved the sidings immediately adjacent to Oban and/or Connel stations (there was another oil terminal a few hundred yards from Oban station). Oil tank wagons were still attached to passenger trains to Mallaig until the 1980s, presumably for sidings at Mallaig station.

Peter Mugridge · 25 Jul 2019

Epsom still had a couple of sidings adjacent to platform 1 until the rebuild started about 10 years ago, although they hadn't been used for a long time prior to that.

There are still a couple of sidings just south of the station, but these are purely for train reversal purposes.

dubscottie · 26 Jul 2019

Alnmouth had a coal yard that seemed to get wagonload deliveries right until the electrification works started about 1987/88.

The goods yard at Markinch remained in use until 1992/3 (no direct deliveries, just as a run round).

The yard and 1 or 2 sidings in Kirkcaldy remained in use as a PW training school until 1993/94.

Haltwhistle yard was in use for a plywood manufacturer until the early 90s I think also.

Just a few from the top of my head!

montyburns56 · 26 Jul 2019

Journeyman said:
Selsdon had an oil siding that outlived the station. It closed to passenger services in 1983 when the Elmers End to Sanderstead service was withdrawn. The oil siding was attached to the Oxted line, that also passed through the remains of the station, and it was served until sometime in the nineties.

I've been looking at the site on Google Maps and you can still see the remains of the sidings even though they have been disconnected. There was similar situation at Baguley/Northenden station in Manchester where the station was closed in 1964, but the station sidings were retained as private sidings for a Blue Circle cement terminal and latterly as a stone terminal.

ChiefPlanner · 26 Jul 2019

Llandovery , Llandeilo , Ammanford (Town)

montyburns56 · 26 Jul 2019

sharpley said:
Thanks for that link. From that photo, the sidings were later tarmac'd around to allow lorry trailers to be loaded onto the piggyback wagons. The right hand siding was extended into the factory you can see in the distance. The tarmac'd sidings are now a car park (rails still present though I believe), the siding to the factory is still there but long since disused. Rail freight operations from Melton stopped in the early 90s, I believe now that loaded containers travel by road from the factory to DIRFT for onward rail travel

Right, well now that you've pointed it out I can see what they've done on Google Maps. In fact on Street View you can see where the line to the factory crosses the station car park!

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.761...35.076733&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i16384!8i8192

montyburns56 · 26 Jul 2019

dgl said:
Does Yeovil Pen Mill count, still has sidings although not as small as some stations as it does have three platforms but one and two are either side of the same line.

It's certainly an interesting looking station with it's weird platform arrangement, although I suspect that the sidings are only used for Departmental workings these days.

montyburns56 · 26 Jul 2019

dubscottie said:
Alnmouth had a coal yard that seemed to get wagonload deliveries right until the electrification works started about 1987/88.

The goods yard at Markinch remained in use until 1992/3 (no direct deliveries, just as a run round).

The yard and 1 or 2 sidings in Kirkcaldy remained in use as a PW training school until 1993/94.

Haltwhistle yard was in use for a plywood manufacturer until the early 90s I think also.

Just a few from the top of my head!

Haltwhistle is another interesting station as it it still has two little short sidings and even an old iron and brick water tank in the station forecourt. Also Hexham on the same line looks like it still has it's sidings.

Hexham Station by Thomas, on Flickr

montyburns56 · 26 Jul 2019

I've just stumbled across two stations on the same line while looking at my Quail books namely Tolworth and Chessington North which both had coal concentration depots. Tolworth still seems to be in use as an aggregate depot.

dubscottie · 26 Jul 2019

montyburns56 said:
Haltwhistle is another interesting station as it it still has two little short sidings and even an old iron and brick water tank in the station forecourt. Also Hexham on the same line looks like it still has it's sidings.

Hexham Station by Thomas, on Flickr

Now you mention it I think it was Hexham not Haltwhistle that the plywood manufacturer was based.

dgl · 26 Jul 2019

montyburns56 said:
It's certainly an interesting looking station with it's weird platform arrangement, although I suspect that the sidings are only used for Departmental workings these days.

Yes when I have been there I note they do look rather unused

Greetlander · 27 Jul 2019

montyburns56 said:
I'm guessing that's what is shown in this picture?

https://flic.kr/p/7MkPFC

Yes - there are videos of it on youtube

Dr_Paul · 28 Jul 2019

montyburns56 said:
I've just stumbled across two stations on the same line while looking at my Quail books namely Tolworth and Chessington North which both had coal concentration depots. Tolworth still seems to be in use as an aggregate depot.

Yes, Tolworth still has regular aggregates traffic. I don't know about Chessington North (I don't think it ever had a yard), but Chessington South still has (well it did a couple of years back when I went there) a couple of sidings to the south of the station, disused for ages and barely visible in the undergrowth.

Dr_Paul · 28 Jul 2019

There are still a couple of sidings on the down side east of Wimbledon on the South-Western line. One leads off from both the SW down slow line and what was the up line to Tooting (now a single, bi-directional line), the other leads off the SW down slow. The latter used to go under Durnsford Road with a reverse into the Corporation Yard, but has been truncated. I think they both have conductor rails, but I can't be sure. I've not seen anything on these sidings for years.

Ken H · 28 Jul 2019

Dr_Paul said:
Yes, Tolworth still has regular aggregates traffic. I don't know about Chessington North (I don't think it ever had a yard), but Chessington South still has (well it did a couple of years back when I went there) a couple of sidings to the south of the station, disused for ages and barely visible in the undergrowth.

Chessington South was Charringtons Coal depot. a relative used to manage it in the late 50's!

Skipton had a bitumen siding where Tesco is now. Must have closed in the 1980's

alistairlees said:
You beat me to it! I used to go past this on the bus to school every day.

Does Shipley count? The scrapyard (Crossleys) was active with both steam (yes really) and diesel until well into the 1980s. Went past that too every day on the bus!

I think its still rail connected.

Peter Mugridge · 28 Jul 2019

Dr_Paul said:
There are still a couple of sidings on the down side east of Wimbledon on the South-Western line. One leads off from both the SW down slow line and what was the up line to Tooting (now a single, bi-directional line), the other leads off the SW down slow. The latter used to go under Durnsford Road with a reverse into the Corporation Yard, but has been truncated. I think they both have conductor rails, but I can't be sure. I've not seen anything on these sidings for years.

Those were used for stabling units. The practice ceased about 15 - 20 years ago, I suspect on account of the level of unofficial re-liverying that was taking place in them.

YorksDMU · 28 Jul 2019

I hope Beverley, East Yorkshire, on the Hull to Scarborough line may qualify. It and Driffield survived with their goods yards, in use as goods yards, until early 1985.
Here’s a photo’ of Beverley which I took in the hot summer of 1976 looking NW from the up platform. To the extreme right you can just see, next to the up bracketed home signal, on the right, the ‘Barry Slip’ as the interlaced pointwork was known.

Cowley · 28 Jul 2019

YorksDMU said:
I hope Beverley, East Yorkshire, on the Hull to Scarborough line may qualify. It and Driffield survived with their goods yards, in use as goods yards, until early 1985.
Here’s a photo’ of Beverley which I took in the hot summer of 1976 looking NW from the up platform. To the extreme right you can just see, next to the up bracketed home signal, on the right, the ‘Barry Slip’ as the interlaced pointwork was known.
View attachment 66313

That’s very nice, and interesting trackwork too.

Springs Branch · 29 Jul 2019

Not sure if this quite meets the criteria, but on the Bolton side of Westhoughton station there was a siding for the nearby Metal Box Co. factory.

Although not strictly part of the station's former goods yard (the Metal Box siding came off a goods loop on the Down side, whereas the yard had been on the Up side), access was controlled by Westhoughton Goods Yard signal box - until that box was abolished in 1972 & replaced by a ground frame released from Lostock Junction box.

The Metal Box factory received regular deliveries of tinplate coil by rail from South Wales, which were converted into baked bean tins, beverage cans and the like.

In the 1980s & 90s these trains often arrived in daytime, so it was not unusual to depart from Westhoughton on a DMU and see a 31 or 37 shunting its train in the siding.

The factory closed completely in 2003 (site now has new-build housing, handy for commuting from the station) but I'm unsure whether rail deliveries continued right to the end.

lyndhurst25 · 29 Jul 2019

Gobowen coal depot lasted into the 1990s and possibly later. Ribblehead station sidings are still in use with stone and wood trains recently.

geoffk · 29 Jul 2019

Georgemas Junction, pipes for oil and gas industry.

PeterC · 29 Jul 2019

Romford was still in use for coal in the late 70s

Small stations that retained their freight sidings into the 70s-80s

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