Closed lines for storage of rail stock

[steamybrian]

Since the through line was closed in the mid 1960s, believe the Bluebell Railway have used the stub of the Ardingly line branch (at the Horsted Keynes end) for the storage of dilapidated old "heritage" rolling stock.

I believe also the one track of the double line between Horsted Keynes and East Grinstead was used for condemned wagon storage after closure to passengers in 1958 and before complete closure in the mid 1960s.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I believe also the one track of the double line between Horsted Keynes and East Grinstead was used for condemned wagon storage after closure to passengers in 1958 and before complete closure in the mid 1960s.

Interesting. Wouldn't be any surprise at all if that had been the case. The down line on the section between Horsted Keynes and Ardingly / Copyhold Junction certainly was similarly so used, as mentioned upthread in post #7.

 

[steamybrian]

Part of the Greenwich Park branch was used for rolling stock storage between closure and the Lewisham Road - Nunhead part being connected to former SER lines Lewisham.

I have read somewhere that some stabled carriages rolled downhill in to Blackheath Hill tunnel and it was some time before anyone noticed they were missing, and some further time before anyone thought to look in the tunnel (there are assorted urban legends about 'a train' being lost / stuck / buried either in Blackheath Hill or one of the tunnels on the Crystal Palace (High Level) branch...)

It is a myth that carriages were buried in the tunnels on the Crystal Palace High Level line as both tunnels are still in situ. Many years ago I walked right through one of the tunnels (Crescent Wood) and the other walked a short distance into. The tunnel mouths at both tunnels are now just bricked up at each end with locked metal doors. Presume getting mixed up with the temporary atmospheric railway which was built in Crystal Palace Park during the 19th century.

 

[DJ_K666]

The Bluebell line between Kingscote and East Grinstead had wagons stored on the Up line for a while after closure. The track lifted a while later.

 

[mailbyrail]

Back in the 1970s, we used to store 16 ton MCO mineral wagons every summer on the otherwise disused line north of Thurcroft colliery during pit holidays and due to the generally lower summertime demand for coal. The wagons had to be checked before storage for the type of axle box to prevent thieves helping themselves to the bearings.

 

[L+Y]

A local Lancashire example for you, Andy- the L&YR Skelmersdale branch was left down as far as Westhead until 1968, for wagon storage. I believe at the Ormskirk end the branch sidings were also still occasionally used to recess freight trains too. The lines were then lifted in the summer of 1968: I believe the wagons were cut up in-situ, though I don't have a source for that.

 

[Gloster]

The wagons had to be checked before storage for the type of axle box to prevent thieves helping themselves to the bearings.

A perennial problem. A load of surplus Vanfits were once stored in the sidings at Exminster due to seasonal variations: when they were checked before movement, the bearings were found to have already departed.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

The "not needed" branches in South Wales often had surplus wagons stored in the 1930's (poor coal prospects) and again in the 1960's (same again) - but they were very careful to not block footpath and accomodation crossings.....best to keep the locals and farmers on side....

 

[Gloster]

The "not needed" branches in South Wales often had surplus wagons stored in the 1930's (poor coal prospects) and again in the 1960's (same again) - but they were very careful to not block footpath and accomodation crossings.....best to keep the locals and farmers on side....

It might be for legal reasons, i.e. not blocking a right of way. I worked at one box where there was an accommodation crossing across the middle of the goods loops: there was an instruction that if a train had to be left in the loop, it was to be split so as to leave the crossing useable. Not that the farmer ever did use the crossing.

 

[Andy873]

It's an interesting subject and thanks for all the examples.

@Gloster Thanks for explaining how movements are done going onto / off a closed line, that's a very detailed explanation.

@L+Y Thanks for the local information, it helps when you can visualise the area.

The wagons had to be checked before storage for the type of axle box to prevent thieves helping themselves to the bearings.

When I was first told about withdrawn steam engines being stored on sidings or on parts of closed branch lines I did wonder about them being a target for thieves.

But I never knew they would even target wagons for the bearings, I thought they wouldn't be of any interest. And that does pose another question - where's the best place to store stock? in a populated area or a quiet stretch of a closed line?

It must have been a real concern for BR let alone the cost of replacing parts.

I've read even Barry Island scrap yard very often found that things had gone missing over night.

Thanks,
Andy.

 

[70014IronDuke]

When I was first told about withdrawn steam engines being stored on sidings or on parts of closed branch lines I did wonder about them being a target for thieves.

I don't think locomotives were normally stored on closed branch lines or (remote) sidings. Unless they had run a hot box or something. No, locos were normally stored on sheds, though often outside.

But I never knew they would even target wagons for the bearings, I thought they wouldn't be of any interest.

Bearings (journal bearings) were made of whitemetal - I think that's an alloy of lead and tin (someone here will know for sure). Both a pretty expensive metals.

And that does pose another question - where's the best place to store stock? in a populated area or a quiet stretch of a closed line?

In the late 50s and early 60s roads were far poorer and people had far fewer vehicles. so storing wagons on remote branch lines was less of a problem. A wagon bumping along a rural road at 02.30 hrs might also interest the local police.

As we progressed, thieves had increased access to vehicles and better roads. And with the internet, far better access to information. And far more night traffic.

So, I would suggest that wagons stored on a quiet, closed branch in E Anglia or Aberdeenshire in 1955 might remain there for months untouched. By 1970 that might be reduced to weeks. Today, I expect stuff could easily disappear overnight.

 

[delt1c]

I remember the old Bents line from Polkemet Junction just west of Bathgate, this closed in I believe 1960 when the mine at East Whitburn closed. The signal box was out of used how ever a small stub was used for storing condemned mineral wagons for a short while

 

[Andy873]

I don't think locomotives were normally stored on closed branch lines or (remote) sidings. Unless they had run a hot box or something. No, locos were normally stored on sheds, though often outside.

I absolutely agree they were normally stored outside at sheds and there are plenty of spotters notes from shed visits noting withdrawn engines.

I did however remember seeing the following article (link) showing 15 old ex-L&Y engines stored on some sidings at / near an ROF factory - you would hope the security around there would have been good enough to deter anyone.

A visit to a dump | Heritage Railway Magazine

Many pre-Grouping steam engines soldiered on until the end of the 1950s but were then withdrawn faster than the locomotive works were able to scrap them. Ro ...

www.heritagerailway.co.uk

With regards to bearings, I didn't realise they were so valuable, I guess if they were pinched from some condemned wagons you would probably have to cut them up on site rather than replace the bearings in order to just drag them away.

Thanks,
Andy.

 

[Springs Branch]

A local Lancashire example for you, Andy- the L&YR Skelmersdale branch was left down as far as Westhead until 1968, for wagon storage. I believe at the Ormskirk end the branch sidings were also still occasionally used to recess freight trains too. The lines were then lifted in the summer of 1968: I believe the wagons were cut up in-situ, though I don't have a source for that.

Another West Lancs. example was the stub of the Barton / Downholland branch (ex-Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway) between Butts Lane Jn. (on the Southport - Wigan line near Meols Cop) and Shirdley Hill.

Rather than redundant goods wagons, this rural backwater was apparently used, after the end of regular goods trains in the early 1950s until 1963, to store coaches used for passenger excursions.

Without being able to remember the source, I'd previously believed that stock kept on the truncated Shirdley Hill line was elderly coaches used only for excursion trains in the height of summer - the kind of assets that Beeching had such an aversion to - which were stored there when not needed over the colder months.

However on-line sources (including the Disused Stations website, which in normally well-researched) seem to suggest the Shirdley Hill line was used to stable excursion trains which had worked into Southport for the day.

I'm not sure which was the case - it would be a bit of a faff getting empty stock on and off the line just for a few hours, and I'm not sure there was such a shortage of siding space close to Southport that BR would keep doing this up until 1963. Does anyone know?

Certainly I can imagine the quiet farmland around Shirdley Hill was sufficiently out-of-the-way for old but serviceable carriages to be stored on the closed railway for months on end with minimal risk of vandalism, theft of components etc.

 

[Lloyds siding]

Another West Lancs. example was the stub of the Barton / Downholland branch (ex-Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway) between Butts Lane Jn. (on the Southport - Wigan line near Meols Cop) and Shirdley Hill.

Rather than redundant goods wagons, this rural backwater was apparently used, after the end of regular goods trains in the early 1950s until 1963, to store coaches used for passenger excursions.

Without being able to remember the source, I'd previously believed that stock kept on the truncated Shirdley Hill line was elderly coaches used only for excursion trains in the height of summer - the kind of assets that Beeching had such an aversion to - which were stored there when not needed over the colder months.

However on-line sources (including the Disused Stations website, which in normally well-researched) seem to suggest the Shirdley Hill line was used to stable excursion trains which had worked into Southport for the day.

I'm not sure which was the case - it would be a bit of a faff getting empty stock on and off the line just for a few hours, and I'm not sure there was such a shortage of siding space close to Southport that BR would keep doing this up until 1963. Does anyone know?

Certainly I can imagine the quiet farmland around Shirdley Hill was sufficiently out-of-the-way for old but serviceable carriages to be stored on the closed railway for months on end with minimal risk of vandalism, theft of components etc.

The Southport end of the branch may well have been used for excursion train accomodation. However at the Downholland/Altcar end (which was severed from the rest of the branch at Downholland according to the Disused Satations link) I remember some very old passenger stock being stored (most with 'COND' written on their sides in white paint). The passenger trains may have stopped but the Cheshire Lines from Aintree to Altcar and Hillhouse remained open as a goods branch until 1960.

 

[Andy873]

I would just like once again to thank everyone for taking part on this subject.

As I said in my opening post, I just couldn't understand why 120 wagons had ended up at Great Harwood by 1965. It seems to have been a common wide spread practice to use closed sections for storage and that really is my answer.

Thought it was a very interesting subject - thanks all!

Andy.

 

[john prytherch]

I would just like once again to thank everyone for taking part on this subject.

As I said in my opening post, I just couldn't understand why 120 wagons had ended up at Great Harwood by 1965. It seems to have been a common wide spread practice to use closed sections for storage and that really is my answer.

Thought it was a very interesting subject - thanks all!

Andy.

Quite a bit of the Whitchurch - Chester (Tattenhall Junction) line was used for storing condemned wagons (nearly all 16 ton mineral wagons I think) between the final freight closure of the line in November 1963 and tracklifting in 1965. I think most of the storage was north of Broxton, at the Tattenhall Junction end, though I recall some wagons standing between Malpas and Broxton and more between Malpas and Grindley Brook. The Chester Chronicle featured a picture from an overbridge near Tattenhall, showing wagons on both lines as far as the eye could see, headed "Wagon train extraordinary - it goes on like this for over five miles!"

I believe gaps were left for any farm accommodation crossings. But there may not have been many of those, as I believe the line was one well built by Thomas Brassey, with as high standards and level of bridge provision as on the Crewe and Chester line. There was some theft of bearings, making the wagons difficult to remove. I think the storage must been for most of 1964 and the first half of 1965. I remember seeing black fives working hard to remove some of the wagons. As I was away at school my observations were only intermittent, during school holidays.

 

[Andy873]

The Chester Chronicle featured a picture from an overbridge near Tattenhall, showing wagons on both lines as far as the eye could see, headed "Wagon train extraordinary - it goes on like this for over five miles!"

That's a great example, thank you, pity there isn't a photo of these wagons.

When you read that Beeching report you can see two things, he notes too many wagons and too much of the network loosing money. The answer was simple (in his eyes), close lines and dump those extra wagons there until disposal of both.

 

[Jim Jehosofat]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the old Wymondham to Forncett line was used to store scrap rolling stock.

 

[6Gman]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the old Wymondham to Forncett line was used to store scrap rolling stock.

I believe part of the line (at the Wymondham end) was actually used as part of Archie King's scrapyard, so not so much storage as the actual scrapping of the vehicles. The vehicle/s involved in the Great Train Robbery were broken up there.

 

[Andy873]

Thanks all.

It would be really nice if some photos of stored wagons on these lines / sidings were posted or links added.

 

[Springs Branch]

It would be really nice if some photos of stored wagons on these lines / sidings were posted or links added.

I'm not sure if many of these long lines of wagons would have been recorded by the photographers of the time.

I've searched in the past hoping to find photos of stored wagons on one of my own local 'lines of interest' - the ex-GC line between Lowton St Mary's and Hindley South. This closed as a through route in Jan 1965 and was then reportedly used to store a large number of surplus wagons. I didn't find any photos, nor any images of other similar lines in the process.

I suspect around the time when closed railway lines with redundant wagons were in abundance, photographers were busy using all their Kodak film and home-dark-room developing solutions capturing as much as they could of the last days of steam. Photographing lines of old wagons on rusty tracks was probably low on most people's priorities - although it would become an interesting record 60 years on.

 

[Gloster]

I doubt if many people took pictures of lines of old wagons. They sometimes appear in the background of pictures of other subjects, but they weren’t the focus. There were also times when a photo was taken of an interesting wagon, but you would only see the wagons next to it, not the whole rake.

 

[Rutland23]

I did put a link in for this one earlier


There are a few others taken on the same flight.

Register/log in to be able to zoom in-it's free, and no spam emails either. mBut be prepared to lose many hours if not days!!.

Direct link: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/SPW022006

Regards

Ian

 

[Ashley Hill]

Here’s some of which none are my photos.
Coach frames destroyed during WW2 Bristol Bombing stored on the long closed section of the Malmesbury branch between Dauntsey and Little Somerford. Probably at Great Somerford.

Photo BR.


The line on the left is the 1933 connection to Little Somerford. On the right wagons stored on the old line to Dauntsey. Photo HC Casserley


Holt Junction 1971. Wagons on the extreme right stored on the remaining stub of the Devizes line. Photo G Gillham


Mentioned in an earlier post. A long line of stored wagons in the wartime sidings at Lydford. Photo Bernard Mills.