Mid-to-late 1950s Platelayers Huts...

[Mooko]

Hi there, I'm doing some research for a book and looking to gain some missing info on Platelayers Huts, mid-to-late 1950s on Southern Railways. I have already seen the post thread for Platelayers Huts on the forum which is great, and just need some expanded details from the wealth of knowledge here.
Specifically...
- Were wooden hut designs still in use or had concrete versions already replaced them?
- Were they erected between relatively short station stops, or only between longer lengths/remote locations?
- What were their approximate dimensions, on average?
- What provisions were inside; seating, table, stove, fireplace/chimney vent, window(s), and equipment storage?
Thanks in advance,
Mooko

 

[Gloster]

Off the top of my head:

- I have found a picture in a wagon book showing concrete huts loaded on a wagon that says production started circa 1946.
- I think that they were put up whenever it was felt that an existing hut need to be replaced, subject to ground conditions. The location of huts was related to the area covered by the PW gangs and were placed where most convenient for their work. However mechanisation could alter matters and they would normally have a main base somewhere, often in a station or yard, where tools and things like whetstones were kept.
- I think there was a small fireplace, benches around the side and possibly a table.

Remember that many of these huts were remote from other buildings and so as little as possible was left inside for fear of it being stolen. The huts were really only for PW staff to stop for a meal or shelter if the weather was just too extreme to work.

Irwell Press did a book called Southern Nouveau - And the Lineside. The 2017 edition is much expanded.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Can't speak for the Southern but on the North Eastern Railway they were usually sited every mile from the junction of the line. In the 1930s usually about 1937 the LNER made a switch to using gangers railmotors, usually Wickham petrol driven, and the platelayers became more or less disused.

 

[Mooko]

Off the top of my head:

- I have found a picture in a wagon book showing concrete huts loaded on a wagon that says production started circa 1946.
- I think that they were put up whenever it was felt that an existing hut need to be replaced, subject to ground conditions. The location of huts was related to the area covered by the PW gangs and were placed where most convenient for their work. However mechanisation could alter matters and they would normally have a main base somewhere, often in a station or yard, where tools and things like whetstones were kept.
- I think there was a small fireplace, benches around the side and possibly a table.

Remember that many of these huts were remote from other buildings and so as little as possible was left inside for fear of it being stolen. The huts were really only for PW staff to stop for a meal or shelter if the weather was just too extreme to work.

Irwell Press did a book called Southern Nouveau - And the Lineside. The 2017 edition is much expanded.

Hi Gloster,
Thank you for these insights and book ref, really appreciate it. M

Can't speak for the Southern but on the North Eastern Railway they were usually sited every mile from the junction of the line. In the 1930s usually about 1937 the LNER made a switch to using gangers railmotors, usually Wickham petrol driven, and the platelayers became more or less disused.

Hi Pinza-C55,
Thank you for these insights, really appreciated. M

 

[AndyPJG]

This YouTube video shows a Class 50 cab ride from Exeter SD to Salisbury, which shows the huts (mostly PC concrete) along the line. From the timings, they look to be about evry mile give or take.

Also from about 4:40 onwards you can see on the left Southern Railways' Exmouth Junc concrete casting yard where the huts were cast along with the rest of their extensive range of concrete items eg lighting columns, fence panels, platform components etc.

 

[Snow1964]

The Southern concrete ones were prefabs, like most SR concrete features eg concrete fences, were slotted posts and panels. Not sure of the size but were about 7-8 feet wide and 11 feet long.

Huts could be found about every mile where wasn't another building eg a station. But the concrete ones were clearly extras or replacements as wooden huts existed all over the place, and were still common in 1980s if often disused and covered in brambles by then.

Most of the wooden ones were quite thick planks, and in appearance roofs often looked like someone had climbed up and tipped bucket of hot liquid tar over them.

 

[Pinza-C55]

The Southern concrete ones were prefabs, like most SR concrete features eg concrete fences, were slotted posts and panels. Not sure of the size but were about 7-8 feet wide and 11 feet long.

Huts could be found about every mile where wasn't another building eg a station. But the concrete ones were clearly extras or replacements as wooden huts existed all over the place, and were still common in 1980s if often disused and covered in brambles by then.

Most of the wooden ones were quite thick planks, and in appearance roofs often looked like someone had climbed up and tipped bucket of hot liquid tar over them.

Most likely replacements. If you look at the 25 inch OS maps on the NLS , up till 1895 they distinguished brick or stone buildings (red) from wood buildings (grey) so it's possible to tell not only where the huts were but roughly what they were made of. If you cross referenced a known concrete hut with a hut on the NLS maps you could tell whether it had been replaced.

 

[Taunton]

Can't speak for the Southern but on the North Eastern Railway they were usually sited every mile from the junction of the line. In the 1930s usually about 1937 the LNER made a switch to using gangers railmotors, usually Wickham petrol driven, and the platelayers became more or less disused.

The Western kept the huts when the Wickham "trolleys" came along (these always seemed rather big to be called trolleys, they were the fully enclosed type), and put in parking arrangements for the trolley. These comprised a small turning centre in the middle of the 4 foot, about 10 feet of rails at right angles to the running line alongside the hut, and a portable turntable plate kept in the hut to balance on the turning centre, push the trolley on, turn at right angles, and push into the side rails. These were on a bit of a downhill so the trolley wouldn't roll of by itself.

I did used to see these going along a single line, and wonder if they needed a token to go along, and how they returned this when they parked it off the line in mid section. Were they signalled?

 

[Gloster]

The Western kept the huts when the Wickham "trolleys" came along (these always seemed rather big to be called trolleys, they were the fully enclosed type), and put in parking arrangements for the trolley. These comprised a small turning centre in the middle of the 4 foot, about 10 feet of rails at right angles to the running line alongside the hut, and a portable turntable plate kept in the hut to balance on the turning centre, push the trolley on, turn at right angles, and push into the side rails. These were on a bit of a downhill so the trolley wouldn't roll of by itself.

I did used to see these going along a single line, and wonder if they needed a token to go along, and how they returned this when they parked it off the line in mid section. Were they signalled?

On the GWR single lines they used the ‘Economic System of Maintenance’ which had a number of special instruments spread through the section, each with one ‘Ganger’s Occupation Key’ in it. With no token out of the main single line instrument and no other key out a key could be removed by a ganger with the cooperation of the signalmen at both ends of the section. This then locked the main token instrument and the other key instruments until the original key was returned. It had the additional advantage that the ganger did not have to send men with flags out a mile in both directions.

EDIT: There is more on .warwickshirerailways.com under Miscellaneous - Operating Equipment & Practices

 

[Pinza-C55]

The Western kept the huts when the Wickham "trolleys" came along (these always seemed rather big to be called trolleys, they were the fully enclosed type), and put in parking arrangements for the trolley. These comprised a small turning centre in the middle of the 4 foot, about 10 feet of rails at right angles to the running line alongside the hut, and a portable turntable plate kept in the hut to balance on the turning centre, push the trolley on, turn at right angles, and push into the side rails. These were on a bit of a downhill so the trolley wouldn't roll of by itself.

I did used to see these going along a single line, and wonder if they needed a token to go along, and how they returned this when they parked it off the line in mid section. Were they signalled?

This has already been answered but on my pet railway, the Malton & Driffield , the trolley would either get the Tyers single line tablet or the Gangers Key. In the latter case the Gangers Key, attached to the trolley by a chain, would be plugged into a Trolley Plug Post beside the track, I found one of these posts beside the Stainmore Line at Bowes in 1996 and it was the only one I have seen.

 

[Taunton]

There is more on .warwickshirerailways.com under Miscellaneous - Operating Equipment & Practices

Here it is:

Signalling Procedure: Equipment for use with the Economic and Motor Economic Systems of Track Maintenance

All interesting stuff. Must have been quite a complexity to devise the wiring logic for releasing the key. Notably the article also states the little turntable plate was on the trolley rather than in the lineside hut.

Is there anywhere left still with the short length of rails at right-angles to the running line to place the trolley on?

 

[dangerousdids2]

I think they where mostly concrete in the southern region at this stage (main lines) with a few brick built huts here and there. The concrete huts usually had a wooden door and one metal framed window, with a cast iron stove some chairs and a table. Maybe the odd cabinet or 2.

The branch lines where mostly on the verge of closure so these retained the wooden huts although some of the lines that survived a little bit longer got some concrete huts.

 

[Roger1973]

There was an unusual one between London Bridge and Waterloo East, in one of the arches under the line round from Metropolitan Junction to Blackfriars, somewhere round where I've marked with the arrow.

It had a door and a chimney up the side of the viaduct (presume for a fire or stove) and may have had a window of sorts. I think you must have had to step down in to it. I don't remember ever seeing a 'platelayer' go in or out of it, and not sure if it was still in use by the sort of time I remember it - I think it may have been disused and coming apart by the 80s, and don't think there's any trace of it now.

 

[Taunton]

There were huts for various other staff as well. I believe when the Severn Tunnel was changed over to axle counters, they failed so often and required handsignalmen that a hut was provided by the entry signal at each end.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Here it is:

Signalling Procedure: Equipment for use with the Economic and Motor Economic Systems of Track Maintenance

All interesting stuff. Must have been quite a complexity to devise the wiring logic for releasing the key. Notably the article also states the little turntable plate was on the trolley rather than in the lineside hut.

Is there anywhere left still with the short length of rails at right-angles to the running line to place the trolley on?

I'm pretty sure the NYMR has a trolley run off point at Goathland and probably the SR lines like the Bluebell and Mid Hants too. I had a run on a Wickham petrol trolley on the Eden Valley Railway in 2001 and it felt as though every atom in my body had been rearranged. They weren't built for comfort.

 

[Gloster]

Here it is:

Signalling Procedure: Equipment for use with the Economic and Motor Economic Systems of Track Maintenance

All interesting stuff. Must have been quite a complexity to devise the wiring logic for releasing the key. Notably the article also states the little turntable plate was on the trolley rather than in the lineside hut.

Is there anywhere left still with the short length of rails at right-angles to the running line to place the trolley on?

I think that they disappeared in the 1960s with the gangs using (road) crew vans to get to the site of work from their base, which would be larger than a hut as it also acted as store, repair shop, etc. The vans also substituted for the huts as they could be used to have a meal or to shelter in extreme weather. Even in locations where powered trolleys were still used because road access was limited, such as the West Highland, the turntables and small stabling tracks were not used as the trolleys were much larger and kept to the rails all the time, having to be stabled in sidings when not in use.

 

[Taunton]

USA has gone through the same cycles of track access at pretty much the same time, starting with handcars (much loved by Hollywood in old comedy Westerns), then through a wide range of small "Speeders" that could be lifted on/off the track, generally smaller than the Wickham ones, to nowadays standard commercial pickup trucks for road access, with road-rail wheels that can be let down to run along the track.

In USA style, each member of the track crew often turns up in their own vehicle, rather than a crew bus/van. The old ganger at Taunton in the 1960s was a dab hand with the Wickham trolley, but didn't even own a car.

This YouTube video shows a convention of enthusiasts who own old Speeders, of every type it seems (the 32 minute mark shows an interesting method of turning them round):