Alphington scrap siding

[JUMOUK]

Does anyone know if this little siding is still in use? I’ve found a thread from 2013 detailing that it was used for a scrap freight service weekly, but I can’t find anything more recent than that. Looking at Google maps it looks to be rather over grown now with some containers blocking access to the track, interested if anyone knows more.

 

[Amlag]

The first part of the line ..a few hundred yards from the junction with the main line is used for Road Rail vehicles to access the mainline and it has been hand weed sprayed and this year looks free of weeds /tidier than most of the main and branch lines that are meant to be properly sprayed by one of Network Rails costly ‘state of the art’
weedspraying trains which did tests on the SVR a couple years ago.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

For the geographically challenged, where is Alphington / Alphington Road Siding? Somewhere in the Exeter area?

 

[Temple Meads]

For the geographically challenged, where is Alphington / Alphington Road Siding? Somewhere in the Exeter area?

Yes, indeed. The branch is in the centre of this map.

 

[D6130]

Yes, indeed. The branch is in the centre of this map.

The branch - which presumably is the stub end of the old inland route to Newton Abbot - now seems to end at the edge of Sainsbury's car park. Presumably the untidy looking area just to the East of the line is/was the scrapyard. Was the supermarket built on the site of a former goods yard?

 

[Prime586]

The branch - which presumably is the stub end of the old inland route to Newton Abbot - now seems to end at the edge of Sainsbury's car park. Presumably the untidy looking area just to the East of the line is/was the scrapyard. Was the supermarket built on the site of a former goods yard?

The scrapyard is Sims Metals Exeter, which is still active (in the Google satellite view, there are some pld wagons on the siding that have presumably been delivered for scrapping).

There was orignally pretty much nothing on either side of the line (the Exeter Railway's connection to the Teign Valley Line) apart from a timber yard and small goods depot at the junction with the main line where the Aldi is today, which had their own sidings (the trackbed is still visible to the wall of the car park). The Marsh Barton greyhound stadium was then built to the east of the line (where the Bristol Street Renault dealer is today) in the 1920s. In 1939 Exeter Corporation built a livestock market to the west of the line at Marsh Barton Lane (where the McDonalds and retail park is now), which also had it's own siding and loading dock, accessed off the timber yard sidings.

After the war the land on both sides of the line was earmarked to become Marsh Barton Trading Estate, which started to be constructed in the early 1950s (the stadium closed in 1957 and the land became part of the estate).

The line was closed and lifted in 1962 with the stub left as Alphington Road siding to service the trading estate. The estate had it's own internal sidings, the alignments can be traced by following the southern and eastern boundary walls of the Sims site. The A377 link road to the A30 junction was built on the former railway embankment.

The Sainsburys was built on the site of a former Ministry of Agriculture storage depot and offices in the late 1990s to replace the superstore that used to be at Exe Bridges.

 

[littledude]

The train into the terminal doesn’t seem to have run since 2015. As has been said above, the terminal is for Sims Exeter and trainloads of scrap in MBA box wagons were dispatched. The loaded train departed on an evening at 17:18 as 6B59 to Cardiff Tidal, operated by DB. The empty, inward working arrived early morning (around 5am IIRC) as 6C49.

 

[Irascible]

There were some sidings off to the north side of the stub, west of the main line, accessed via the stub I seem to remember from the 80s ( although no idea if they were in use ). There was a connecting line to city basin under the main line too, quite a lot of the track in the area made it to the 80s at least.

 

[Cowley]

There were some sidings off to the north side of the stub, west of the main line, accessed via the stub I seem to remember from the 80s ( although no idea if they were in use ). There was a connecting line to city basin under the main line too, quite a lot of the track in the area made it to the 80s at least.

Yes the original lines to the quay ran under the railway plus there was a west facing link that went back up to the main line and also served the Colas Bitumen depot.

There’s a very good map showing what was where on the Cornwall Railway Society site:

Exeter City Basin

Trains to and from Exeter City Basin and the Alphington Branch.

www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk

 

[WesternBiker]

Yes the original lines to the quay ran under the railway plus there was a west facing link that went back up to the main line and also served the Colas Bitumen depot.

There’s a very good map showing what was where on the Cornwall Railway Society site:

Exeter City Basin

Trains to and from Exeter City Basin and the Alphington Branch.

www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk

A great map. The underbridge from the Alphington branch under the main line to the City Basin branch is still there (one arch used for a road) and you can easily trace the City Basin branch route from the main line, almost to the quayside, along the boundaries, hedges and roads.

 

[D6130]

The scrapyard is Sims Metals Exeter, which is still active (in the Google satellite view, there are some pld wagons on the siding that have presumably been delivered for scrapping).

There was orignally pretty much nothing on either side of the line (the Exeter Railway's connection to the Teign Valley Line) apart from a timber yard and small goods depot at the junction with the main line where the Aldi is today, which had their own sidings (the trackbed is still visible to the wall of the car park). The Marsh Barton greyhound stadium was then built to the east of the line (where the Bristol Street Renault dealer is today) in the 1920s. In 1939 Exeter Corporation built a livestock market to the west of the line at Marsh Barton Lane (where the McDonalds and retail park is now), which also had it's own siding and loading dock, accessed off the timber yard sidings.

After the war the land on both sides of the line was earmarked to become Marsh Barton Trading Estate, which started to be constructed in the early 1950s (the stadium closed in 1957 and the land became part of the estate).

The line was closed and lifted in 1962 with the stub left as Alphington Road siding to service the trading estate. The estate had it's own internal sidings, the alignments can be traced by following the southern and eastern boundary walls of the Sims site. The A377 link road to the A30 junction was built on the former railway embankment.

The Sainsburys was built on the site of a former Ministry of Agriculture storage depot and offices in the late 1990s to replace the superstore that used to be at Exe Bridges.

Excellent explanation. Many thanks!

 

[Pinus contorta]

Had a wander round that area in 2022 after I read the article on the Cornwall Rail Soc. Website. There's still a few Interesting remnants If I recall correctly. As discussed up thread, the scrap traffic doesn't go via the rail network these days.

 

[ollyexe2808]

I live locally to this and didn't know the exact running of the City Basin spur until today!

There was a local campaign a while ago to convert the old Alphington scrap siding into a walking and cycling route (or at least part of it). I am not sure what came of that idea but I would love to see it being reused in some way!