Lifting Tracks in the 1960s - Main Contractors

[Andy873]

After having no luck with regards to which company recovered the tracks on the branch line I'm researching, I decided to look at the next best thing - The main companies that lifted track during the 1960s.

So far, I have the following:

Thomas W Ward Ltd of Sheffield
George Cohen Ltd of London
Peter Wood Ltd, of Rotherham

These three companies appear not only to have lifted large amounts of rails, but also had standing contracts to lift up to 6 track miles, above 6 miles, BR put the lifts out to competitive tender. I presume these three companies could still tender for longer lifts?

I've also come across Henry Boot of Sheffield which I think had a large railway engineering section? and seemed to have lifted the Preston - Southport line, the Swansea (Victoria) - Gorseinon, and Cromford Junction - Parsley Hall. Do we know of other lines they lifted?

Do you know of other major companies that lifted tracks during the 1960s?

 

[Gloster]

There were quite a few contractors, some of whom only lifted one or two lines. Many of the details are lost, if they were ever recorded outside of contract paperwork, to such an extent that even the Industrial Railway Society doesn’t know. (And if they don’t know, it is unlikely that anyone else does.)

One other name that isn’t on the same scale as the three mentioned is Pittrail, possibly a trading name of E.L.Pitt. They appear to have been based at Aldridge in Staffordshire, but also had a depot at Brackley.

 

[Prime586]

Henry Boot were primarily (in)famous as a housebuilder, who built thousands of houses with reinforced concrete frames using 'no fines' concrete (made with power station clinker instead of sand) for councils pre and post WWII. By the 1980s when Right To Buy came in, thousands of people who had bought Boot-constructed ex-council houses were facing massive bills to have their houses rebuilt due to the failing concrete, which the Government then had to bail out via the 1984 Housing Defects Act.

 

[Andy873]

Henry Boot were primarily (in)famous as a housebuilder, who built thousands of houses with reinforced concrete frames using 'no fines' concrete (made with power station clinker instead of sand) for councils pre and post WWII. By the 1980s when Right To Buy came in, thousands of people who had bought Boot-constructed ex-council houses were facing massive bills to have their houses rebuilt due to the failing concrete, which the Government then had to bail out via the 1984 Housing Defects Act.

Yes, that's right, house building was one arm of the company.

One other name that isn’t on the same scale as the three mentioned is Pittrail, possibly a trading name of E.L.Pitt. They appear to have been based at Aldridge in Staffordshire, but also had a depot at Brackley.

That's certainly one then to add to the list albeit a smaller company.

Another one was Leonard Fairclough of Adlington (near Chorley, Lancs). Probably best known for the demolition of the Doric arch at Euston station, they also built the Thelwall viaduct (M6 Motorway). I know they removed the Hough Green - Widnes East Junction line, and even restored an old ex-L&Y locomotive which went on display at White Bear station, Adlington.

Fairclough's possible involvement with the branch line I'm researching is a tantalising one, not wishing to put 2 and 2 together and get 5 but "a Chorley firm" demolished one of the stations, and there's also the possibility they bought and recovered over 50,000 tons of ballast 1967 - '68, perhaps to aid in their latest project, the first phase (1968) of Blackburn's new town centre? makes me wonder at least...

 

[Ploughman]

Yes, that's right, house building was one arm of the company.


That's certainly one then to add to the list albeit a smaller company.

Another one was Leonard Fairclough of Adlington (near Chorley, Lancs). Probably best known for the demolition of the Doric arch at Euston station, they also built the Thelwall viaduct (M6 Motorway). I know they removed the Hough Green - Widnes East Junction line, and even restored an old ex-L&Y locomotive which went on display at White Bear station, Adlington.

Fairclough's possible involvement with the branch line I'm researching is a tantalising one, not wishing to put 2 and 2 together and get 5 but "a Chorley firm" demolished one of the stations, and there's also the possibility they bought and recovered over 50,000 tons of ballast 1967 - '68, perhaps to aid in their latest project, the first phase (1968) of Blackburn's new town centre? makes me wonder at least...

Which engine?
Was it Lindsey?

 

[Andy873]

Which engine?
Was it Lindsey?

You can see it on the White Bear article:

Disused Stations - White Bear Station

 

[Clarence Yard]

Which engine?
Was it Lindsey?

52322, restored at Horwich as L&Y 1122 (not it’s real L&Y number).

 

[Dawg]

Yes, that's right, house building was one arm of the company.


That's certainly one then to add to the list albeit a smaller company.

Another one was Leonard Fairclough of Adlington (near Chorley, Lancs). Probably best known for the demolition of the Doric arch at Euston station, they also built the Thelwall viaduct (M6 Motorway). I know they removed the Hough Green - Widnes East Junction line, and even restored an old ex-L&Y locomotive which went on display at White Bear station, Adlington.

Fairclough's possible involvement with the branch line I'm researching is a tantalising one, not wishing to put 2 and 2 together and get 5 but "a Chorley firm" demolished one of the stations, and there's also the possibility they bought and recovered over 50,000 tons of ballast 1967 - '68, perhaps to aid in their latest project, the first phase (1968) of Blackburn's new town centre? makes me wonder at least..

I live in Adlington, not far from the site of the old White Bear station - did Fairclough lift the Adlington - Boars Head jct line in 1972? and dismantle the viaduct rail decks over the Douglas valley on the same line?
I remember lots of activity C1976 around the Red Rock area, not far from the viaduct where I saw heavy plant machinery filling in the cutting and under the road bridge. Whether the viaduct was being done at the same time and the steel decks were being dragged up the track bed, cut up and taken away by road at this point..?

 

[Andy873]

I live in Adlington, not far from the site of the old White Bear station - did Fairclough lift the Adlington - Boars Head jct line in 1972? and dismantle the viaduct rail decks over the Douglas valley on the same line?
I remember lots of activity C1976 around the Red Rock area, not far from the viaduct where I saw heavy plant machinery filling in the cutting and under the road bridge. Whether the viaduct was being done at the same time and the steel decks were being dragged up the track bed, cut up and taken away by road at this point..?

It seems it was BR with a track lifting train pulled by a class 40, One person on Facebook says they used to live close to the line in Adlington and recalls it was the summer of 1973 when this train came along. They state it took only one week to lift the rails. Can't tell you anything about the viaduct though. Does this help?

 

[Taunton]

Another one was Leonard Fairclough of Adlington (near Chorley, Lancs). Probably best known for the demolition of the Doric arch at Euston station, they also built the Thelwall viaduct (M6 Motorway). I know they removed the Hough Green - Widnes East Junction line, and even restored an old ex-L&Y locomotive which went on display at White Bear station, Adlington.

Fairclough's possible involvement with the branch line I'm researching is a tantalising one, not wishing to put 2 and 2 together and get 5 but "a Chorley firm" demolished one of the stations, and there's also the possibility they bought and recovered over 50,000 tons of ballast 1967 - '68, perhaps to aid in their latest project, the first phase (1968) of Blackburn's new town centre? makes me wonder at least...

Fairclough were later merged up into the major Amec contracting company, and then their part of the company was sold off to the Morgan Sindall contracting company. From the nature of their business Fairclough did have a large plant yard in Adlington, and in the 1960s this contained a former L&Y 0-6-0 loco, built just down the road at Horwich.