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

[bramling]

I was just looking at some pictures of East Kilbride station in the 80s and I believe that the station sidings were still in use as a coal depot. It got me wondering how many other small stations still retained their public sidings for use for freight unloading (i.e. not for S&T/Departmental storage etc.) well into the 70s/80s.

I know that Clayton West kept it's sidings for the nearby colliery, although that may be stretching my parameters a little bit, but I'm sure there must have been quite a few others?

High Brooms Oil Siding. Possibly still there although unused for many years now.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

What about the oil sidings at Salfords that used to serve Gatwick Airport. Weren't they still in use in the 1980s?

 

[alistairlees]

High Brooms Oil Siding. Possibly still there although unused for many years now.

It’s been disconnected for quite a while now. Even the oil distribution depot is demolished now.

 

[Alfie1014]

Not my best photo, but in the early 80s, 47158 at Grays with a Grays - Exeter Rugex. The yard which was on the up side dealt with various traffic including steel for export through Thomas Ward’s wharf and also frequently stabled the 08 shutter used in Tilbury FLT. Indeed for many years the Grays station pilot was 08958 the last numerical member of the class. Now it is the station car park.

 

[Cowley]

View attachment 66368 Not my best photo, but in the early 80s, 47158 at Grays with a Grays - Exeter Rugex. The yard which was on the up side dealt with various traffic including steel for export through Thomas Ward’s wharf and also frequently stabled the 08 shutter used in Tilbury FLT. Indeed for many years the Grays station pilot was 08958 the last numerical member of the class. Now it is the station car park.

It’s a great photo Alfie. Thanks for posting it.

 

[muddythefish]

Haverfordwest and Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire were still served by wagonload freight well into the 1970s. Quite decent loads too.

St Neots on the ECML had fertiliser traffic into the 1990s.

 

[Harbornite]

Gobowen was served by (household) coal trains until the 90s.

 

[Taunton]

In the mid-1960s the various freight sidings in The Wirral, which were almost wholly household coal and served by local trip workings over the electric lines, were closed and replaced by a new Coal Concentration Depot, behind the emu sheds at Birkenhead North. All the local coal merchants who had traditionally been based in small huts at the various station sidings moved there. It was served by a periodic block train which came from South Yorkshire over Woodhead, the CLC across Cheshire, and up via the Birkenhead Dock lines, with an 03 shunter at the depot. This lasted until the late 1980s, by which time it was quite a small scale operation, like the sidings at stations it had once replaced, as the market for coal vanished.

 

[4141]

Haven't been past there for a while now, but I think Kemble still has a short siding on the old Cirencester Town alignment?

 

[Red Onion]

Leuchars (MoD), Montrose (lime/fertiliser/tatties/MoD), Errol (tatties/fertiliser), Laurencekirk (lime/tatties/fertiliser/pipes), Inverurie (timber/calcium carbonate), Huntly (timber)

To add a couple, Keith retained a sizeable yard for the distillery which has now been largely rationalised to a track for the charter trains and another track adjacent to it, though I’m not sure of its use. The goods shed and loading platforms remain with the track otherwise lifted.

Elgin has kept its goods yard which has recently had new track. The large container crane has gone however. It did see some trial runs with potatoes and whisky a good few years back but I’m not sure if anything has been up in recent years.

 

[Spike Bank]

Syston (on the Midland Main Line) remained open for cement traffic into the 70/80's. The original station had long closed but the reopened Ivanhoe Line station is roughly where the cement sidings were.

Beeston (near Nottingham) still has an active infrastructure yard on the site of the former BR Freightliner terminal, together with a separate siding to Sims Metals which I believe still sees occasional use...

 

[GusB]

Nairn kept its sidings well into the 2000s, although I'm not certain when they stopped being used.

https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/N/Nairn/slideshow.html

Photos show that they were still there in 2007, but very overgrown; a later image from 2011 shows the area cleared of vegetation, and the sidings gone. I assume they were lifted when that part of the line was re-signalled. Slightly o/t, but there are also a few photos of the pedal-signalling system in operation!

 

[Royston Vasey]

Foxton still has a daily freight train into and out of the Exchange Sidings for Barrington Quarry, now a landfill for spoil. It actually reverses over the crossing in both directions, the outbound at rush hour

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I was just looking at some pictures of East Kilbride station in the 80s and I believe that the station sidings were still in use as a coal depot. It got me wondering how many other small stations still retained their public sidings for use for freight unloading (i.e. not for S&T/Departmental storage etc.) well into the 70s/80s.

I know that Clayton West kept it's sidings for the nearby colliery, although that may be stretching my parameters a little bit, but I'm sure there must have been quite a few others?

Not only did Clayton West keep the sidings until just before closure, the next station up the line at Skelmanthorpe also had sidings (Emley colliery was a mine with both drift (from the hillside near Skelmanthorpe) and vertical access via winding gear from up on top of the hill) for loading coal.

 

[Alanko]

Stirling Station retained sidings into the '90s, to the East of the main line, which have since been built over with a modern development called Chandlers Court. From memory there was at least one car ramp retained there as well. The Alloa line was mothballed at that point in time, however. I just about remember railway sidings prior to the development of the Thistle Marches shopping centre as well (when only the brutalist Thistle Centre was extant). I would love to see an '80s or early '90s map to try and work out what I was looking at back then.

 

[Puppetfinger]

Would Ashchurch for Tewkesbury count? The down goods loop immediately north of the station, and the MoD(?) sidings on the down side immediately south of the station.

 

[Quakers Yard]

Merthyr still had its goods yard to the early to mid 80s. It also kept a loop on the approach to the station until about 1990.

Pontypridd still has a goods platform with a connected siding. Not seen anything in it for many years though.

Obvious ones still around are at Treherbert and Rhymney for stabling.

 

[PeterC]

In summary the domestic coal traffic was in decline but there were still plenty of local coal yards around in the period that the OP is enquiring about. What was rare was locations still taking wagonload freight. The only one that I remember was the Fyffes banana warehouse at Goodmayes that still had the occasional single wagon on the siding when I worked in an office near the station.

There is a British Pathe film about the warehouse but, sadly, only shows the interior.

 

[Welly]

Gainsborough Lea Road had sidings that sent a train of 8 x 100tonne crude oil tankers to Lindsey Oil Refinery twice a week until December 1997 when it closed. The rails are still there rusting away.

 

[montyburns56]

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.

Indeed, that was one that sprung to mind when I started the the thread as there's some great pictures of the narrow gauge railway in use in the 70s. Some of the narrow gauge trackwork was still left on the factory site until about 10 years.

https://flic.kr/p/21aM8hw

 

[montyburns56]

To add a couple, Keith retained a sizeable yard for the distillery which has now been largely rationalised to a track for the charter trains and another track adjacent to it, though I’m not sure of its use. The goods shed and loading platforms remain with the track otherwise lifted.

Elgin has kept its goods yard which has recently had new track. The large container crane has gone however. It did see some trial runs with potatoes and whisky a good few years back but I’m not sure if anything has been up in recent years.

I looked at them in my Quail book and Elgin and Keith both had impressive setups, which in the case of Elgin looks like it's still in healthy condition.

Elgin East Station - 15-FEB-2009 by John Williamson, on Flickr

And here's a very atmospheric picture of Keith when it was still in use.

https://www.derbysulzers.com/25079keithyard2.jpg

 

[montyburns56]

Nairn kept its sidings well into the 2000s, although I'm not certain when they stopped being used.

https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/N/Nairn/slideshow.html

Photos show that they were still there in 2007, but very overgrown; a later image from 2011 shows the area cleared of vegetation, and the sidings gone. I assume they were lifted when that part of the line was re-signalled. Slightly o/t, but there are also a few photos of the pedal-signalling system in operation!

Thanks, there is an amazing picture on that page from 1977 that shows a mixed freight train that consist of a 16t wagon, an open wagon filled with timber, a MK1 BG, a Siphon and an SR CCT!

 

[montyburns56]

Not only did Clayton West keep the sidings until just before closure, the next station up the line at Skelmanthorpe also had sidings (Emley colliery was a mine with both drift (from the hillside near Skelmanthorpe) and vertical access via winding gear from up on top of the hill) for loading coal.

Yeah, the reason why I was aware of it was that Scale Model Trains had an article about the line as inspiration for a model and it had pictures of Skelmanthorpe as well (it's also the birth place of Jodie Whittaker incidentally!)

1982-03-17 Skelmanthorpe station from E51497 by John Carter, on Flickr Skelmanthorpe station. 31.12.82 by Roger Joanes, on Flickr

 

[montyburns56]

Another that I've stumbled on is Dufftown in Scotland which I think is now run by a preservation society.

Dufftown 25233 05 February 1979 by Woolwinder, on Flickr

Dufftown goods yard by Ian Cowieson, on Flickr

 

[Red Onion]

I looked at them in my Quail book and Elgin and Keith both had impressive setups, which in the case of Elgin looks like it's still in healthy condition.

Elgin East Station - 15-FEB-2009 by John Williamson, on Flickr

And here's a very atmospheric picture of Keith when it was still in use.

https://www.derbysulzers.com/25079keithyard2.jpg

Great photos! I’m designing a fictitious model layout based on the Keith layout so it’s good to see.

 

[RichJF]

Godstone (Redhill-Tonbridge) line. Had a small tip/landfill site for spent railway ballast and materials adjacent to the line & about 2/3 sidings.
There's a pic of a NSE Class 33 in the sidings in 1991 with a short train. Closed early 90s so the site was definitely open in the 70s/80s!

 

[AJM580]

Wymondham had a siding behind the westbound platform that was used up until the early 80s

 

[montyburns56]

Wymondham had a siding behind the westbound platform that was used up until the early 80s

I was just looking at it on Google Earth and the siding still exists, although it used to be part of a loop.

 

[Dr_Paul]

The only one that I remember was the Fyffes banana warehouse at Goodmayes that still had the occasional single wagon on the siding when I worked in an office near the station.

The banana siding at Kingston lasted well into the 1970s, maybe even into the 1980s, although I'm pretty sure that it wasn't used by then. It's the siding on the south side of the station on this map. The goods and coal yards at Kingston closed in the mid-1960s, along with the yards at Twickenham, Teddington, Richmond, Barnes and other places on the Southern Region.

 

[alistairlees]

Godstone (Redhill-Tonbridge) line. Had a small tip/landfill site for spent railway ballast and materials adjacent to the line & about 2/3 sidings.
There's a pic of a NSE Class 33 in the sidings in 1991 with a short train. Closed early 90s so the site was definitely open in the 70s/80s!

Do you mean Lambs Business Park which is some way west of the station and near the tunnel? I did see some freight activity here a while ago, but at earliest in 1996 (and more likely early 2000s). But it's not really next to the station, so perhaps does not meet the OP's criteria.