A week last Saturday I shared a 'scheme' for an industrial layout where the main features were all off stage leaving just some interesting shunting in view and a small home for a growing collection of industrial models...
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| Caeby Main April 1971, Alan Sewell photo. |
Alan commented that those sketches reminded him of a visit to the Water Haigh coal plant at Caiby Main and the canal side loading tippler and kindly sent over these photos, site plan and notes from his notes with the comment "Just sorry the Caeby photos are so poor quality. I seem to remember we pulled in the yard just as a train came blasting up towards the boat staithe. So the photo was very quick and taken on film too slow for the light conditions". Further, here are his period notes...
National Coal Board - Water Haigh Coal Prep Plant
Yorkshire - 7 April 1971
Last but one day of working and WHIT No. 4 0-6-0T Hudswell Clarke 1844 /1951 was pushing eight black wood-plank internal user wagons from the washery to the basin on the Aire and Calder Canal. The loco was used to bring wagons from the screens to a weigh-bridge in the old landsale yard. Following weighing they were pushed around a sharp curve under the BR line and up a sharp incline to the tippler which fed a conveyor out to the barges moored in the basin. The loco then uncoupled and ran back to a parallel siding to wait for the wagons to be tipped and run back down from the tippler by gravity. Much of the track was buried in coal slurry and very uneven.
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| Caeby Main April 1971, Alan Sewell photo. |
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| Sketch plan of Walter Haigh by Alan Sewell. |
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| Caeby Main April 1971, Alan Sewell photo. |
If you have enjoyed another of
Alan's posts this is the latest in a series from his notebooks, and I hope with a little encouragement we're nudging towards turning some of these into a more comprehensive book, they'd work really well alongside some of my layout schemes and I am indebted to him for the kindness and openess in allowing me to share them with you all here...
Hello James. Thanks for posting this. Railway Bylines, Vol. 9, Issue 3 (February 2004) has an article on Water Haigh Colliery around this time by Steven Oakden with some nice Transport Treasury photos. Very inspiring. I've got myself some Parkside open kits part-way through painting in the NCB internal user scheme.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should have gone for a Maroon Victory instead of the black one I have coming from Rails. Of course I'll need to build something for everything to run on--my main stumbling block being benchwork--but Alan's track plan gives me some ideas.
Hi Jeffrey, we’ve still plenty of maroon Victory at Light Railway Stores (where we make a little more profit to invest into the next project)! Joking aside, glad to share Alan’s diaries - hopefully more to bring to you all in future.
ReplyDeleteMy own maroon Victory awaits weathering. I must get on with that!
Hi James
ReplyDeleteGlad you and others liked another delve into my notes of fifty years ago ( however my notes not all are as old as them). I quiet enjoy finding an excuse to re-read visits from the past although it shows particularly in the UK so much has changed and I imagine many younger people would find t hard to believe so much industry requiring rail traffic existed in the 1960's and 70's.
I do again apologise for the quality of the Caeby Main photos but are the best I have . I would also point out that the last photo was taken at Water Haigh although the Hudswell Clarke tanks in Yorkshire all looked very similar but you can see the chimneys are different.
When appropriate I would happy to share more from my "history books" and maybe a real book might be possible
Best regards
Alan