It has been some time since I've been able to bring one of Alan's site visits to you all. I'm excited because following my recent Class 14 post Alan has kindly dug out photos of his only exposure to the prototype amongst the many industrial site visits he has made through his life, at Harlaxton in the summer of 1972...
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| AJAX 0-6-0T Andrew Barclay 1605 of 1918 |
British Steel Corporation - Harlaxton Ironstone Mines
Harlaxton, Lincs
Gauge: Standard
Date of Visit: 4 August 1972
There was a general lack of activity on the system, with only two locos seen working and all others in and around the shed.
Working locos were one of the maroon ex-Oxfordshire Ironstone Rolls Royce/Sentinel 0-4-0DH, coupled to a train being loaded on the lip of the quarry, and PHOENIX, a Baguley/Drewry 0-6-0DH, builders no 3600, built in 1964, in the reception, sidings coupled to a PW flat wagon.
In the main loco shed was another ex-Oxfordshire Ironstone 0-4-0DH and two ex-BR 0-6-0DH built at Swindon works one of which was No26. Outside was another ex-BR class 14 No27 0-6-0DH built Swindon in 1965 and formerly D9548. This was in a light green livery and fitted with a large headlight as were the Sentinels.
Outside the shed, but some way from it, and on a siding with an internal user van were two steam locos. Both were sheeted over and probably for preservation. These were AJAX 0-6-0T Andrew Barclay 1605 of 1918 and RHONDDA 0-6-0ST Manning Wardle 2010 of 1921.
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| ex-BR class 14 No27 0-6-0DH built Swindon in 1965 and formerly D9548 |
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| PHOENIX, a Baguley/Drewry 0-6-0DH, builders no 3600, built in 1964 |
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| ex-Oxfordshire Ironstone Rolls Royce/Sentinel 0-4-0DH |
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| ex-Oxfordshire Ironstone Rolls Royce/Sentinel 0-4-0DH and ex-BR 0-6-0DH No26 |
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| ex-BR class 14 No27 0-6-0DH built Swindon in 1965 and formerly D9548 |
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| Sylvan setting of the railway. |
Thank you once again Alan. If you're enjoyed todays post then use the '
Alan Sewell' label to see all of Alan's site visits, largely of an industrial nature, of all gauges and locations from around the world. There remains the idea that one day we'll collect some of these together in a short book - but until then, I'm proud to have been able to share this with you all here. Until next time, more soon...
Thank you for sharing, James! Now I'm beginning to unterstand the fascination...
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I have always had an ambivalent relationship towards this kind of industrial railroading, because in my personal experience - open-cast lignite mining in East Germany - it was associated with interesting rolling stock, though, but also with very large-scale operations and major landscape and ecosystem devastation.