Opening up a disused freight line to keep lorries off roads

jules · Post by **jules** » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:39 pm

Slightly out of area, but just goes to show old railways can be re-opened quickly (and presumably cheaply):

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Opening-up ... -line.aspx

the green mile · Post by **the green mile** » Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:51 pm

Somewhat reminiscent of the wood pulp trains which used to run from Portbury to St Annes to supply the raw materials for the Board Mills.
Circa 1970's?

thomascpre · Post by **thomascpre** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:12 pm

Interesting. How were the products unloaded and taken down to the factory? St Annes, you say, ah, was East depot up side unavailable by then? I wonder why they didn't do what they did in the older days, use barges.

the green mile · Post by **the green mile** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:25 pm

I'm pretty sure the wood pulp was taken into the Board Mills by road. Early 70's I don't think the up side was still in use. The down side was used by the civil engineers to stable their assorted rolling stock. I remember going there one day from Marsh Junction to attend to a mobile crane which had been loaded onto a Lowmac but was out of gauge. Spent all day removing the A-frame to reduce its height. No idea where it was going. Possibly for scrap because we overhauled most plant ourselves at Marsh Junction.

The supervisor I was working under was a chap called Russell Madge and we drove round there in his Humber Hawk, which was the lesser version of the ten year old Humber Imperial I was driving at the time.