The Branch Line Society

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Institution of Mining Engineers - East Midland Tour
Saturday 6th April 1991

Report by Ian Mortimer & Paul Stewart

See https://bit.ly/31p5jQs The first 1991 tour marked the opening of the Asfordby Colliery branch (first coal train 12 Dec 1991) but it was much more than this. Departing St Pancras 08.10, it picked up at Bedford and Kettering before heading to Corby North Jn. Here the first reversal of the day enabled the train to proceed to the British Steel Corporation (BSC) Corby Tube Works, where the end of line was reached.


     

Part of this branch was fairly new, having been rebuilt by Thomas Ward in 1980 at a cost of £3M (now worth £13M) to enable British Rail (BR) freight trains to run into the works directly from the Manton Jn direction. Previously access was from both directions but via exchange sidings then, with BSC locos, a headshunt and a curve too sharp for main line locos.


Sketch plan - not to scale from BLN 405 of 6 Nov 1980 by our epic BLN Editor at the time, Tony Jervis. Solid lines show the pre-1980 layout, dashed are the new (present) branch. The 1980 line was actually on the original main BSC alignment, with a small underbridge, when the headshunt ran further north as far as Corby Freight Depot. The sharp curve to the works was a later development.
[© Tony Jarvis 1980]


The tube works were all that remained of the once huge Corby Steelworks, which closed in 1980 with the loss of over 10,000 jobs. Previously it had a large internal rail system, including lengthy branches to various ironstone quarries that all closed too. This tube works branch is still in use and sees regular trains of steel coils from Margam. Over four years after the tour on 9 Jul 1995 Corby North Reception Sidings were abolished and the branch further realigned. From 9 Oct 1995 a new 1m 5ch branch was provided from Corby North (79m 34ch) to Corby Automotive Terminal, much parallel to the BSC line. The still extant, and recently partially electrified, Corby Run Round Sidings were also then provided allowing access to/from the Kettering direction to both branches. Imported car trains started running in Apr 1996 but ended around Mar 2005; car trains also used the BSC branch at times from Feb 1996.

Returning to Corby North Jn, a short run took us via Manton Jn to Melton Mowbray, where a double reversal was required to access the ex-Midland Railway direct line to Nottingham, using the former Up Line which had been relaid for Asfordby Colliery traffic (the former Down Line gave access to the Old Dalby test track, now NR's Melton Rail Innovation & Development Centre). The tour again ran to the end of line, which at the time was a siding with a loading pad, situated on a temporary alignment to the left of where a loading bunker was due to be constructed (it eventually opened in 1995).

Asfordby, in the Vale of Belvoir, turned out to be the last deep coal mine sunk in Britain; preparatory work began in 1984, two 1,500ft shafts were sunk in 1987 and the first coal came up in 1991. At its peak 490 people worked there and £340M had been invested in the pit. However production was short lived, as geological problems led to its closure on 18 Aug 1997. Very heavy volcanic sills above the coal made it difficult to extract with a tendency to flooding and rock falls - reserves were estimated at 500 million tonnes. The site is now occupied by a business park and a depot for the test track.

After running back to Melton Mowbray and reversing, the tour reversed again at Syston South Jn rather than using the direct curve, then proceeded past Syston North Jn and down the (then) Goods (now Slow) lines past Loughborough station. At Ratcliffe South Jn it then ran round Ratcliffe Power Station inner fly ash bunker loop (circuit). Use by fly ash trains to Fletton at Peterborough had ceased by 25 Feb 1991. However the line continued to be used by occasional inward oil trains; the oil discharge equipment was on the north side of the fly ash circuit after the ash loading bunkers.

Although reported as 'partially lifted' by Jul 1993 (BLN 709.195), it is not clear if this would allow oil trains to run (the loop had a section with two tracks that could have been used as a run round loop). Radcliffe Fly Ash Bunker and its connections were not abolished until 18 Feb 1995 (BLN 751 p102).

After returning to Loughborough to reverse, the tour ran back past Ratcliffe and through Nottingham to Netherfield and the Gedling Colliery branch to just beyond the weighbridge. Gedling still used traditional screens for loading coal and closed later that year (1991). It was notable as the nearby Mapperley Landsale Depot (coal) was accessed from the colliery by a cable worked incline which it was possible to do when the loco that shunted there was hauled up in the morning and braked down in the evening - a unique experience. The bank of sidings left of the incline were worth doing too.

The tour retraced its route to Nottingham then ran via Radford Jn and Trowel Jn to Bennerley Jn (127m 35ch), where the short branch to Bennerley Opencast Rapid Loading Bunker was accessed by reversing in the headshunt there, and in both cases the end of line was reached. The last outward coal was sometime between 1998 and 2002. Some track is still in situ but overgrown (disconnected from the main line in 2007) in the shadow of the famous 61ft high cast iron Grade II* listed 1,452ft long Bennerley Viaduct (now in the process of being reopened as a footpath). An application to demolish the viaduct by BR in 1968, after the line on it had closed, was refused as were subsequent applications by the operators of Shilo South Opencast Site who wanted to extract the coal from beneath it.

Returning to Toton Yards, the tour took the High Level Goods Lines before covering the outer coal discharge loop at Ratcliffe Power Station. Ratcliffe is one of only three coal fired power stations now remaining in Britain (the others are West Burton 'A' and Drax). It is expected to be the last to close.

From here, reversals in Trent Down Goods Loop and at Derby preceded a run to Burton-on-Trent and Drakelow Power Station. This installation represented one of the few failures of the 1989 tours, so it was particularly satisfying to finally tick it off. Drakelow had a complicated layout, which allowed trains from both east and west to access the 'A' & 'B' Stations merry-go-round loop as well as the 'C' Station branch. When 'C' Station was commissioned in 1964, this was the largest generating site in Europe at 2,170 MW but the 1955 commissioned 'A' station closed in 1984. ('B' closed in 1993 and 'C' in 2003.)

Our train left the Coalville line at Drakelow West Curve Jn, ran clockwise round the 'A' & 'B' station loop before rejoining the main running line at Drakelow East Curve Jn. On 10 Jan 1981 your BLN Editor arranged an internal railtour of the Drakelow 'A' & 'B' railway after an earlier (steam) one that day at Castle Donington. Chris Boyle (then Measham Colliery manager) and a member since Jun 1977 came…

Drakelow brought back memories of yet another outstanding trip organised by Chris in 1985 for the RCTS. On 16 May 1985 a BR trip had been arranged to clear out the remaining internal wagons from Snibston Colliery which had stopped dispatching by rail during the 1984-85 Miners' Strike as local BR staff had blacked the coal traffic (it still went out by road). Chris managed to arrange for a small party to ride on the working. After an internal tour of the remains of the Snibston system (the track through the screens to the branch end, the Rexco Smokeless Coal Plant, had already been lifted), participants were taken down the line with the wagons to where Class 47335 and two brake vans were waiting.

From here the wagons and vans went to Drakelow 'A' loaded sidings where, following a reversal, the train ran to the BR branch end at Cadley Hill Colliery before depositing the wagons in the empty sidings. A tour of the internal system on a National Coal Board loco completed an excellent morning.

From Drakelow the 1991 IMinE tour passed the aforementioned, although now disused, branches to Cadley Hill (the colliery closed in 1988) and Snibston where mining ended in Dec 1983 but it continued to raise coal from Whitwick Colliery until that closed in Oct 1986. The tour returned to St Pancras via Knighton South Jn and the Midland Main Line. Snibston Colliery (a Scheduled Ancient Monument with its unusual headstocks and Grade II listed building) became a short lived mining museum and then Snibston Discovery Centre Museum which sadly closed on 1 Aug 2015 after our 11 Jun farewell tour.


Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.
[© Dave Mellor 1991]




Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.
[© Dave Mellor 1991]




Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.
[© Dave Mellor 1991]




Railtour map drawn by our member Dave Mellor.
[© Dave Mellor 1991]




Corby in 1961 with the Works and some of the ironstone branches. (The Wakerley branch is top right corner and had been extended by 1980.)




Looking back from the front of the 6 Apr 1991 railtour at the end of the BSC Corby branch; this shows the line into the steel unloading siding.
[© Ian Mortimer 1991]




Industrial Railway Society 17 May 1980 farewell trip (advertised in BLN) over part of the once extensive Corby iron ore quarry network. The trip was nearly 6 miles from Gretton Brook shed to Wakerley - the longest branch - seen here with Harringworth Viaduct in the distance. Two ex-Western Region Class 14 locos ran 'top & tail' with 8 open tube wagons on what was, fortunately, a sunny day.
[© Ian Mortimer 1980]




The tour (right) on Ratcliffe Power Station Fly Ash Loop (south) passing a merry-go-round train on the adjacent (north) coal discharge loop - there was no direct rail connection between them.
[© Ian Mortimer 1991]




From the front of the tour approaching Gedling Colliery, Nottingham which still sent wagon load coal to the domestic market. These fairly new sidings were to the right of the old ones.
[© Ian Mortimer 1991]




Jan 1980, a pair of Class 20s at Gedling Colliery old sidings with NCB wagons to the right.
[© Ian Mortimer 1980]




From the rear of the railtour leaving Bennerley Coal Bunker, which was relatively modern at the time; the famous Bennerley wrought iron viaduct is in the background.
[© Ian Mortimer 1991]




Drakelow Power Station after demolition of 'A' & 'B' stations showing their loop and the branch to the then remaining 'C' station. Burton-upon-Trent is at the top, Coalville is off bottom right.




The tour on Drakelow A & B loop approaching the coal unloading hopper house; Drakelow 'B' power station traditionally built in brick, is left. The steaming cooling towers are part of 'C' Station
[© Ian Mortimer 1991]




Then last train from Snibston. From the cab of the National Coal Board (NCB) loco hauling the final wagons to leave on 15 May 1985, crossing Belvoir Road crossing, (the main street in Coalville), heading to the junction - the colliery is behind. This trackbed is now a foot and cyclepath.
[© Ian Mortimer 1985]




An earlier visit to Cadley Hill Colliery (the destination of the 15 May 1985 train) in Jun 1983; an NCB shunter is hauling a set of wagons through the loading bunker. Steam worked here regularly until about 1980 as the colliery manger was a steam enthusiast and collected industrial steam locos!
[© Ian Mortimer 1983]




Gedling Colliery in 1950; top left is Mapperley Landsale Depot (coal) & Mapperley Tunnel - the latter's poor condition caused closure of the line beyond Gedling Colliery Jn (by the 'L' in LNER) from 4 Apr 1960. Bottom right is to Colwick North, West & East Jns, Rectory Jn and Colwick Yards.




Later on 15 May 1985, from the rear brake van of the train of final wagons from Snibston Colliery, on the curve into Drakelow A & B loaded sidings, where the train reversed before proceeding to Cadley Hill Colliery.
[© Ian Mortimer 1985]

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