Modelling problems - St Erth
Steve Martin (Auckland)
Steve Martin (Auckland)
Steve is making a very fine model of St Erth but is having problems - can anybody help?
Since we last were in contact the footbridge is now firmly in place on the platforms and work continues to recreate the station environ as it would have been in the late fifties.
I focused my attention on the stone waiting room on Platform One recently. In my research activities (including a lot of useful photos in the archives of the CRS site) I was surprised at the evolution of this humble and seemingly unaltered building. I had taken photos during my visits to St Erth in 2005 and 2007 with the intention of these being the basis of a model to be produced.
However, once into the research phase I suddenly found that the building had actually been modified considerably in the last 30 - 40 years.
I have attached a few photos which explain the situation.
The first photo shows the former waiting room on platform 1 as it exists today. You can see how the wall at the end is nowadays constructed in dressed granite with the chimney housed within the outside walls of the building.
The second and third photos are my from my 2mm scale model taken from a similar angle. One can see that I have had to model the building as it would have been in the 1950's through to some time (at a guess) in the 1980's. In this period the waiting room actually had a chimney of red brick construction on the outside of its end wall. This wall and the one at the rear were of rubble design and construction. There was also a canopy in place in the 1950's and it must have been removed sometime in the early 1970's as well.
I'm unsure when the waiting room became redundant, it could be as early as when the large wooden shelter was built further along the platform adjacent to the footbridge sometime after the 1920's. This can be seen in my model shot as well. In one of the model photos a Hall locomotive can be seen drawing into the station with an up train comprising Hawksworth and Mk 1 passenger stock.
For many years (I'm not sure of dates and to the best of my knowledge) it has been used as a storage room for gardening equipment etc.
I'm fascinated that the railway would go to such lengths to preserve this redundant building at a time when perhaps costing cutting would have been the order of the day. I would guess that the rubble design wall was declining in condition and it's possible that the railway or a governing body determined that these had to be replaced and more importantly the building retained and preserved.
I would be interested to hear from any readers who witnessed any of these modifications and could perhaps add a little more historical detail about when they occurred. Kind Regards, Steve Martin
Since we last were in contact the footbridge is now firmly in place on the platforms and work continues to recreate the station environ as it would have been in the late fifties.
I focused my attention on the stone waiting room on Platform One recently. In my research activities (including a lot of useful photos in the archives of the CRS site) I was surprised at the evolution of this humble and seemingly unaltered building. I had taken photos during my visits to St Erth in 2005 and 2007 with the intention of these being the basis of a model to be produced.
However, once into the research phase I suddenly found that the building had actually been modified considerably in the last 30 - 40 years.
I have attached a few photos which explain the situation.
The first photo shows the former waiting room on platform 1 as it exists today. You can see how the wall at the end is nowadays constructed in dressed granite with the chimney housed within the outside walls of the building.
The second and third photos are my from my 2mm scale model taken from a similar angle. One can see that I have had to model the building as it would have been in the 1950's through to some time (at a guess) in the 1980's. In this period the waiting room actually had a chimney of red brick construction on the outside of its end wall. This wall and the one at the rear were of rubble design and construction. There was also a canopy in place in the 1950's and it must have been removed sometime in the early 1970's as well.
I'm unsure when the waiting room became redundant, it could be as early as when the large wooden shelter was built further along the platform adjacent to the footbridge sometime after the 1920's. This can be seen in my model shot as well. In one of the model photos a Hall locomotive can be seen drawing into the station with an up train comprising Hawksworth and Mk 1 passenger stock.
For many years (I'm not sure of dates and to the best of my knowledge) it has been used as a storage room for gardening equipment etc.
I'm fascinated that the railway would go to such lengths to preserve this redundant building at a time when perhaps costing cutting would have been the order of the day. I would guess that the rubble design wall was declining in condition and it's possible that the railway or a governing body determined that these had to be replaced and more importantly the building retained and preserved.
I would be interested to hear from any readers who witnessed any of these modifications and could perhaps add a little more historical detail about when they occurred. Kind Regards, Steve Martin
St Erth down waiting room. About 2007. Copyright Steve Martin
Steve's model of St Erth 1. Copyright Steve Martin
Steve's model of St Erth 2. Copyright Steve Martin
Major Works at Goonbarrow
Gareth Thornton
Gareth Thornton
Hi Keith, Hope these shots are of interest. Currently Goonbarrow Junction is in the midst of some quite major work. The entire up side of the loop is being relaid with constant welded track on new steel sleepers and new ballast. We have some interesting plant here including the constant welding vehicle with its air conditioned cab, not to mention a mountain of ballast and stacks of sleepers placed next to the line in readiness. Will send more pics as work progresses. All the best Gareth (Signaller Goonbarrow )
Many thanks Gareth
Many thanks Gareth
Goonbarrow 15th March 2015 133553 Copyright Gareth Thornton
Goonbarrow 15th March 2015 133649 Copyright Gareth Thornton
Roger Salter captures the scenes of the West Somerset Steam Gala on 11th and 12th March, 2016.
2 days were spent photographing the railway between Minehead and Blue Anchor together recording the failure of 34098 'Templecombe' running dry at Blue Anchor.
2 days were spent photographing the railway between Minehead and Blue Anchor together recording the failure of 34098 'Templecombe' running dry at Blue Anchor.
160311k 48624 Departs with the 13.45 Minehead to Bishops Lydeard. 11th March, 2016 Copyright Roger Salter
160311p 34053' Sir Keith Park' renamed 34098 'Templecombe' running onto the turntable at Minehead. 11th March, 2016. Copyright Roger Salter
160311o The shed yard at Minehead with 92214, 53808, 4936 Kinlet Hall and 7828 Odney Manor. 11th March, 2016. Copyright Roger Salter
See more on the Features Page January to June 2016
More about Milk
Andy Richards
Andy Richards
The recent article and pictures from Brian Pibworth on the operation of the milk depot at Chard has generated much interest in the delivery of our ‘pintas’ in the old days. The question arose, ‘At Chard they had a small shunter loco to move the tankers – but what happened at our local depot – St Erth? The answer, which came from Andy Richards, is most interesting.
St Erth Milk Depot Vivian and Andy Richards (Father and Son)
Andy writes:- I started working at St Erth in 1981 unfortunately by then the milk trains had long gone and if I remember correctly St Ivel had started to rip the track out.
I have had a chance to talk to my dad (Vivian Richards) regarding the loading of milk trains at St Erth, it was quite a busy operation in its day. My dad was employed on the milk tanker loading during the 70's. After a long conversation with him and a lot of reminiscing on his part here is a summary of the going on's at St Erth.
The primary purpose of the milk tanker loading operation at St Erth was to despatch milk to the larger dairies. Typically milk would be sent to places such as Wood Lane, Vauxhall and Ilford - all in London. Occasionally St Erth would also receive surplus milk from the larger dairies for further processing.
St Erth had two sidings which were connected by a head shunt (the dairy end), the head shunt was two tanker lengths and was not easily visible to the public. Both sidings had a slight downhill incline towards the St Ives branch, I'm assuming there must have been a catch point. All loading took place in the siding directly adjacent to the dairy, this siding could accommodate 13 tankers. Any tanker movements in the sidings once the mainline loco had gone would be carried out by an electric pulley system. Interestingly, the motor for the pulley system was originally steam driven.
There were two loading points which were approximately three tankers lengths apart. One loading point we can clearly see in the picture with the gentleman on top of the tanker, the other one was further back towards the St Ives branch. If you look at the picture of the gentleman (Harry Worth who I had the pleasure of working with) standing next to the electric pulley motor there is a "No engine and wagons past this point board", just to the left of that board is the second loading point. All tanks were cleaned by climbing down inside of them on a rope ladder and manually scrubbing them. In later years an automated cleaning system was put in place.
A typical day's operation would be:-
Early in the morning a light loco would deliver empty tankers to the dairy which would have been ordered late in the afternoon the day before. The loco would split the tankers between the loading siding and the holding siding. In the loading siding there would be enough tankers to make up the 1pm departure. The tankers for loading would be pulled right back into the head shunt by the pulley system. Then two tankers would be uncoupled from the rest of the tankers and free wheeled forward. The two tankers would then be split and place under the two loading points and loaded. There were no flow meters, they used a dipstick to measure when the tank was full. Both full tankers were then sealed and then free wheeled down the loading siding as far as possible and coupled back together again. This operation was repeated until all tankers were loaded. All tankers were set in motion by putting a pinch bar under one of the wheels and pushing, the only way to stop them was with the hand brake. A rule was introduced that when a tanker was ‘free wheeling’ someone had to be adjacent to the handbrake handle (by walking beside the tanker) at all times. If orders went up prior to the 1 pm departure empty tankers would be pulled from the holding siding into the headshunt, freewheeled forward, loaded and then coupled to the rest of the train which was ready for collection.
At 1 pm a loco would arrive with more empty tankers and drop them in the holding siding. The loco would then draw forward and then back onto the full tankers. Once coupled up the loco and the full tankers would draw forward, reverse back onto the empty tankers and then drop enough empty tankers into the loading siding to make up the 5 pm departure. If the train was running late quite often the empty tanker move to the loading siding would not take place. This would result in the dairy having to take two tankers at a time from the holding siding and move them to the loading siding via the head shunt using the pulley system.
The whole loading process would then start again resulting in a full train of tankers ready for collection at 5pm. The light loco would arrive, couple to the full tankers and depart for the main line via the St Ives branch. Interestingly the 5pm loco would not deliver any empty tankers, the empty's would be delivered the following morning and the whole process would start again.
I hope the above article explains the going on's for you at the St Erth milk loading sidings in enough detail.
My dad was saying if that operation survived into todays world the health & safety people would have a field day. Especially with fully loaded tankers running around with nothing to stop them but a bloke pushing down a handbrake handle.
P.S. From Andy I never really thought about how the tanks got cleaned as today in modern cleaning systems for road tankers (milk & Cream) everything is automated and a sealed system. I'm still working in dairy but dairy desserts at Evercreech (an old Unigate/St Ivel site).
Many thanks Andy.
St Erth Milk Depot Vivian and Andy Richards (Father and Son)
Andy writes:- I started working at St Erth in 1981 unfortunately by then the milk trains had long gone and if I remember correctly St Ivel had started to rip the track out.
I have had a chance to talk to my dad (Vivian Richards) regarding the loading of milk trains at St Erth, it was quite a busy operation in its day. My dad was employed on the milk tanker loading during the 70's. After a long conversation with him and a lot of reminiscing on his part here is a summary of the going on's at St Erth.
The primary purpose of the milk tanker loading operation at St Erth was to despatch milk to the larger dairies. Typically milk would be sent to places such as Wood Lane, Vauxhall and Ilford - all in London. Occasionally St Erth would also receive surplus milk from the larger dairies for further processing.
St Erth had two sidings which were connected by a head shunt (the dairy end), the head shunt was two tanker lengths and was not easily visible to the public. Both sidings had a slight downhill incline towards the St Ives branch, I'm assuming there must have been a catch point. All loading took place in the siding directly adjacent to the dairy, this siding could accommodate 13 tankers. Any tanker movements in the sidings once the mainline loco had gone would be carried out by an electric pulley system. Interestingly, the motor for the pulley system was originally steam driven.
There were two loading points which were approximately three tankers lengths apart. One loading point we can clearly see in the picture with the gentleman on top of the tanker, the other one was further back towards the St Ives branch. If you look at the picture of the gentleman (Harry Worth who I had the pleasure of working with) standing next to the electric pulley motor there is a "No engine and wagons past this point board", just to the left of that board is the second loading point. All tanks were cleaned by climbing down inside of them on a rope ladder and manually scrubbing them. In later years an automated cleaning system was put in place.
A typical day's operation would be:-
Early in the morning a light loco would deliver empty tankers to the dairy which would have been ordered late in the afternoon the day before. The loco would split the tankers between the loading siding and the holding siding. In the loading siding there would be enough tankers to make up the 1pm departure. The tankers for loading would be pulled right back into the head shunt by the pulley system. Then two tankers would be uncoupled from the rest of the tankers and free wheeled forward. The two tankers would then be split and place under the two loading points and loaded. There were no flow meters, they used a dipstick to measure when the tank was full. Both full tankers were then sealed and then free wheeled down the loading siding as far as possible and coupled back together again. This operation was repeated until all tankers were loaded. All tankers were set in motion by putting a pinch bar under one of the wheels and pushing, the only way to stop them was with the hand brake. A rule was introduced that when a tanker was ‘free wheeling’ someone had to be adjacent to the handbrake handle (by walking beside the tanker) at all times. If orders went up prior to the 1 pm departure empty tankers would be pulled from the holding siding into the headshunt, freewheeled forward, loaded and then coupled to the rest of the train which was ready for collection.
At 1 pm a loco would arrive with more empty tankers and drop them in the holding siding. The loco would then draw forward and then back onto the full tankers. Once coupled up the loco and the full tankers would draw forward, reverse back onto the empty tankers and then drop enough empty tankers into the loading siding to make up the 5 pm departure. If the train was running late quite often the empty tanker move to the loading siding would not take place. This would result in the dairy having to take two tankers at a time from the holding siding and move them to the loading siding via the head shunt using the pulley system.
The whole loading process would then start again resulting in a full train of tankers ready for collection at 5pm. The light loco would arrive, couple to the full tankers and depart for the main line via the St Ives branch. Interestingly the 5pm loco would not deliver any empty tankers, the empty's would be delivered the following morning and the whole process would start again.
I hope the above article explains the going on's for you at the St Erth milk loading sidings in enough detail.
My dad was saying if that operation survived into todays world the health & safety people would have a field day. Especially with fully loaded tankers running around with nothing to stop them but a bloke pushing down a handbrake handle.
P.S. From Andy I never really thought about how the tanks got cleaned as today in modern cleaning systems for road tankers (milk & Cream) everything is automated and a sealed system. I'm still working in dairy but dairy desserts at Evercreech (an old Unigate/St Ivel site).
Many thanks Andy.
The operator filling one of the tanks at one of the two loading points at St Erth. Picture from the collection of the late John Fill. Copyright
The winch mechanism. Mr. Harry Worth is the gentleman in the foreground. Picture from the collection of the late John Fill
A view looking down onto the facility showing the two sidings which were on a slight grade towards the connection with the main line in the distance. As mentioned in the article by Andy Richards the tanks were cleaned by a man climbing in through the narrow filler hole in the top. Picture taken by the late John Fill Copyright.
D1067 shunts the milk tankers at St Erth. The loco is standing on the St Ives branch, Quite how the driver communciated with the shunter is not known but round a curve like this it must have been a hazardous operation. Copyright Keith Jenkin
A final - St Erth Milk. the last train 50017 Royal Oak 31st March 1980 Copyright Roger Winnen
Underground stores
Roger Winnen
Roger Winnen
Enesettle M.O.D. (Quote Wikipedia) The facility was built to allow ships to be resupplied with ammunition whilst moored in Plymouth Sound, removing the need for munitions to be handled within Devonport. If you look at the site, there is a jetty at the end nearer to the sea - this received and dispatched ammunition via a narrow-gauge railway which passed under the L&SWR line, before serving the various ammunition bunkers, and transhipment facilities with the standard-gauge sidings. (The narrow gauge railway has long been dismantled)
The entrances to two of the underground bunkers as taken from a train on the Royal Albert Bridge. 12th July 1980 Copyright Roger Winnen