Monday 10 June 2019

Lostock drags - 1986

If the West Coast Main line was blocked north of Wigan and south of Euxton Junction (near Preston) diversions via Lostock Junction, on the Manchester Victoria - Preston via Bolton route could come into effect. With northbound services, upon arrival at Wigan, a draw back loco would be attached at what had been the rear of the train, which would haul the service over to Lostock with the train loco still on the rear. Upon arrival at Lostock, the draw back loco would be detached and the original train loco would continue north. If southbound services were also effected, the process would be reversed, the drawback loco added at the rear of the service at Lostock to work forward to Wigan with the main loco on the rear to Wigan, before continuing south from there.

During the summer of 1986, on Sundays, there was three northbound services, all booked to be diverted via Lostock and those were, in order of departure from Wigan, at 1010 1P08, 1P14 at 1024 and then at 1130 would be 1P06. 1P08 was the 0922 Liverpool Lime Street - Preston, which was a portion for 1S41 1005 Manchester Victoria - Edinburgh Waverley. Second up, 1P14 which was a 0900 Crewe - Blackpool North, which would start back from Stoke-on-Trent each week from 22 June, while the third turn, 1P08, was the 0822 Birmingham New Street - Blackpool North. All three of these trains were booked, and usually got, a Class 47/4, while the two drawback turns were each booked for 2x Class 20's, one pair to work 1P08 to Lostock, then return light to Wigan to pick up 1P06, the second pair to work 1P14 only to Lostock.

For all currently known details of the locos that worked these trains, visit the RailGenArchive website. Enter the site, then select the date search option, enter a date, such as 18-05-1986, the first Sunday of Lostock drags, select a data filter to see a single class (or leave it with the default 'All' to see everything), then enter or click the GO button. After that, you can use the +7 and -7 day buttons to loop through Sunday's during 1986.

There are some conflicting details currently showing on the RailGenArchive, this due to conflicting reports received (especially re the Lostock drags for Sundays 29th June, 13th & 20th July), so any help resolving these, to either confirm or refute anything shown anywhere on the site is always very welcome. We can be contacted either using the comments box below or via the Contact Us page on the main site either via email or the contact form provided.

The RailGenArchive project is ongoing continuation of the old 1980's Timewarp project and the site is updated at least once per week.

Many thanks for all your help and support so far.

© 'UD' & 'Clayhead'
Preserving the gen online since 1999...
Keeping you posted on behalf of the RailGenArchive team -

Monday 3 June 2019

Clayliner continued.

While much has been written about the west county china clay traffic and the vacuum braked Clayliner service to the Potteries during the period 1967-1982, there is very little detail out there of the Stoke end of the operation, until now...

Throughout the Clayliner years (1967-1982), clay was handled at two Stoke-on-Trent terminals. Longport was one, used throughout, while initially, Longton, along the Stoke-Derby line, was the second location used. The main clayliner trains mostly ran through to Longport, but would usually call at Stoke yard (Adjacent to the main railway station) to detach around half the wagons, these would then be tripped the last few miles, usually by a Class 24, a class once very common on all local duties in the Stoke area. A Class 24 would return to Longton each weekday evening to collect the empties taking them to Etruria, (around a mile north of Stoke) where they would be joined by the empties ex Longport, hauled by another Class 24 loco. The return Clayliner empties departed Etruria at around 0330 which goes a long way to explaining why there are not too many photos of the service anywhere the Midlands.

The handling of the clay traffic, and indeed all freight traffic at Longton ended (around 1973?), the second terminal used was now Shelton Wharf. Shelton Wharf sidings were access by a trailing connection from the spur serving the former Stoke sundries depot, by then known as National Carriers Ltd (NCL), just prior to the c1960 single track bridge that crosses the Trent & Mersey canal. Shelton Wharf sidings comprised six roads arranged in pairs with hard standing in between allowing transfer of clay to road vehicles for onward distribution. The loaded wagons for Shelton Wharf which usually came off 6M55, were then tripped from Stoke Yard by a Class 08, usually early morning. Shelton Wharf was mostly in operation SX, during daytime only, and could be observed from the footbridge across the line from the nearby Cockshute Sidings. Each evening, once the unloading operations were over for the day, the Class 08 would return to Shelton Wharf to sort the empty from the loaded wagons, which to the casual observer, always seemed to be unloaded in a random fashion.

A Class 24 would then arrive with the empties from Longport, propelling them up the spur from Stoke Yard, to one of the six through sidings in front of the NCL depot, at the far (Cliffe Vale) end of which there was a headshunt and connections into the NCL building itself. For awhile each evening both the 24 and 08 would be involved in the shunting of the clay traffic. Sometimes, surplus loaded clay wagons could be left in front one of the through roads in front of the NCL depot. Once shunting was complete, the Class 08 would depart, light engine, for Stoke Yard, followed by the Class 24, which would position the clay empties on the Stoke end of the spur, ready for collection in the early hours to form 6V53, as the NCL depot saw little other freight activity by the late 1970's, it having mostly gone fully over to road transport by then.

From August 1975, mass withdrawal of the Class 24's commenced and Crewe gained Class 25's as replacements, some of which came from western region depots including Plymouth Laira, so former Cornish clay motive power such as 25216 or 25217 could later be found at the other end of the operation, retrieving the Clay empties from Longport then shunting Shelton Wharf. Four Class 24's survive in preservation, 24032/054/061/081, all were former Crewe machines and most probably worked this duty at some time or another.

During 1982, 3 of the six roads in front of the NCL depot were lifted and a new Clay terminal began to take shape on the headshunt at the Cliffe Vale end of the NCL site. By the end of the summer of 1982, once the Cliffe Vale terminal was complete, Longport ceased handling the Clay traffic, as did Shelton Wharf, which only saw some limited use after that, to store wagons for a time before complete closure and subsequent redevelopment and the vacuum braked Clayliner service finally ended and the old wagon fleet withdrawn. A fleet of 35 new, French built Air Braked wagons in a distinctive new White & Blue livery formed the replacement service which was now diesel hauled throughout...

As usual, any comments corrections etc can be posted in the box below.

Many thanks for all your help and support so far.

© 'UD' & 'Clayhead'
Preserving the gen online since 1999...
Keeping you posted on behalf of the RailGenArchive team -