Prototype Photos from the sixties.

M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
That would be my assumption too. Sixty years on, I can't remember exactly how the service operated. I travelled to Wenford and back in heavy rain and obviously I wasn't in the brakevan of the clay train as I photographed it from the footbridge at Wadebridge. Indeed, I wonder why I was at Wadebridge at all. Did I go to Padstow and back?

The day was complicated because I had a Cornwall rail rover ticket which turned out not to be valid on the Bodmin Road -- Padstow line as it had been scheduled for closure earlier in the year and was thus not shown on the map that accompanied the ticket. I seem to recall 14/6 was demanded as excess fare, leaving a big hole in a teenager's holiday budget.

Be good if anyone can shed light on the clay workings at that time
 
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LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Those BR Runabout tickets were great value, although their boundaries were often cynical leaving one just short of a major town so that we would buy the dearer ticket to travel further afield.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
MoatLane said:
The day was complicated because I had a Cornwall rail rover ticket which turned out not to be valid on the Bodmin Road -- Padstow line as it had been scheduled for closure earlier in the year and was thus not shown on the map that accompanied the ticket. I seem to recall 14/6 was demanded as excess fare, leaving a big hole in a teenager's holiday budget.
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Miserable git of a guard!
 
M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
Back to Wenford. Mike Roach's description of a journey in 1960 here:

www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk

Ticket to ride - WENFORD BRANCH

Ticket to ride Many years ago now one could purchase a ticket at Wadebridge station permitting you to ride in the brakevan of the daily freight train to Wenford Bridge. The following...
www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk

mentions the train departing from Wadebridge at 9.43am with 21 (presumably empty) 'trucks', and leaving Wenford Bridge for the return to Wadebridge at 1.55pm, but no explanation why the train went from and back to Wadebridge. Clearly nothing unusual though, as it was still doing that when I travelled in August 1966.
 
Pencarrow

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
Quintus said:
In my youth I was not a great photographer, and with only very basic equipment many of my efforts were mostly disappointing.
I have digitised a handful that were worth doing, and I suppose as every photo is unique, I have posted a few here, mostly taken 1960 - 62.
At this time, many top link locos could be seen in a good state of cleanliness.
View attachment 245300View attachment 245298View attachment 245301View attachment 245302View attachment 245303
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What a cracking few shots to open up the thread with. 30120 (before it went LSWR green) and 34065 Hurricane. Nice.
 
Pencarrow

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
MoatLane said:
Wadebridge again, with the object of the trip, the Wenford Bridge clay train for which I had a brakevan pass that day

View attachment 246506
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Not seen that many Delafila Slate presflo wagons together anywhere before!

Also interesting to see the clay wagons off the We ford line arriving in Wadebridge rather than being turned at Boscarne Jct and heading off to Bodmin Road and beyond. Wonder what the circumstances were? Perhaps the runaround at Boscarne was out of order??
 
M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
Pencarrow said:
Not seen that many Delafila Slate presflo wagons together anywhere before!

Also interesting to see the clay wagons off the We ford line arriving in Wadebridge rather than being turned at Boscarne Jct and heading off to Bodmin Road and beyond. Wonder what the circumstances were? Perhaps the runaround at Boscarne was out of order??
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Chris -- see my note above regarding Mike Roach's visit in 1960. More research needed...
 
M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
Text taken from 'The Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway' by Michael Messenger (which is where I should have looked first!). The freight was running from and to Wadebridge long before Mike Roach's 1960 visit.

After nationalisation, he writes: 'China clay from the Wenford line went mainly in bulk to Fowey for shipping...but some was sent away bagged in vans and tarpaulined wagons over the North Cornwall line. The Wenford freight now left Wadebridge at 10.03am and paused at Boscarne before heading for Wenford. It left the terminus there at 1.20pm to arrive in Wadebridge at 3.58pm.'
 
Pencarrow

Pencarrow

Western Thunderer
MoatLane said:
Text taken from 'The Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway' by Michael Messenger (which is where I should have looked first!). The freight was running from and to Wadebridge long before Mike Roach's 1960 visit.

After nationalisation, he writes: 'China clay from the Wenford line went mainly in bulk to Fowey for shipping...but some was sent away bagged in vans and tarpaulined wagons over the North Cornwall line. The Wenford freight now left Wadebridge at 10.03am and paused at Boscarne before heading for Wenford. It left the terminus there at 1.20pm to arrive in Wadebridge at 3.58pm.'
Click to expand...

Interesting that you don't see photos of the clay trains running on the NCR. Wonder if they weren't interesting enough at the time?
 
M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
More to add, this time from 'The North Cornwall Railway' (Irwell Press).

In the 19th century, Wenford clay was despatched by ship from Wadebridge (from 1862) and later Padstow (1899), but once the GW link from Boscarne Junction to Bodmin opened in 1888 most traffic went that way for shipment from Fowey.

'In the 1960s, clay from Meath (on the Torrington -- Halwill line) which had formerly been shipped from Fremington, was rerouted to run via the North Cornwall line, with reversals at Halwill, Wadebridge, Bodmin General and Bodmin Road'. So if Mike Roach's observation '...sent away bagged in vans...' is correct, then for a time there was clay traffic moving in both directions on the North Cornwall.

Re Delafila Presflos, 'Observations in 1964 indicate that there was usually one Presflo in each North Cornall freight'.

There are several mentions of the Wenford train running from and to Wadebridge, including lengthy shunts at Boscarne to pick up/drop off more wagons, but no explanation as to why. Maybe not enough space at Boscarne for all the traffic on offer?

In 1951, the freight left Wadebridge at 10.00am (Duty No 607, Beattie well tank), arriving back at 3.58pm, except Wednesdays when the Wenford trip was replaced by two returns to Boscarne.

Can anyone shed more light on this please?
 
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D869Zest

D869Zest

Active Member
On the Wadebridge and clay topic again... I'd have expected the key event to be the closure of Wadebridge loco shed which google tells me was 1964. Prior to this I think the Wenford clay was a duty for Wadebridge shed. Afterwards the duty would have gone elsewhere (St Blazey?)... but your photo shows the clay still appearing at Wadebridge in at least one direction after the shed closed.

I have a lot of books covering clay traffic from, say, the late 70s onwards. The steam era on the Wenford branch is also well covered but the intervening period is somewhat more hazy, at least on my bookshelves. Bernard Mills' books are the main source that I can think of. I just had another quick scan of the relevant 'Backtracking around...' book. He has some 1966 photos of a 204hp shunter with clay on the Wenford branch and one showing clay wagons in the siding at Boscarne but nothing showing diesel hauled clay to Wadebridge so your photos remain... news to me.
 
M

MoatLane

Western Thunderer
I wonder if there was a shortage of space at Boscarne, with one loop for empties and one for loaded wagons? And only nine wagons could be taken up the bank to Bodmin General. Unfortunately, my memories of 1966 are very hazy.
 
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