Carriage scrap line Leen Valley.


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Warning! Trainspotter alert! ;)

After the closure of Daybrook station and the line through Mapperley tunnel (known as Gedling tunnel to we of Arnold origin) many old carriages of different origins appeared on the line between Daybrook and Hucknall Road. This would be about 1963. They were stored there for a time and many left in near derelict condition, presumably scrap. Does anyone:

A) Remember this?

B) Have photos of those carriages?

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  • 7 years later...

     Yes, I remember coaches being stored on this line.

     Am sure they were left there longer than they should have been as many of them had their white metal bearings stolen.

     Can vaguely remember a conversation with my dad about them.

     I think Wrigleys wagon works eventually disposed of them, but am not completely sure about this.

     I also think I have seen a couple of photographs, again not sure. Was a long time ago.

    

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I lived on Arnot Hill and used to put pennies on the line near to the bridge with a schoolfriend who lived on Hereford road and backed onto the line when trains were running on the line.

Mapperley tunnel closed in 1960 and old coal wagons were stored between the tunnel and Arnot Hill park for a while.

We used to open the side drop down doors.

The wagons disappeared sometime around 1962 , the year I started at  Arnold High.

 

Wrigleys cut up several engines, I've seen an article somewhere stating exactly how many and possibly the numbers.

I live on what was Wrigleys sidings and for the last 30 + years have been digging up old bolts coach screws and other incinerated objects in my garden from burnt out wagons and maybe coaches.

Wrigleys closed 30th October 1964 and Simms and Cooke took over the buildings to make prefabricated buildings.

 

This picture is supposedly engines waiting to be cut up outside Rigleys .

Picture taken from the long closed Bulwell Forest station.

 

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There were steam engines and mineral wagons that were scrapped at Rigley's too. They had previously been stored in the sidings at Daybrook Station.

When I worked in the area on Mr Softee ice cream vans in 68, lads from Edwards Lane Estate told me that they cleared all the remaining coal from the loco's tenders, and from the coal wagons. 

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I only walked along there a couple of weeks ago. There's still chunks of metal sticking out of the ground all along the embankment.

Stuart.C / Dark Angel, if you type Rigleys into the Search slot, at the top right hand of the page, it should show every reference to Rigleys.

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   Wrigleys cut up some of Gresley's  O2 locomotives, mainly Grantham ones off the High Dyke workings. Loads of 16t wagons were cut up there. Am sure I'm right about the coaches. They weren't anywhere near Hereford Road though, as I remember, they were adjacent to the City Hospital.

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26 locos were scrapped there. 42792, 45535, 61126, 61334, and O2's 63925, 6, 7, 8, 32, 35-9, 41, 45, 56, 62, 64, 72-4, 77, 80, 85 and 87. 

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Yes, definitely not the chewing gum manufacturers !

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Connected, but slightly off-topic.....

 

It's been mentioned somewhere on here before - in all the railway photos I've seen over the years, I've never seen one showing activity on that stretch of line from Arnold Road to Bulwell (alongside Hucknall Road).

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From Southglade Rd heading towards Moorbridge, there's currently the Buzz Bingo Hall, several food processing units, and a couple of other businesses. Further along, there's EMC Tiles and a few other business units. Then of course there's Top Valley Tesco. Plus the residential estate where Stuart.C lives. Other than the remaining sections of the old railway embankment, you'd be hard pushed to know the areas history.

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Grew up along that stretch cliff ton.........the length of Andover road ran along it,,,,busy goods line when i was little,,,it was our meeting place,,we even dug a small cave in the Sandstone rock,,,

                      Times were hard early 50s and we often walked the line with a bucket collecting Coal that had fallen from Wagons,,,think we spent alot of time there because the line was deep between the banks and we couldn't be seen.

                            Will never forget an older lad (Teddy boy) laying in the lines for a dare whilst an Austerity train passed over him....Our Rail enthusiasts on here will explain what an Austerity was,,,i recall them as big blinkered engines with them side shields that hauled lots of wagons of coal.''numbers started 90...

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Not strictly correct Ben, but pretty close. The Austerities we introduced during the war for the War Department, and we're extremely rugged, powerful and easier to maintain than other freight engines. They came into British Railways stock in 1948. There were 933 of them spread over the country as near as damn it. Colwick had over fifty of them at various times.

The blinkered ones were 9F's introduced by British Railways in the mid 50's to replace many old worn out freight types. Again, these were extremely powerful, and despite having small driving wheels were very fast, and even hauled passenger trains at times. These ran mainly through Bulwell Common, and I can't recall any on the Leen Valley line. I may be wrong of course. Perhaps someone can confirm this.

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Just remembered. The 9F's could be seen further along if they'd branched off north of Bulwell Common station, and then crossed over Hucknall Rd and joined the LV line there, parallel to Moorbridge Lane. They would take the diversionary route to Annesley, thereby keeping the main line free for faster traffic. 

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Thats brilliant Fly,,,knew you would come up with sumat,,,,could be wrong  but fairly sure used to see them on that line,,

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I've never seen any pictures of 9F's on that stretch from Arnold Rd to Moorbridge. As I say, could be wrong.

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Bestwood Rd, I mean Ben, not Moorbridge Lane. It ran through Bestwood Village as you know. 

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Nothing definitive on this, but I don't recall ever seeing anything as big as a 9F on the Leen Valley line between Arnold Road and the junction with the 'Bestwood Park Branch'.  That Junction was just beyond the long dismantled overbridge which stood at the bottom of Hucknall Rd just before the junction with Bestwood Road.  9Fs would indeed run down off the Great Central, before Bulwell Viaduct, and along the 'Bestwood Park Branch' towards Bestwood Colliery.  I mostly recall older types of locos such as '04's on the Arnold Rd. to Bestwood Rd. stretch.

 

Through the 50s and I think into the early 1960s, Rigley's had many railway wagons stored in sidings on the area now covered by the housing development where Stuart lives. At that time I think they were mostly there for repair. I don't recall ever seeing a passenger coach running along that stretch.. even for cutting up, but it needs to be remembered that the stretch from Rigley's down to Moorbridge area was both further way from my 'stomping ground', and als much more obcured by trees.. so who knows?

 

P.S.  Just seen Kev's pic.  Top left corner shows the 'Bestwood Park Branch' runnig across the overbridge, taking traffic to and from the Great Central and Bestwood Colliery and beyond.  Yes, I believe that is Forest Farm.

 

Roughley half way between the chimney at Rigley's, and Hucknall Rd, you can just about make out the 'parapets' on the little bridge over 'Lover's Lane'. This was an access under the Leen Valley line into the farmland, but also continued ( and still does) as a footpath over Bulwell Common, faintly visible to the left. It is now more or less 'Top Valley Way'.

 

Bulwell Common Golf Club is visible opposite Rigley's.

 

Below Rigley's set of 5 or so 'pitch roofed' workshops, are sidings full of wagons in storage.  When I was kid those sidings extended much further east... more or less to the first hedgerow  which ran vertically to the right of the sidings as viewed.  Just below the sidings, tucked in the corner, is a large Oak tree.  That was our 'swing tree'.  It's not too clear from the pic but the tree was now being overshadowed by an embankment down from the sidings, but also from the railway line.  We would take the rope up to the top of the banking and then swing out very high over the field.  I still have the scars.. :)

 

Lower still you can see the curving shadow on the right side of the Leen Valley line embankment, showing that the field there was a hollow. until filled in by waste disposal in the 60s and built on later.

 

Next left to right hedgerow down is the line of what is now Southglade Road, with the level crossing over the line which was used by farmer Jarve Goddard. There was also a small railway house there.. but not very visible on the pic.  To the left across Hucknall Road, the area enclosed by a square of hedges later became Nottingham Commercial Vehicles..(NCV), and later still a failed build for Aldi, or LIDL or someone.

 

Lastly, the road branching off to the left is Kersall Drive, where you can just make out the Great Central main line and its cutting.

 

 

 

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Brilliant details Col. It was your domain. I just used the area for spotting purposes. 

 

 

I wonder if your 'swing tree' still remains.

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Pretty sure it's gone Fly, because it would now be pretty much buried.

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Just realised something else about Cliff-Ton's picture.....

 

Top left corner shows the overbridge at the bottom of Hucknall Road, but doesn't show the continuation over Moor Bridge.  Therefore the pic was taken before the new Moor Bridge was built. (sometime in the 1930s I think?)  At that time you'd have had to turn right after the bridge towards Moorbridge Cottages (Which still stand) and cross the Leen and the Midland Railway via the old bridge.

 

So, this probably dates the picture to sometime early 1930s at the latest...

 

Which has just reminded me that most of my family in the 1950s referred to Moorbridge as 'New Bridge'.

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I'll take a walk to the lakes over the weekend weather permitting.

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