THE ALMOND VALLEY LIGHT RAILWAY VEHICLE

STOCKBOOK

Millfield, Livingston, West

Lothian, EH54 7AR.

Published by The Almond Valley Heritage Trust

Notes by: Robin Chesters & David Scotney

Copyright for photographs/illustrations:

Inside front cover - Reddish Pink Media

Page 4 – Ray Hooley Ruston & Hornsby Archive

Page 6 – Imperial War Museum

Page 8 (Bishopton) – Gordon Edgar

Others – Robin Chesters and David Scotney

Fourth Edition 2016

Can you help?

We are always looking for volunteers to help to maintain, run and develop the railway. If you are interested in helping us, we would like to hear from you - so please contact us, using the details on the back cover, to ask for further information.

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The 2ft 6in gauge Almond Valley Light Railway has drawn its rolling stock from industrial railways serving the somewhat interlinked requirements of the shale oil, mining and explosives industries. This information booklet gives you information about the rolling stock in terms of its background, age, type and origins. We hope you find the information interesting!

The booklet descriptions are divided as follows:

an introduction to the types of rolling stock – page 2

the locomotives and coaches used for passenger trains – page

10

the historic ‘Oakbank’ locomotive – page 12

the service and goods stock – page 13

‘reserve stock’ (on site, awaiting renovation and display / use)

– page 14

and if you want to know more – page 16

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An introduction to the types of rolling stock............

Rolling stock for industrial narrow gauge railways is inevitably smaller than that for normal standard gauge public railways. It has, however, to meet the specialised needs of the industries that it serves.

Locomotives Most railways with open operating conditions can use a variety of types of motive power such as man, horse, cable, steam, electricity, petrol or diesel. However, if operations are in restricted locations such as in tunnels, or close to inflammable materials, this somewhat limits the types of motive power. For surface movements on the rail lines serving the shale oil industry standard steam locomotives were used initially, as with most industrial rail lines, and in the underground tunnels man or pony haulage sufficed. The greater risks of the explosives industry however required the use of ‘fireless’ steam locomotives (which were able to fill their steam reservoirs from stationary boilers) if there was a greater haulage requirement than could be handled by man or horse power. The greater sophistication of industrial rail provision in the early part of the 20th Century saw examples such as:

the electrification of the main surface lines, and provision of cable haulage on main mine access tunnels, at the Oakbank (Shale) Oil Co Ltd at Winchburgh;

the use of small paraffin fuelled locomotives at Government explosives factories at Waltham Abbey (Royal Gunpowder Factory, Essex), Poole (Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Dorset), and Davington (various explosives factories, Kent); and

the use of small electric battery rail locomotives also at Government explosive factories.

These approaches were obviously only applicable in very specific situations. Here at the Heritage Centre Museum we have one of the original 1902 USA-built electric (‘tram-type’) locomotives from Winchburgh, further details are below.

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The battery electric locomotive proved a long-lived haulage method in some smaller mines and also at the most highly explosive locations. Within the shale oil industry the Hopetoun mine (Young’s Paraffin, Light & Mineral Oil Company / Scottish Oils Ltd) used a battery locomotive from Metropolitan Vickers/Andrew Barclay; while some Royal Ordnance Factories (ROFs) introduced new battery locomotives, built by Wingrove & Rogers Ltd or Greenwood & Batley Ltd, in the 1920s/1930s, with further deliveries arriving from Brook Victor Electric Vehicles Ltd into the 1960s/1970s. The ROF locomotives were of two main types:

small conventional type locomotives which hauled short trains of wagons; and

individually-powered vehicles with a rectangular tank (to carry pressed cordite SC) known as ‘cheese trucks’.

At the Almond Valley Light Railway there are examples of both locomotives and ‘cheese trucks’ from the ROFs at Puriton (Somerset) and Bishopton (Renfrewshire) constructed by both Greenwood & Batley (1941) and Brook Victor (1972/1974). Unfortunately, due to lack of space and resources, they are not on display at present. By the 1930s the existing traction methods for the mining and explosives industries were recognised as being somewhat restricted:

manpower could only haul limited loads;

horses also had limited load capability and required considerable support provision;

conventional steam locomotives with open fires and considerable exhaust could only be used in ‘open’ situations;

‘fireless’ steam locomotives needed substantial external boiler infrastructure and only operated for limited periods between steam filling;

cable haulage required considerable infrastructure and was only realistic on main ‘trunk’ haulage routes;

electric traction with external supply (normally overhead) also required considerable infrastructure, had safety queries related to the supply and once again was only realistic on main ‘trunk’ haulage routes;

battery electric traction was restricted in terms of its range of operation and its haulage capability; and

while the petrol locomotive might be relatively safe in ‘open’ situations it had potential problems related to electric ignition in explosive atmospheres.

Therefore consideration moved to the diesel locomotive. The diesel engine was introduced in the 1890s and was brought into use for railway locomotion in the 1920s. Its increasing use in many fields in the late-1930s indeed

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encouraged Scottish Oils Ltd to introduce diesel fuel into its product range. The diesel locomotive had however two characteristics which required to be eliminated if it was to be used in mine and / or explosive situations:

the removal of harmful or irritant components from the exhaust gases (‘exhaust conditioning’); and

the removal of any possibility of ignition by the locomotive (from sparks, high temperatures, etc.) of explosive gases in the environment (‘flameproofing’).

Diesel locomotives with exhaust conditioning were introduced by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd (‘R&H’ Lincoln) in 1932 for use in mines where there was only limited explosive gas problems. The Scottish shale oil mines were generally considered

to have relatively low levels of explosive gas concentrations compared with those in coal mines (although there were indeed gas explosions on a number of occasions).The first ‘exhaust conditioned’ locomotive (12hp / 2ft gauge) used in a shale oil mine came to the newly reopened Westwood Pit (Scottish Oils Ltd) in 1936 (see left). Another 15 similar 2ft R&H locomotives came to various shale mines controlled by Scottish Oils Ltd between 1939 and 1949 of power-ratings of 11/13hp(6), 20hp(8) and 44/48hp(1) (records suggest that not all of these were indeed fitted by the factory with ‘exhaust conditioning’). Hunslet Engine Co. (Leeds) also produced a large standard gauge exhaust conditioned Gardner-engined 155/170hp locomotive in 1936 for the War Department underground storage facilities at Corsham (Wiltshire).

Photo. Ray Hooley Ruston & Hornsby Archive

The big business potential for mining/explosives diesel locomotives however lay in the market for serving gaseous coal mines and this required flameproofing. In the UK the Government Mines Department required all mining locomotives

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to be tested at the Safety in Mines Research Establishment’s Testing Station at Buxton before they could gain a ‘Flameproof Approval Certificate’. R&H and Hunslet competed to gain certification, with both achieving this in 1939. The initial locomotive types with flameproof mining certificates were:

Date of Certification:

Power / Type:

R&H 25.3.39 44/48 H.P. Chain-drive 4-wheel (‘48DL’ - Ruston Engine) &

33/40 H.P. Chain-drive 4-wheel (‘40DL’ - Ruston Engine)

Hunslet 21.7.39 23/25hp Rod-drive 4-wheel (Gardner 2L2 engine)

R&H 29.3.41 30hp Chain-drive 4-wheel (‘30DL’ – Ruston Engine) &

20hp Chain-drive 4-wheel (‘20DL’ – Ruston Engine)

Hunslet 13.6.41 50hp Rod-drive 4-wheel (Gardner 4L2 engine)

These were all low-height locomotives, with low or no cabs, to meet the requirement of mines. Flameproof locomotives from both of the manufacturers (no one else received a certificate until 1946) soon entered service with a few collieries, but they were initially adopted more widely by the Government itself. A variety of these ‘mining’ locomotives, with cabs for both outdoor and underground operations, were delivered to the many Government armament depots during the Second World War, mainly for gauges of 2ft 6in and 2ft. The first 2ft 6in locomotive for a Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD) seems to have been delivered by Hunslet to Crombie (Fife)

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in 1939. By the end of 1945 the RNAD had taken delivery of some 36 Hunslets (nine 23/25hp & twenty seven 50hp) and a somewhat smaller number of R&Hs (20hp & 48hp).

A ‘flameproof’ rod-drive Hunslet leaving one of the underground magazines at RNAD Dean Hill. The truck immediately behind the locomotive is carrying 500 pound aerial bombs. Photo. Lt E. A. Zimmerman (Royal Navy) – courtesy Imperial War Museum (‘//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Royal_Navy_during_the_Second_World_War_A24931.jpg’) [Another photograph of the same train can be seen at: //www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/d/dean_hill_rnad/dean_hill_old2.jpg]

At the Almond Valley Light Railway there is an early 1941 example of a rod-drive Hunslet 50hp RNAD flameproof locomotive. In 1947 and 1948 the manufacturers Hudswell Clarke and North British also gained mining locomotive fireproof certificates, and these were later joined by Clayton Equipment. Bulk deliveries of flameproof locomotives for coal mining really started after the formation of the National Coal Board in 1947, with a number of ‘standard’ ranges being provided by the certificated manufacturers. However both the mining and locomotive manufacturing industries went through a

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major period of reorganisation and restructuring during the latter half of the 20th Century and only Clayton now survives as a specialist mining locomotive provider. From the end of the Second World War until about 1980 many explosives plants and depots remained in use and served by rail. There was some re-equipping at many of the 2ft 6in served sites. Limited numbers of run-on deliveries of R&H mining-type locomotives continued to RNAD sites in the late-1940s and a few one-off locomotives were also delivered in the next 15 years. In the 1960s and 1970s a couple of batches of Hunslet standard (non-mining) 4-wheel ‘Estate’-type 60hp (Gardner 4LW) and 28hp (Perkins 3.152) diesel hydraulic locomotives, which had been flameproofed, arrived at RNAD sites; and these were followed in 1980-84 by two batches of Baguley-Drewry (associated with Hunslet) flameproofed (non-mining) 4-wheel diesel-hydraulics of 60hp (Perkins 4236) and 99hp (Perkins 6354). A 60hp Baguley-Drewry of 1980, which was used at both Trecywn and Dean Hill RNADs, can be found at the Almond Valley Light Railway. Diesel non-mining locomotives, with some elements of flameproofing, were also used at various other explosives-related sites. Examples that are to be found at the Almond Valley Light Railway are:

A Barclay 4-wheel diesel-mechanical of 1970 from Nobel/ICI;

A Hunslet 4-wheel diesel-mechanical of 1973 from Nobel/ICI (not in use at present); and

A Motor-Rail ‘Simplex’ 4-wheel diesel-mechanical of 1981 from the Royal Ordnance Factories (not on display or in use at present).

With the reorganisation of much of the explosives industry related to modernisation, privatisation and the end of the Cold War the related rail lines (and indeed most of the establishments they served) were closed between 1980 and 2000.

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‘Hunslet’ and the ‘Brakevan’ awaiting disposal with matching vehicles (from the NATO (ex-RNAD) Depot Broughton Moor) at Thralkeld Quarry in 1992.

‘Barclay’ at Nobel/ICI Factory at Powfoot in 1993.

Bishopton Royal Ordnance Factory in August 1991: Left top - Greenwood & Batley 1941 Battery electric Locomotive

Right top - Brook Victor 1970s Battery electric ‘cheese truck’ Left bottom - Brook Victor 1970s Battery electric locomotive

Right bottom - Line of diesel locomotives (including, second in line, ‘Simplex’)

Photos. Gordon Edgar.

Rolling Stock

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The rolling stock used at explosives sites were usually of very specialised types, but often looked as if they were merely miniature versions of standard gauge stock. At the Royal Ordnance Factory at Bishopton there were 17 different types of wagon among the 800 on site in 1977. At the Almond Valley Light Railway there are six wagons from Bishopton: the two tank wagons which carried liquids around the site and four others that arrived at Almond Valley without bodies (all wooden wagon bodies were removed prior to sale due to their possible contamination with explosive or dangerous substances). The three coaches, Effie / Fifi / Gigi (numbered 1,2 & 3 prior to 2012), are carried on former-Bishopton underframes with bodies designed and constructed at the Heritage Centre. An open wagon has also been built on the other underframe. The box wagon at Almond Valley, from RNAD Dean Hill, is a standard design used at the various RNAD sites. This design is very unusual in that it has sliding roof sections as well as side doors. It was designed to enable the safe mechanical lifting of items such as naval mines onto and off the wagon. The Almond Valley brake van is a ‘Robert Hudson’ standard design used at 2ft 6in gauge RNAD sites, a slightly smaller version of which was to be found at 2ft gauge Army and RAF armament sites. It operates as a brake van to control train operations, it carries sand which it can feed onto the track to provide additional friction and it offers limited seating accommodation. The large volume of stock used at the various explosives sites meant that it was constructed by various builders. The main supplier seems to have been Robert Hudson Ltd (Leeds), however other suppliers are believed to have included: Cravens Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. Ltd (Sheffield), R. Y. Pickering and Co (Wishaw), and Charles Roberts and Co Ltd (Wakefield). It is not always possible to identify the builder, or date of construction, of individual wagons since they were built to very standardised designs.

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The locomotives and coaches used for passenger trains..............

‘Hunslet’ – Arrived Livingston 1992

Builder: The Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd. Works No. 2270 Building Date: 1941 Engine Type: Gardner 50hp 4-wheel Diesel – mechanical with a rod drive

RNAD Trecwn (Preseli/Dyfed) 1941-1964 RNAD Broughton Moor (Cumberland/Cumbria) 1964-1992

‘Barclay’ – Arrived Livingston 1993

Builder: Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. Ltd Works No. 557 Building Date: 1970 Engine Type: Perkins 27hp 4-wheel Diesel – mechanical with a chain drive

Nobel/ICI Ardeer (Ayrshire) 1970-198? Nobel/ICI Powfoot (Dumfriesshire) 198?-1993

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‘Baguley-Drewry’ – Arrived Livingston 2004

Builder: Baguley-Drewry Ltd Works No. 3752 Building Date: 1980 Engine Type: Perkins 60hp 4-wheel Diesel – hydraulic with a chain drive

History:

RNAD Trecwn (Preseli/Dyfed) 1980-1994

RNAD Dean Hill (Wiltshire) 1994-2004

Details of a kit to build a model of this locomotive can be found at: http://shop.narrowplanet.co.uk/products/NPL-002

‘Effie’, ‘Fifi’ & ‘Gigi’ (1,2&3 pre-2012) – Arrived Livingston 1992

Builder: Underframe – Robert Hudson Ltd Building Date: 19?? Rebodied by: Almond Valley Heritage Centre 1993

Passenger Capacity per coach: 12 seated 4-wheel air-braked

History: ROF Bishopton (Renfrewshire) 19?? – 1992 (existing bodywork removed)

‘Brake Van’ – Arrived Livingston 1992

Builder: Robert Hudson Ltd

Building Date: 1987 Passenger Capacity: 8 seated Bogie air-braked

History: RNAD Broughton Moor (Cumberland/Cumbria) 1987 – 1992 Details of a kit to build a model of this ‘brake van’ can be found at: http://shop.narrowplanet.co.uk/collections/rolling-stock-kits/products/npr-002

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The historic ‘Oakbank’ locomotive.............

‘Oakbank No.2’ – Arrived Livingston 1992 [on loan from National Museums of Scotland]

Builder: Baldwin Locomotive Works Works No. 20587 Building Date: 1902 4-wheel Overhead (500V DC) electric

Oakbank Oil Co Ltd, Winchburgh (West Lothian) 1902-1961 In store (various sites) 1961-1992

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The service and goods stock..............

‘Scruffy’ – Arrived Livingston 1993

Builder / No. /Date: The Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd. / 7330 / 1973 Engine Type: Perkins 28hp 4-wheel Diesel – mechanical with a chain drive

Nobel/ICI Powfoot (Dumfriesshire) 1973 – 1993

‘Tank Wagons’ – Arrived Livingston 1997

Builder/Date: Robert Hudson Ltd / 1940

ROF Bishopton (Renfrewshire) 1940 – 1997

‘Box Van’ – Arrived Livingston 2004

Builder/ Date: ??

RNAD Dean Hill (Wiltshire) 19??-2004

A kit for a model of this van has been developed by the 009 Society for its members: http://www.009society.com/

‘Open Wagon’ – Arrived Livingston 1992

Builder / Date: Underframe – Robert Hudson Ltd / 19??

Rebodied by: Almond Valley Heritage Centre circa 2000

ROF Bishopton (Renfrewshire) 19?? – 1992 (existing bodywork removed)

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‘Reserve stock’ (on site, awaiting renovation and display/use)..............

4-wheel Battery electric locomotive – Arrived Livingston 1992

Greenwood & Batley Ltd (1698) 1941

ROF Puriton (Somerset) 1941-1987 ROF Bishopton (Renfrewshire) 1987-1992

4-wheel Battery electric locomotives and ‘cheese trucks’ (4No.) - Arrived Livingston 1997

Brook Victor Electric Vehicles Ltd (?, 612, 698 & 700) 1972/1974

ROF Bishopton (Renfrewshire) 1972/1974 – 1997

‘Simplex’ - 4-wheel Diesel – mechanical locomotive with a chain drive – Arrived Livingston 1992

Motor Rail Ltd ‘Simplex’ (40SPF522) 1981 [with Perkins 40hp engine]

ROF Puriton (Somerset) 1981-1987 ROF Bishopton (Renfrewshire) 1987 – 1992

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Can you help...............?

We are always looking for volunteers to help to maintain, run and develop the railway. If you are interested in helping us, we would like to hear from you - so please contact us, using the details on the back cover, to ask for further information.

Almondhaugh Halt – The possible start of the extension to the River Almond Pool.

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...........and if you want to know more......

For further information on various of the subjects mentioned in this booklet, the following may be of interest: Almond Valley Light Railway –

www.almondvalley.co.uk/Railway.html - including - o Almond Valley Light Railway – An Introduction o Calendar of days of operation

Shale oil industry – www.scottishshale.co.uk/

The Scottish Shale Oil Industry (from: ‘Wonders of World Engineering(1933)’), Reprint by The Almond Valley Heritage Trust, 1992.

Knox H., The Scottish Shale Oil Industry & Mineral Railway Lines, Lightmoor Press, 2013.

McKay J., Scotland's First Oil Boom; the Scottish Shale Oil Industry 1851-1914, John Donald, 2012.

Oakbank Oil Company – Winchburgh Railway - o Anderson P., Winchburgh Shale Oil Railway, in ‘Railway Bylines Vol.17 Issue 1’, December 2011. o Anderson P., Winchburgh Shale Oil Railway Part 2 The Shale Oil Industry, in ‘Railway Bylines Vol.17 Issue 2’, January 2012. o Booth A., Oakbank Oil Company Locomotives, in ‘Industrial Railway Record No.210’, September 2012. o ‘Our Wullie’, The Oakbank Oil Company and its Electric Railway, in ‘Railway Bylines Vol.9 Issue 3’, February 2004. o Stevenson H., The Oakbank Oil Co’s Tramway, & Hancock P.D., The Winchburgh Electric Railway, in ‘Blastpipe No.72’, The

Scottish Railway Preservation Society, Summer 1986. o Vickers A.A., The Winchburgh Shale Line, in The Railway Magazine Vol.104, No.689, September 1958.

Explosives industry –

Cocroft W.D., Dangerous Energy, English Heritage, 2000.

Evans D., Arming the Fleet, Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower / English Heritage, 2006.

McCamley N., Subterranean Britain - Second World War Secret Bunkers, Folly Books, 2010

www.subbrit.org.uk/ (Subterranea Britannica)

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Industrial railways – Various documents / handbooks from the Industrial Railway Society (www.irsociety.co.uk/) including:

Bridges A. (Ed), Industrial Locomotives of Scotland, Industrial Railway Society, 1976.

de Havilland J., Industrial Locomotives of Dyfed & Powys, Industrial Railway Society,1994.

Hateley R., Locomotives of the Ministry of Defence, Industrial Railway Society, 1992.

Hateley R., Industrial Railways and Locomotives of South Western England, Industrial Railway Society, 2012.

Jenkins J.M., Railways of the Royal Gunpowder Factory Waltham Abbey (reprint from ‘Industrial Railway Record No.117’, June 1989), The Moseley Railway Trust, 2010.

Narrow gauge railways – Scotney D. J. S., 30inch Railways Worldwide, Stenvalls, 2013.

Locomotives and technology –

Booth A.J., Greenwood & Batley Locomotives 1927-1980, Industrial Railway Society, 1986.

Civil A. & Etherington R., The Railway Products of Baguley-Drewry Ltd and its Predecessors, Industrial Railway Society, 2008.

Haigh A.J., Robert Hudson Ltd, The Moseley Railway Trust / Alan Haigh, 2005 / 2012.

Hall D.R. & Rowlands J.A.S., A Guide to Simplex Narrow Gauge Locomotives, The Moseley Railway Trust, 2001.

Hall D.R., A Guide to Ruston Narrow Gauge Locomotives, The Moseley Railway Trust, 2003.Rolt L.T.C., A Hunslet Hundred, David & Charles / Macdonald, 1964

Tonks E.S., Ruston & Hornsby Locomotives, The Industrial Railway Society, 1974.

Townsley D.H., The Hunslet Engine Works, Plateway Press, 1998

Wear R., Barclay 150 – A brief history of Andrew Barclay, Sons & Co. Ltd. and Hunslet-Barclay Ltd., Kilmarnock from 1840 to 1990, Hunslet-Barclay Ltd., 1990.

Webb B., The British Internal Combustion Locomotive 1894-1940, David & Charles, 1973.

Millfield, Livingston, West Lothian, EH54 7AR tel: 01506 414957

e-mail: info@almondvaley.co.uk web: www.almondvalley.co.uk