Lostock Junction

[cheshire lines]

The vans to be left in the goods yard are shunted to the Down Main and then the loco runs round them.


It then propels them past the points at the entrance of the goods yard


before pulling them to the end of the headshunt


and then propelling them into the sidings as directed by the Yard Forman.

[cheshire lines]

The next stage is to collect vans from the yard for to be taken elsewhere and propel them to the yard exit road.


Depending on where they were, it may be necessary to re-shunt the wagons dropped off to other sidings.


Then the loco has to run round the outgoing vans (ie. the reverse of what she did with the incoming vans),


before shunting them into the Bay road to join up with the rest of the train


and then departing on the Down Main heading for the next yard along the line.

These various shunting operations need to be timed to make sure the Down Main is clear for the 2-40pm Down Semi Fast, the Bay Platform is clear for the arrival of the 3pm Branch Auto-train and the Down Main is clear for the 3-15pm Down Local.

[glencairn]

Lovely scenes throughout. I like the off-railway items that are in the scenes bringing 'life' to the layout.

Glencairn

[cheshire lines]

Thanks Glencairn.

[dtb]

Great pics Cheshire Lines, love the 4F have one in my collection.

I remember visiting the ICI salt works at Winsford back in the 70s as a contractor servicing the warm air heaters in the warehouses, the place was massive and I'm pretty sure as the warehouses were that big the heaters had no benefit whatsoever

[cheshire lines]

Thanks dtb.
The Winsford mine is still operating, producing rock salt for road gritting.

Back in the 19th century there were numerous salt mines and salt works around Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford, but now just the one mine remains.
Brine is still extracted from the fields around us and is pumped to the former ICI chemical works at Lostock Gralam for use in soda ash manufacture. Trainloads of limestone are still delivered to the works from Derbyshire for use in the same process.

One of the old open pan salt works (Lion Salt Works) at Marston is now preserved as a museum. One of the distinctive salt vans has been refurbished and is on display outside the museum.




Until the mid 1960s a branch line ran from just outside Northwich station to Marston serving both Lion Salt Works and the more modern New Cheshire Salt Works. The latter business closed in 2006.
Part of the track bed of the branch, including a steel bridge over a small brook is still visible in places.
Northwich shed (8E) used to have an allocation of Ivatt 2MT locos to work the salt branches.

[cheshire lines]

4:05pm two heavy freight 2-8-0 locos prepare to move off shed. The first is an ex-LNER 02 and the other (running tender first) is a Stanier 8F.
The two have been coupled together to save time as the Up Main needs to be cleared by 4-20pm when the the next Up Semi-Fast is due through.
The 8F is and old tender drive one and doesn't run that well, so it doesn't get much running time.


Here the pair are seen about to pull away under the road bridge at the end of the Up platform.

[cheshire lines]

4-30pm : Having left the open salt wagons at the mine and no return load ready, the Ivatt 2MT returns down the branch with a brake van

Having pulled off the branch she is seen crossing over to the Up Main

before heading under the road bridge towards the exchange sidings.

[glencairn]

Another lovely set of photographs. Thanks for posting.

Glencairn

[Hound Dog]

Always lots to take in with every photo from Lostock a junction and every time you notice something you missed the first time - thanks for sharing