Industrial Relations

Tim Helme looks at some of the industrial shunter locations that could be encountered by Derby train crew on trips from 4 Shed in the 1980s/90s, most of which have now been consigned to history.

- Tim Helme

THE first stop north of Derby, and certainly on 4 Shed’sdoorstep, was Chaddesden Civil Engineers Tip Sidings, which consisted of eight roads with an outside road separate from the main body of the sidings shared in part with Steetley Construction Materials.

Its shunter, built by the Yorkshire Engine Company in 1964, sat out of use on No. 1 road at the ‘Wyvern end’ of the sidings until 1992, when Redland acquired the company. But at least it had its own loco up to then.

About a mile further north was Thomas Hill’s scrapyard, which used a suitably modified agricultural tractor to shunt wagons on and off its weighbridge. These were left to be collected by a Derby crew and tripped across to the adjacent St Mary’s Goods Yard, although this site was closed in 1989.

Still heading north, and just before the London Midland/Eastern Region boundary at Horns Bridge near Chesterfield, was the Avenue Coking Plant (National Smokeless Fuels) where two Hudswell and two Vanguard diesels were employed for internal work.

These locos could sometimes be glimpsed in the plant whilst passing on other jobs, but once I had an unplanned excursion in there. This occurred whilst I was second-manning an engineering train during a possession and the guard, using Clay Cross ground frame, set the wrong route and sent us across the flyover into the plant. As the main lines passed beneath us, our worried driver kept glancing out of the side windows and repeating: “We really shouldn’t be in here.” We were not permitted to propel back out, and so had to run round within the confines of the plant. A ‘Please Explain’ form soon followed to all of us involved.

POWER STATIONS