Timber Merchants

[johna]

Folks

 

Following a tidy up today in my loft today I found an old Ratio Timber merchants kit (oo gauge -525) purchased many years ago. The kit has got me thinking about building a micro layout based around a timber yard. However,I am unsure if there was such a thing in real life. Did timber merchants use the railway to receive/ship timber goods and what sort of wagons would have benn used?. A google search has produced very little information but maybe someone from RMweb may know and could point me in the right direction.

 

Thanks

 

Johna

[M.I.B]

Goods into the yard would be bigger than goods out

 

A timber yard would not have turned logs into planks - that's the job of a mill.

 

The would not have fabricated anything - that's the job of the chippies and joiners.

 

So bulk or long timber in, and cut to size timber out.

 

No problems with it being rail served. Not so many trucks about in the steam era, and long distance haulage was almost unheard of, so to get some 4x2 to build a shed for the motorbike and side car (the family hack of the 40s and 50s) you would have had to pop down to a place like this.

[tomparryharry]

I can think of two. There was a sawmill on the Cowbridge Railway, at Ystradowen. In addition, it also had a narrow gauge tramway. The business was owned by a Mr. Roberts, who also loaded timber at St.Athan Road station, and Beaupre House, on the Aberthaw railway. A lot of the London Extension (GCR) sleepers came from the Radnorshire area forests.

 

Not to mention the Scottish traffic....

 

Regards,

Ian

[Fat Controller]

There was (possibly still is) one just to the north of Stafford station on the Up side, around about where the Great Northern line towards Derby left the WCML- this was almost certainly rail-fed in the past, given the location of gates in the old lineside fencing. Unusually, into the 1980s, this dealt in timber though all its stages from whole tree trunks down to finished products- when passing by train, one would see tree-trunks sliced, then separated for seasoning, in neat lines adjacent to the main line. The provenance of each tree would be painted on a board hung on one end of it.

Semi-finished timber has been transported by rail until fairly recently- various rail terminals in the West Midlands dealt in imported timber into the mid-1990s. Initially, this would have arrived via Boston, King's Lynn and other East Coast ports, then transported in whatever wagons were available, from ordinary opens, though specialist Timber wagons , to Bogie Bolster and Rectank wagons. Latterly, it arrived via the Train Ferry on French low-sided ferrywagons and Cargowaggon flats.

[EddieB]

If modelling the recent era, you absolutely must have a static preserved 1524mm gauge Finnish steam locomotive parked in the timber yard.

 

 

Enfield Timber has/had a number of these locomotives scattered about (locations change). Here is VR Hr1 1016 (Tampella 946/1955) in the timber yard adjacent to Southbury station, August 2001. (The locomotive has since moved to a private collection and is no longer on public display).

[Wizard of the Moor]

The book 'Glasgow's Last Days of Steam' by W.A.C. Smith has two photos showing rail connected timber merchants. One of them has a siding full of bogie bolsters carrying loads of planks.

[Stubby47]

If I remember correctly, there was a timber yard served by a rail siding at the east end of Rhyl station; Coach might know more about this.

[Oldddudders]

There was (possibly still is) one just to the north of Stafford station on the Up side, around about where the Great Northern line towards Derby left the WCML- this was almost certainly rail-fed in the past, given the location of gates in the old lineside fencing. Unusually, into the 1980s, this dealt in timber though all its stages from whole tree trunks down to finished products- when passing by train, one would see tree-trunks sliced, then separated for seasoning, in neat lines adjacent to the main line. The provenance of each tree would be painted on a board hung on one end of it.

They were called Venables, perhaps? I certainly recall thinking at the time of my first trips north of Watford in the late '60s, how pleased they must have been to see the back of steam.

 

Looking through the other end of the telescope, as 'twere, you might think of Hawkhurst, branch terminus of a line from Paddock Wood. Some time after the line closed in 1961, a timber merchant bought the site, including buildings, and made the place his own, of course. Thus, 25 years after the line closed, the signalbox, still in great external condition, stood among the piles of timber.

 

Why not add timber as the major local industry to any BLT? Just a couple of sidings and a few stacks of wood, with some semblance of a sawmill, and you have the basis.

 

I think in Scotland there was use of rail to get timber to Corpach, where I think there was a paper plant?

[DVLR Dave]

There was also Government timber stockpiling in the 1950's-no timber merchants as such- just stacks of timber by the lineside, with new loads arriving as the older wood was sold off in rotation.

[scottishlocos]

Hi all

 

johna if you are modelling the modern era i am sure in the mid 2000's the builders yard at Thurso station recieved supplies by rail in VGA, VKA vans not sure what the products supplied were but

cut timber is prpbably a good bet you culd have your kit as timber yard as part of a builders yard or merchant.

 

regards

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Wasn't wood chip moved by rail? You could have a rail connected chipboard factory, hoppers inwards for the raw material and vans outward for the finished product.

[Baggies1961]

4 September 2003. Thurso builders merchant delivery.

[tomparryharry]

It does depend on the size, and or era. We had a smallish timber yard in Forest Hill, which approximates to the Ratio kit. Another one I can think of is 2 Ratio carriage sheds, end to end. Traffic throughput would normally dictate the choice of motive power. Diesel & fireless would be ideal choices.

 

But I don't know why.......  

[D9020 Nimbus]

On 19/03/2011 at 20:37, PhilJ W said:

Wasn't wood chip moved by rail? You could have a rail connected chipboard factory, hoppers inwards for the raw material and vans outward for the finished product.

Airscrew-Weyroc, at Hexham. Still there — or at least was, pre-Covid-19 — but no longer rail-connected. Now Egger UK. But quite a big plant!

[Nick Holliday]

Nice photo of a Timber Merchants at Monument Lane https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrml2229.htm and https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrml2194.htm

 

[2E Sub Shed]

Northampton OS Maps of 1938 show "Steam Saw Mills"  with 2 sidings off the ex-Midland Railway Goods Yard at Cotton End. Both cross a road and one crosses a siding via a diamond crossing before crossing the road.

[Fat Controller]

4 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Airscrew-Weyroc, at Hexham. Still there — or at least was, pre-Covid-19 — but no longer rail-connected. Now Egger UK. But quite a big plant!

It wasn't connected directly to BR when we lived near-by; however, it kept Hexham yard busy with resin, timber and semi-finished board inwards, and board outwards. Wood chippings came in by road.

[br2975]

Once upon a time, Cardiff was awash with timber yards.

.

The greatest concentration was along East Tyndall Street, with Robinson David aka 'Robbos' one of the largest , together with John Bland, and Meggitt & Jones.

.

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by br2975

[Mikkel]

Fascinating photos, thanks for sharing those. There's a whole world to be explored for the modeller there.

 

There's an interesting page on the timber industry in Hull here, including rail-served timber mills and yards:

https://www.paul-gibson.com/trade-and-industry/the-timber-industry.php

 

One of them was the Hollis Brothers. Some of the photos on this page lend themselves well to a small layout/micro:

https://www.lordline.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&search=hollis&page=3

 

Hollis Bros are also on Britian from above, here (log in for larger image):

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW018586

 

 

[Tom Burnham]

I believe the chipboard plant at Chirk still gets its raw materials (wood and possibly resin chemicals) by rail.

[Fat Controller]

28 minutes ago, Tom Burnham said:

I believe the chipboard plant at Chirk still gets its raw materials (wood and possibly resin chemicals) by rail.

It does receive round timber from Baglan Bay in west Wales, with several trainloads each week. Sadly, there is no resin traffic.