Nick Gerrard remembers a freight only Staffordshire branch line.
The opening of the North Staffordshire Railway’s new branch along the Biddulph Valley in August 1860 came with high hopes of substantial freight and passenger traffic. The latter never really materialised but the amount of freight carried grew rapidly as small, shallow mines were replaced by mines producing great volumes.
By the turn of the century coal extraction had become centred on three collieries: Victoria (Biddulph), Chatterley Whitfield (Chell) and Norton and by 1947 they collectively produced 1,863,598 tons and employed 5,546 men. However, the mid 1970s witnessed marked changes as coal traffic from Victoria and Chatterley Whitfield ceased, leaving a one-mile, double track stretch of line from Milton Junction to Norton Colliery (Ford Green Ground Frame).
All railborne coal from the colliery was destined for Meaford power station situated eight miles away on the Stokeon-Trent to Stafford line and was carried in C.E.G.B. liveried wagons. The traffic on the line usually warranted two trips each weekday, both from Cockshute holding sidings. One was scheduled to run mid morning and the other in late afternoon and both generally comprised fourteen or fifteen C.E.G.B. Midland Region wagons and a brake van, invariably hauled by Class 24s and Class 25s.
During the summer of 1976 it became evident that Norton Colliery and its one mile branch line would close within twelve months, so a concerted effort was made to record the operations on the branch. The first train of the day would pick up the Milton based shunter from Milton Junction signal box and convey him to Norton where work would start in earnest, assisted by the second man and N.C.B. staff.
The rail system in the colliery was particularly complex and required a significant human input to prepare each train. Adjacent to the two B.R. running lines were a row of exchange sidings where the trip empties were deposited by the B.R. locomotives. The sidings were on a gradient and flooded very frequently and so N.C.B. locos had to move wagons in groups of three and four. From here the C.E.G.B. wagons, and occasionally HAA hoppers, were taken to the conv
