The Last Railway Horse Shunters

Giles

Giles

Western Thunderer
Lovely!

When we lived in the Valleys in the second half of the '70s/early '80s, the pits still had ponies working underground. They were stabled underground 50 weeks of the year, but came up for their holidays for Miner's Fortnight.
 
Jordan or Plymouth Mad

Jordan or Plymouth Mad

Mid-Western Thunderer
Enjoyed that, I knew the very last shunting horses were at Newmarket.
In the old book I have "Behind the Lines" there are several anecdotes around horses. At one time they were as much a part of the scene as locos & rolling stock, similar to Station Cats. Apparently it was a poor railway facility that didn't have at least one cat, and the GWR even paid for established station cats with provision for a milk quota.
When the Class 31* went past at 5:50, was anyone else expecting it to have a Triang powered bogie, with the dummy middle axle 'wheels' that were cut off above the rails? :)) .....no, just me, then?

* I know they weren't 31s at the time, but being raised with TOPS, I wasn't sure of the exact "Type" description :rolleyes:
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Jordan or Plymouth Mad said:
Enjoyed that, I knew the very last shunting horses were at Newmarket.
In the old book I have "Behind the Lines" there are several anecdotes around horses. At one time they were as much a part of the scene as locos & rolling stock, similar to Station Cats. Apparently it was a poor railway facility that didn't have at least one cat, and the GWR even paid for established station cats with provision for a milk quota.
When the Class 31* went past at 5:50, was anyone else expecting it to have a Triang powered bogie, with the dummy middle axle 'wheels' that were cut off above the rails? :)) .....no, just me, then?

* I know they weren't 31s at the time, but being raised with TOPS, I wasn't sure of the exact "Type" description :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Brush type two…
 
Rob Pulham

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
simond said:
Shame that it’s “not available”. I used to dive in Dorothea quarry. It was like Mordor…
Click to expand...
I agree, I did my first open water dives in Dorothea.

A couple of years later on a return visit, I was just surfacing after a dive, when lightning struck the water at the far side of the quarry. I had just spit out my regulator and the shock through the water didn't half rattle my teeth. Thankfully that's all I felt because the rest of me was covered in neoprene.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Jordan or Plymouth Mad said:
Enjoyed that, I knew the very last shunting horses were at Newmarket.
……At one time they were as much a part of the scene as locos & rolling stock, similar to Station Cats. Apparently it was a poor railway facility that didn't have at least one cat, and the GWR even paid for established station cats with provision for a milk quota.
Click to expand...
Now just hang on - I mean, how many cats would it take to shunt a wagon?
 
PhilH

PhilH

Western Thunderer
Tim V said:
I thought the last horse drawn trains on British Railways was at Nantle in 1963?
player.bfi.org.uk

Watch Rails To Talsarn - BFI Player

Horse-drawn railway: 'Prince' and 'Corwen' pull slate wagons from Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry to Tal-y-sarn station, guided by Mr Oswald Jones, guard/driver.
player.bfi.org.uk player.bfi.org.uk
Click to expand...

Probably the same film is on Youtube:

The horses on the Nantlle Railway were replaced by a farm tractor running astride the rails c1960. I saw the farm tractor in use in 1961 at the Nantlle Railway terminus at the foot of the Pen-yr-Orsedd Inclines, which I photographed - sort of. The first photo on a new 35mm camera and I managed to blurr the dam thing ! :(

A horse continued to be used on the internal railway of Dorothea Quarry until late 1963 or early 1964. An article in the February 1964 Quarry Managers Journal mentioned that a horse was still used and it stated: “A point worthy of note is that this company is probably the only one in the country still using a horse in the quarry, owing to its unique mobility in the dressing shed.” However by June 1964 a farm tractor running astride the rails was used to pull the wagons.
 
T

Terry

Western Thunderer
Jordan or Plymouth Mad said:
Apparently it was a poor railway facility that didn't have at least one cat, and the GWR even paid for established station cats with provision for a milk quota.
Click to expand...
And thereby gave the cats stomach pains, diarrhoea, and vomiting! Contrary to myth cats should not be given milk. Water is sufficient.

Terry (Currently a human slave to five cats).
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
I wonder if cats are like (some) humans, in that if they continue to drink milk from their pre-weaning days, they continue to produce rennin and can therefore digest it, but if they stop, the rennin stops and does not restart.

I have enjoyed milk throughout my life and still do. My son won’t touch the stuff, as he reacts as your cats.

Not a biologist/medic, but intrigued. Our cats have always been rehomed so have never been given milk. Never raised kittens.
 
Jordan or Plymouth Mad

Jordan or Plymouth Mad

Mid-Western Thunderer
Terry said:
And thereby gave the cats stomach pains, diarrhoea, and vomiting! Contrary to myth cats should not be given milk. Water is sufficient.

Terry (Currently a human slave to five cats).
Click to expand...
Well as the stories were from the '50s & '60s I guess everyone involved has now passed on, including the cats, so the warning is a bit late?
Anyway as the book said, the milk quota was quite inadequate anyway for a working cat, and railway cats expected to do a whole lot better as far as food went, and as the human staff appreciated the work they did as ratcatchers, they usually did very well.
Sorry this has drifted from railway horses a bit. The book points out that one thing that counted against horses was their weekend welfare. They could not be switched off on Friday evening & started up again Monday morning. :(

20220608_161813.jpg
A cracking read. Highly recommended.
 
A

AllenM

Active Member
Hello all
I don't remember a shunting horse at Kidderminster but in 1956 there was a dark matt grey Pannier tank with GREAT WESTERN on the side.
However I do remember other horses just into the 1950s.
There were horse drawn carts delivering from the station around town. I think the company was Bancroft (or Bancock, similar) which where replaced by the 3 wheel tractor & artic trailer units.
Our CO-OP milk man had a horse and milk float until it was replaced by an electric float. He moaned for weeks about the change because he had to walk twice as far. The horse used to walk up without having to go back to it.
There were horses pulling the narrow boats along the canal with a stable by Mill Street lock. If I pushed hard (as an 8 year old!) to open & close the lock gates I was sometimes given a bit of carrot to feed to the horse.
Then there was the Calder family who kept horses (and may still do) and used them for local 'man with a van' local haulage and scrap till I think the mid 1960s
Also the late Bob Peden who had a horse & cart until the mid 1970s for his mainly scrap business.
Another thing until the very early 1950s when the new site opened was the driving of sheep and cattle on Thursday afternoon from the town centre, Market Street up Oxford Street and Comberton Hill (known locally as Station Hill) to the station yard for loading onto rail. They may have been brought down on a morning but I never saw that if they were.

Very little chance of seeing a car but close watch was needed to avoid the poo (or collect it for the garden)
Sorry for the takeover but it all seemed part of the time period.

Regards
Allen
 
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