A couple of visits to Ribble Rail / The Ribble Steam Railway by bike and bus.
On a couple of occasions recently I visited Ribble Rail, or the Ribble Steam Railway, in Preston. It has two identities as on occasional weekday mornings it moves tanks of Bitumen to a terminal on the docks and on a weekend and summer Wednesday it's a heritage railway offering train rides and a museum of industrial locomotives.
The heritage railway opened in 2005 on what was at the time a part of the disused system of lines serving Preston Docks having moved from Steamport at Southport which had closed in 1999. Freight trains to Total's terminal on the docks resumed with one of a pair of Sentinel shunters "Enterprise" and "Progress" taking the wagons from the exchange sidings.
The line is connected to the mainline south of Preston station. After crossing Strand Road on a level crossing it passes a set of gates where the privately operated lines meet the Network Rail operated lines. A single line between the River Ribble and the south side of the dock survives now with the lines that ran along the north side of the docks and in to Dick Kerr's works having been removed. A retail park now occupies the north side of Preston Docks. The bitumen terminal is north of the lock entrance to the dock so trains use a new bridge over the lock to access the terminal and the Ribble Steam Railway's sheds and museum. This sees trains running along the road that crosses the same bridge, I believe this is the last remaining street running of a standard gauge train in the UK.
Firstly visiting the railway in its industrial railway guise. This is an unusual opportunity to see traditional methods of working where a shunter takes wagons from a mainline exchange siding. I got details of the mainline working in to the exchange sidings from the Realtime Trains website by entering Colas Ribble Rail in to the Location box and changing the When? box to 0600 - 2000. Ususally it arrives about 0840 three days a week. I brought my folding bike on the train to Preston to enable me to chase the trip working along the docks.
Below - Progress waiting at the exchange sidings alongside Port Way for the mainline train to arrive.
Below - The mainline train arrives and the Colas loco is detached and is run on to the other end of a rake of empty wagons behind the full wagons it has just brought in.
Below - Colas Rail Freight's General Electric loco 70807 running round on to the empty wagons.
Below - Progress dropping on to the full wagons the Class 70 has just brought in.
The full wagons are taken in two or three trips to Total's terminal to the north of the lock.
Below - Progress with part of the train crossing the bridge over the lock entrance.
After photographing the shunter taking part of the train of full wagons crossing the bridge I returned to the Strand Road crossing to get the mainline loco crossing Strand Road with the empty wagons.
Below - 70807 departing with the full wagons. Note the original gate posts of the dock railway system. The line on the left is from the trap points that protect the mainline connection.
I returned on a summer Wednesday (this time by bus from the centre of Preston to the McDonalds at the western edge of the retail park at the docks). A diesel railbus was in operation and this ran up to the track protecting the mainline connection in the photo above. On summer Sundays steam trains run to the exchange sidings where they can run round.
Below - Pecket 2003 John Blenkinsop in the steam railway's museum. This previously worked at Salwick Nuclear Works not far from Preston.
Below - Barclay John Howe in the museum building.
More information about visiting can be found on the Ribble Steam Railway website.
