LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Nuneaton
Water Orton Station: mrwo1848
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This photograph of Water Orton Sidings was obviously taken
to show the track being made up of rails laid on their sides and spiked direct
to the sleepers without chairs circa early 1950s. Bob Essery recalls as a
fireman being told by one driver that it was a way of reducing the 'tax' on the
sidings. This explanation has yet to be confirmed but this fanciful explanation
might be true because if the railway infrastructure was deemed to be temporary
it might not attract any or reduced business rates. On the other hand it may
well have been a hangover from a war-time economy measure because of the saving
made by not using cast-iron chairs weighing approximately 50 lb each. This
method of track laying would only be practicable in circumstances where wagons
were to be stored for a considerably period of time without being moved such
when storing crippled wagons. The rail fixings are not conventional square in
section spikes normally used to secure a chair to a timber sleeper but appear
are much more flatter with a distinctive curl at one end in order to grip the
rail's flange. What ever the explanation it doesn't appear to be common
practice.
Following an appeal across a dozen or so Facebook pages it
would seem that whilst no one has been able to quote chapter and verse as to
the regulations there appears to sufficient anecdotal evidence that track laid
in this manner is treated as temporary rather than permanent track or possibly
it may be regarded as a tramway. Peter Lee of Nuneaton Steam Club states
'I've come across this before. The railway built the sidings but did not use
them for operational reasons but did not want to pay fully operational railway
rates to the local authority. There was a reduction in local rates if the
railway was built but unusable, and I guess that the MR followed by the LMS
just left them like this in the expectation at some time to reinstate the
track, but never did. There was a similar argument when the Stoke
Golding-Hinckley branch of the Ashby & Nuneaton Joint line was built and
correspondence over the cost of rates went on for some years'.
Other respondents, including Nev Sloper said 'The saving
on tax story was told to me by several people when I was at Saltley'.
Several people also pointed out that the story was repeated in Terry
Esserys book 'Firing Days at Saltley' (Bob Essery's brother) in
which he described them 'stowage sidings'. Several other people quoted this
practice being seen elsewhere, David Ford certainly remembers seeing this done
in several places many years ago. Wayne Fordham and others quoted the practice
of rails on their side was seen inside Eastleigh works. Clive Ericman wrote he
got the following explanation from his brother-in-law. 'We used this system
of rail laying in our works at Ashford. It cannot be used for heavy traffic but
its ok for storing wagons and light vehicles and there would be a strict 10mph
speed limit. The rails used were scrapped main line rails which were too worn
on the normal top side and no longer fit for purpose.'
Photograph from the JM Dunn collection courtesy of the
LNWR Society
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