PROTOTYPE FACTFILE
Tinsley’s marshalling yard was the largest in the world when built, but it never reached its full potential. BOB BARTLEY looks at its life and times.
To the casual observer standing on the site of the former marshalling yards at Tinsley in Sheffield in 2021, there is little to suggest that it was once the home of a state-of-theart system designed to streamline freight by rail for the area. From its inception in 1965 to its run-down just 20 years later, it performed adequately, but was never the powerhouse it was designed to be.
By the early 1960s, it was estimated that a tenth of Britain’s railfreight traffic originated from the heavy industrial area of Sheffield. It was an area rich in coal and metals production, but relied on an outmoded 19th-century rail systems for its distribution. One of the recommendations of the Sheffield District Rail Rationalisation Plan was the merging of all the district’s freight yards into one super-yard, together with the closing of the bulk of the former steam sheds in the area. By 1963, Tinsley, located on the short – 3.5 miles – Sheffield District freight access line was chosen as the site for not only the yard, but also a new locomotive shed to handle the motive power for the expected traffic.
New connections were added to the site, which was ideally situated to access the new Sheffield Freight Terminal at Grimesthorpe and the Freightliner Terminal at Masborough, in nearby Rotherham. With the early opening of the modern 41A Tinsley shed in 1964, the old steam sheds at Millhouses and Canklow were eradicated while others, such as Darnall, were downgraded.
ENTER THE HUMP
At the time, British Railways had placed great faith in its modernised yards, with the huge marshalling layouts at Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire and Toton in Nottinghamshire using early semi-automated hump systems. These were controlled from a central control tower in the yard and Tinsley was no different. From the outset, it was designed to function as a freight hub where trains would be received, split and classified whether for unloading, onward movement around the country, or to be sent forwards as short, local trip freights.
The yard’s 11 reception sidings were located on a 1-in-260 gradient, rising to 1-in-40 for the hump itself. An American system dating from 1903, hump shunting used gravity to direct wagons, which as they rolled downhill were sorted into the 50 sorting sidings from the tower using primitive computers with peg controls. To assist with the movement of each wagon, engineering firm Dowty provided 2,300 track-mounted control devices which either slowed down a wagon that was rolling too fast or gave it a boost if it was not fast enough. The wagons could also be sent either to a rapid departure yard of ten sidings, or a local secondary yard of 25 sidings which also had a smaller hump system in place.
Motive power in the Tinsley yards was provided by three bespoke shunter locomotives D4500-4502, later known as Class 13s 13001-3 (MR279). In theory, Tinsley was a shining example of how rail could be managed in the modern age, and it was opened on October 29 1965 by Dr Richard Beeching, then-chairman of the British Railways Board. To add to its work, the Manchester-sheffield-wath electrified route was introduced early on. The entire yard was not electrified, however, and diesel traction was often used to manoeuvre the departing electrified trains into the correct sidings for onwards movement.
GOING DOWNHILL
From its earliest days, Tinsley was in direct competition with increasing road traffic, notably the creation and expansion of the motorways. Hard on the heels of this came the severe economic slumps of the 1970s, and freight traffic began to suffer with the
Above: ‘Master and Slave’ Class 13 No. 13003 crests the hump at Tinsley Yard, in January 1978. Tinsley shed is in the background, with the 1,500V DC electrified lines to the left. RAIL PHOTOPRINTS
Left: At its height, Tinsley diesel shed had over 200 engines of many classes allocated to its books, including 08/13/20/25/31/37/40/45/47 and 56, with the latter’s initial Romanian-built batch being sent there for rectification and acceptance before entering service. RAIL PHOTOPRINTS
increased decline of the industrial heart of Britain. As the 1980s dawned, Tinsley’s future looked bleak – a situation exacerbated by the closure and removal of the electrified lines in 1981. By December 17 1984, the end was in sight, and the hump, wagon control system and arrival sidings all were closed for the final time. The faithful Class 13s were withdrawn shortly afterwards, with all scrapped by May 1985.
From those first closures in 1984, the yard was progressively pared down in stages until 2007 when the final sidings in use – for steel trains – were lifted and relaid as a smaller yard. The control tower and some buildings survived in dereliction as late as 2013 before they were also demolished. Tinsley depot lasted until March 27 1998 when, 34 years after opening, it closed its doors for the final time.
Tinsley was, sadly, a brilliant concept in the wrong time. By the time of its inception, it was already rapidly becoming obsolete and never reached its full potential or capacity. Now, 56 years later, we can look back in hindsight and imagine what might have been if the economic landscape had been more fruitful.