Norwich aggregates in the 1990s by Chris Lenton
Chris Lenton recalls discovering a new photographic location in Norwich
In the mid 1990s, the Class 47/7 hauled postal services seemed to be the only regular non passenger workings that Norwich had to offer and I spent many evenings watching and photographing them. My article about that particular pursuit, along with my general railway reawakening, was published in TRACTION 244.
One sunny morning in mid July 1996, at the start of the school summer holidays, I had been cycling around the city looking for new places to view and photograph the comings and goings at Crown Point depot. It wasn’t easy to find good vantage points but I had happened upon a newly built housing estate that overlooked the eastern end of the depot. A tall new fence bordered the railway and I had managed to reach over it to capture shots of 47759 and members of Classes 08 and 86 that happened to be on shed. I was changing the fi lm in my camera (to a black and white one, for some reason) when another enthusiast arrived, clearly with similar intentions in mind.
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that, in general, the rule is that you have to go to the locomotives you wish to see, they are unlikely to come to you. I was about to learn that, just occasionally, the opposite is true.
After comparing notes with him about the morning’s sightings, the enthusiast asked if I’d been to see the Redland Aggregates train, which was Class 60 hauled. The Redland plant, I was told, was in Trowse, a short distance from Norwich city centre and almost opposite the platform of the former Trowse station (closed in 1939). The train, he said, was a Monday, Wednesday and Friday working from Mountsorrel granite quarry in Leicestershire and it usually arrived at ‘lunchtime’. As this was the 17th, a Wednesday, and the right time of day, I thanked him and headed off in the Trowse direction without delay.
The Class 60s, meanwhile, had arrived on the scene while I’d been looking the other way. I had been introduced to the class when 60019, resplendent in brand new EW&S livery, was exhibited at the open day at Ipswich wagon repair depot, part of the EUR150 celebrations, on 16th June 1996. I was very keen to see more members of this impressive class but I’d expected to have to travel in order to do so. Now, it seemed, they were coming to me.
I cycled south, past the Norfolk County Council headquarters, over a railway bridge and then down an access road parallel to the main line, which led directly to the Redland plant. There, I was delighted to discover, was 60 076 ‘Suilven’, part way through the lengthy process of unloading its train of Redland liveried PGA hoppers.
I enjoyed the close up views of the loco that I was afforded and I took a number of black and white photographs, high in contrast from the strong sun.
Returning the following Friday, I looked for a different vantage point and found a spot near the Trowse station buildings on the opposite side of the line. This time I’d arrived before the ‘Redland’ but was kept entertained by 37174, in drab all over departmental grey livery, shunting a short train of ‘Seacows’ into a siding before departing light engine. Presently, 60073 ‘Cairn Gorm’ rolled in from the west with its train of pale green hoppers and I was able to witness the unloading process once again.
The manoeuvres involved splitting the train into two parts and shunting the first half into the plant for unloading before depositing the empties into a siding just beyond the site. The second set of wagons was then collected and emptied before the train was reformed and departed empty for March yard. The whole performance lasted a couple of hours.
Thus began a period of regular trips to see the ‘Redland’. To begin with, the Class 60 was invariably a Mainline-branded example from the Toton ENAN pool but
later, following the EWS takeover, things became a bit more varied, with examples from all three former freight companies being seen. An interesting livery variation was noted on 14th July 1999, one of my last visits, when 60066 ‘John Logie Baird’ appeared with a ‘black diamond’ coal sector emblem covering its Transrail ’T’ logo. Locos other than Class 60s, however, were rare. I photographed only a couple of instances: EWS-liveried 58016 in December 1996 and later, in February 1999, 66020 provided a taste of things to come.
We moved from Norwich to Suffolk in 1997 and visits to Trowse became much less frequent. My notes reveal that my last visit was on 28th July 1999, when 60050 was present.