Ironbridge Coal by David J. Hayes

David J. Hayes looks back at the coal and rail freight operations associated with this Shropshire power station before its closure in late 2015

As has often been the case, what was once an everyday sight can quickly be consigned to history and become nothing more than a distant memory. Who would have thought that the UK would be devoid of a nationwide wagonload network or that the once familiar sight of block trainload deliveries of coal to major power stations using the effi cient air braked Merry-Go-Round (MGR) concept introduced in the mid 1960s would now, some 55 years later, be an almost extinct species. The MGR type of operation has suffered from the relentless reduction in recent years of coal fired power stations and the switch from burning coal to biomass fuel (wooden pellets) by the few that still survive.

One power plant that burned coal for decades and then switched to a more environmentally friendly renewable fuel source before closing was Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire. Although small in comparison to the likes of Drax and Ratcliffe, Ironbridge still consumed vast quantities of coal, which was conveyed using the MGR delivery method. Such workings were once an everyday part of the rail freight scene in the West Midlands, especially in the Wolverhampton area where the majority of workings to and from the power station could be seen.

The accompanying maps show the railways around Wolverhampton and the wider area as of the mid 1970s, and also pinpoint some of the more localised coal sources to be found in the region at that time, the majority of which dispatched MGR coal services to Ironbridge. Some of these continued to supply the power station throughout the 1980s and well into the 1990s.

Ironbridge Power Station: a brief history

Situated on the banks of the River Severn in the beautiful and historical surroundings of the Ironbridge Gorge, Ironbridge Power Station (also known as Buildwas Power Station) dated from the early 1930s when Ironbridge ‘A’ was offi cially opened in October 1932. This was followed almost 37 years later by the opening of Ironbridge ‘B’ in June 1969. Ironbridge ‘A’ reached its maximum output capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) in 1939, Ironbridge ‘B’ achieving its maximum potential of 1,000 MW in February 1970.

Ironbridge ‘A’ was partially closed in October 1980 and ceased generating completely the following year. Demolition commenced in 1983, although part of the site was granted ‘listed’ status and thus saved. Ironbridge ‘B’ continued generating up until 20th November 2015 when it then closed, having reached its maximum limit of power generation as stipulated under a European Union directive. Decommissioning commenced soon after, with initial demolition works taking place in the summer of 2017 and the cooling towers were brought down at 11am on Friday 6th December 2019.

During its 83 years of power generation, Ironbridge Power Station went through various ownerships. Not surprisingly, railborne coal delivery patterns also varied considerably over the years, the power station consuming coal from various English, Welsh and Scottish sources, and later from cheaper foreign import sources.

Unlike some of the larger UK power stations, where a large ‘balloon’ loop of track(s) allowed for MGR trains to circumnavigate the power station whilst discharging their payload of coal, which was then either conveyor-belted direct to the power plant for burning or to a nearby stockpile, the trackwork configuration at Ironbridge dictated otherwise and locomotives had to run round their trains first prior to unloading.

This article covers the 45 year period from 1970 to 2015 and, in addition to looking in detail at coal operations and touching on oil and biomass traffi cs delivered to the power station, documents rail activity associated with Ironbridge during the British Rail corporate blue era and the various pre- and post-BR privatisation freight operating sectors and organisations.

Ironbridge coal supply: the 1970s

Ironbridge was supplied throughout the 1970s by MGR trains with coal sourced both locally and from a little further afi eld. The majority were powered by slow speed control equipped Class 47s, although members of the Class 50 fl eet were no strangers on Ironbridge MGR turns from the North Staffordshire area and were thus a familiar sight on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) through Stafford during the mid 1970s, as mentioned and illustrated in the editor’s ‘Fifteen hours at Stafford in 1975’ article in TRACTION 259.

As will be seen from the map, the nearest source of coal supply to the power station at that time was Granville colliery, near Donnington, which was reached by a branch line from Stafford Junction, near Wellington. This branch was once part of a through route to Stafford via Gnosall (closed to passenger services in September 1964), but is still in use today to access Telford International Railfreight Park.

Loaded MGR trains from Granville to Ironbridge were required to run round at Wellington and again at Madeley Junction (not to be confused with Madeley Junction between Crewe and Stafford on the WCML), where the branch to the power station diverges from the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line. Other ‘local’ sources of MGR coal supply to Ironbridge were workings from the Cannock area, such as Essington Wood, Littleton and West Cannock.

Those MGRs arriving at Ironbridge Power Station from a little further afi eld at this time included services from Cockshute Sidings (staging point), Daw Mill, Ford Green (Norton colliery), Kidsgrove (Park Farm opencast disposal point), Kingsbury

Sidings (believed to be coal mainly from Baddesley), Silverdale and Trentham; Trentham was the coal output and rail forwarding point for Florence and Hem Heath collieries, which were connected underground.

The empty MGR formations from Ironbridge didn’t always return direct to a colliery or opencast disposal point for reloading and were sometimes sent to such locations as Crewe, Longport, Madeley Chord, Pratts Sidings, Stoke and Washwood Heath until next required.

Table 1 details the coal delivery train plan for Ironbridge as of October 1975, equating to 64 loaded MGRs per week (12 most weekdays, 11 on a Monday and fi ve on a Saturday morning). All services at this time were diagrammed for Class 47 haulage, the exception being the 6G44 oil train from Stanlow, which was booked for a Class 40. How many of these trains actually ran in reality is debatable, though, as all the services were designated as ‘conditional’ and therefore subject to short notice cancellation on a day to day basis, based on whether there was suffi cient demand or traffi c available for movement. Power station coal delivery schedules could be very unpredictable and were thus amended accordingly on a weekly basis despite what was shown in the working time table and local trip booklets.

The Class 47s used for certain Ironbridge workings were also utilised for MGR turns to Rugeley Power Station. For example, the locomotive allocated to the afternoon 6T94 MGR trip from Littleton had earlier worked a morning 6T94 MGR duty from Littleton to Rugeley. Likewise, the Class 47 used for the afternoon 6T95 MGR arrival from Daw Mill had earlier found employment on a Cannock line 6T95 MGR turn from Hednesford to Rugeley. After berthing the empty 30 wagon MGR set at West Cannock colliery, the Brush 4 then ran light engine to Daw Mill to take up the Ironbridge duty.

With the exception of those MGRs from Daw Mill and Granville, all the other MGR services were required to run round in the Wolverhampton area. Although some of these run rounds were booked to take place at Wolverhampton High Level station, the majority were carried out at Cannock Road Junction on what was once the former Great Western Railway route

leading into Wolverhampton Low Level station (see Wolverhampton area map). Likewise, although the majority of MGR empties from Ironbridge ran round at Cannock Road Junction, some ran round at Wolverhampton High Level.

The MGR lengths were somewhat short compared to later years when formations to be found on Ironbridge duties could contain up to 32 or 34 hopper wagons (workings from Daw Mill and Granville had actually been formed of 30 hopper wagons in the early 1970s). Although loaded trains were designated as Class 6, back then this didn’t always relate to 60 mph operation. Despite being air braked, the MGR workings would have been restricted to a maximum of 45 mph when loaded.

New Type 5 workhorse

During late summer 1977, a ‘taster’ of the future motive power for Ironbridge MGR operations was provided by the appearance of the new Type 5 Class 56. No. 56033 had been based at Saltley since mid August for driver familiarisation and was deployed on out and back MGR workings from Kingsbury Sidings to Ironbridge.

The favoured diagram for these driver training runs appears to have been 6G43, the 09:05 SSuX from Kingsbury and the 12:45 return. The same Class 6 headcode was used for both the loaded and return empties, and also for a late afternoon out and back weekday departure to the power station, although it’s not certain as to whether the afternoon duty was used for driver training purposes and, therefore, may have been worked by a Class 47 locomotive (see Table 2 for full diagram details). Perhaps a former Saltley driver could enlighten us?

Based on a picture of the 12:45 return working published in the March 1978 issue of ‘The Railway Magazine’, the MGR wagon set appears to have been rather short at just 20 HAA hoppers. The train, hauled by 56033, was seen coming off the Ironbridge branch at Madeley Junction on Bank Holiday Monday 29th August 1977. Another picture taken two days later of the same loco and train crossing the River Severn on the Albert Edward Bridge appears in the November 1977 issue of the same publication.

By the late 1970s, Littleton colliery, reached by a branch from Littleton Sidings situated on the Stafford to Wolverhampton main line near Penkridge, had become a major source of coal supply for Ironbridge Power Station. By October 1978 there were eight loaded MGR departures scheduled to run each weekday to Ironbridge, all of which were booked for Class 47 haulage and each of which was booked for a 20 minute run round at Cannock Road

Junction (see Table 3).

The Class 47 for the 6T21 diagram was also utilised to work a MGR turn from Granville to Ironbridge, while the Class 47 allocated to the 6T23 duties was utilised to trip Speedlink deliveries of confectionery from Bescot to the Rowntree’s distribution warehouse at Penkridge (connected to the Littleton branch) at the beginning of the day. After fulfi lling its booked Ironbridge itinerary and berthing the MGR empties, it returned the empty ‘chocolate vans’ back to Bescot in the evening in readiness for trunk Speedlink hauling to York.

It appears that faulty green or red carded coal hoppers extracted from MGR sets and left at the power station to await attention, were dealt with by local tripping resources. One such turn utilised the Class 25 locomotive allocated to the Bescot to Wellington trip (T19). The Type 2 would visit Ironbridge to collect any ‘green carders’ and take them to Bescot from where they would most likely be forwarded to the wagon repair depot at Burton-onTrent or perhaps to Toton wagon shops. MGR hoppers used on the Ironbridge circuit requiring attention at Burton were previously gathered and forwarded from Wolverhampton’s Bushbury Sidings.

The early 1980s scene

By the 1980s, the working time tables and local trip booklets showed Ironbridge MGR duties designated as Class 7 (45 mph) when loaded and as Class 6 (60 mph) when empty, this being based on wagon sets being formed of the standard HAA coal hopper. However, some hopper wagons were later equipped with improved braking and suspension systems, thus permitting them to travel at Class 6 speeds when loaded and empty. These were coded HBA, HDA, HMA and HNA, some of which were fi tted with canopies to reduce coal dust ‘blow off’ during transit.

The source of coal supply for Ironbridge during the early 1980s was pretty much the same as that for the 1970s, although there were some omissions, such as the workings from Kidsgrove (Park Farm), Ford Green (Norton) and Granville, all of which had closed in 1976, 1977 and 1979 respectively. Regular MGR coal deliveries continued to arrive at Ironbridge from Daw Mill, Kingsbury (ex-Baddesley), Littleton, Silverdale and Trentham, and these would soon be joined by MGR coal hauls coming from Barrow Hill. Those from Barrow Hill travelled from Wichnor Junction by way of the Lichfi eld to Walsall freight only line, which closed as a through route in March 1984 (see TRACTION 233 & 234).

Littleton was still an important coal source and, as of May 1983, was scheduled to dispatch 20 loaded MGR trains each week to Ironbridge. In addition, there were 15 each booked from Kingsbury and Silverdale, ten each from Barrow Hill and Daw Mill, and fi ve from Trentham, equating

to 75 loaded MGR trains per week. But, again, how many of these actually ran in reality is another matter.

Those from Littleton and North Staffordshire, and their return counterparts, were to benefi t from the opening of the Oxley Chord in August 1983 (see Wolverhampton area map), which eliminated time consuming run rounds and reversals at Cannock Road Junction. In later years, the Oxley Chord would be used by coal trains from the Chatterley Valley opencast disposal point in the Potteries and imports from Liverpool Docks. Further coal workings using the Oxley Chord would later include long hauls from Scotland (imports and opencast) and trains of imported biomass from Liverpool. Block oil train deliveries from Stanlow to Ironbridge also benefi tted from this new piece of track, and could now run by way of Stafford rather than via Shrewsbury, thus avoiding a run round at Madeley Junction in order to access the Ironbridge branch.

By the mid 1980s, the dominant sight of Class 47s on Ironbridge MGR duties had been broken and were now joined by Classes 20 (working in pairs), 56 and

SIMON DEWEY Unknown date in 1971: Two tone green Brush Type 4 No. 1823 (later 47342) takes the Cannock Road spur from Bushbury Junction with a loaded 6L64 MGR for Ironbridge. The letter ‘L’ in the headcode display implies that this was running as a special to the power station, possibly laden with coal from Littleton or North Staffordshire.

SIMON DEWEY Circa late 1970s: 47214 approaches Cannock Road Junction having descended from Stafford Road Junction with an empty working from Ironbridge formed of 25 HAA hoppers. The MGR will soon set back onto the lines visible to the right where the locomotive will run round before heading northwards via Bushbury Junction. The line the train has traversed was once of mixed gauge construction, allowing broad gauge trains to access the former mixed gauge GWR goods facilities at Victoria Basin/Herbert Street (see map), which opened in 1858 to facilitate the trans shipment of goods between the two gauges (Wolverhampton was once the northernmost limit of the GWR’s broad gauge empire). Herbert Street Goods was rebuilt in 1930 and operated by National Carriers from 1967, but closed in March 1972.

SIMON DEWEY October 1982: An unknown Class 47 performing the empty MGR reversal manoeuvre at Cannock Road Junction shows to good effect the rationalised track layout, which dates from January 1970 (there were once extensive sidings in this area for the stabling of empty coaching stock). This was once the approach to Wolverhampton Low Level station for trains from the Shrewsbury and Stafford directions. The line continuing straight ahead and curving round to the left was once part of the GWR main line from London Paddington to Birkenhead Woodside.

March 1983: A loaded and empty Ironbridge MGR ‘meet’ at Cannock Road Junction. Having run round its train on the Bushbury spur, 47302 propels its loaded MGR into the Cannock Road head shunt (once the main line approach to Low Level station). It will then draw forward and pass 47298, and its empty MGR, as it ascends the incline to Stafford Road Junction where it will join the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury main line. Once clear, 47298 will then perform a similar sequence of reversal and run round manoeuvres before heading northwards via Bushbury Junction. THE LATE BRIAN ROBBINS (SIMON DEWEY COLLECTION)

TOM HEAVYSIDE Saturday 11th September 1976: Wolverhampton High Level station witnessed a fair amount of Ironbridge MGR activity even at weekends. 47290 eases an empty working from Ironbridge into the station. The Shropshire power plant at this time was booked to receive Saturday coal deliveries from Daw Mill, Ford Green (ex-Norton), Granville, Littleton and Stafford (believed to be ex-Silverdale). Those from Ford Green and Stafford were booked to run round here rather than at Cannock Road. The MGR seen here could well be 6G58, the 08:18 SO empties from Ironbridge to Daw Mill, which was due through Wolverhampton at 09:57.

JOHN WHITEHOUSE (RIGHT) Tuesday 14th April 1987: 58044 is halfway through unloading its delivery of Baddesley coal at Ironbridge. The photo was taken with permission and courtesy of the CEGB.

MIKE HEMMING Wednesday 12th November 1980: 47228 takes an MGR onto the Ironbridge branch at Madeley Junction as a ‘Peak’ hauled cement train, possibly a special from Penyffordd to Birmingham Curzon Street, approaches from the Shrewsbury direction.