Colwick Marshalling Yard geograph-2986296-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Colwick marshalling yard, also known as Colwick sidings, was a large railway marshalling yard in Netherfield,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

designed for the concentration of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

traffic from the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield for transfer to other marshalling yards in London. It was built by the Great Northern Railway in the triangle formed by the

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

line, and the Nottingham-Derby line, close to what would become Netherfield and Colwick station. It was built in stages from 1872 and was closed by British Railways in April 1970. The site has now been developed as the Victoria Retail Park.

History

Until the 1870s the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

had a monopoly of the coal traffic from the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield. In 1852 the Great Northern Railway (GNR) main line had reached

Grantham railway station Grantham railway station is on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom, serving the town of Grantham, Lincolnshire. It is down the line from and is situated on the main line between to the south and to the north. Two secondary lines ...

where it met the

Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway The Ambergate, Nottingham and Boston and Eastern Junction Railway was a British railway company, which hoped to connect Lancashire with the port of Boston, in Lincolnshire. It was authorised in 1846 but was unable to raise much money. It opened ...

. The GNR agreed with this company to operate its services thereby giving it access to

from London. Eventually in 1861 the GNR leased this line and began to develop freight its services from the coalfield in conjunction with its planned extension into Derbyshire and Staffordshire. In 1870 the GNR purchased of land at Colwick to create a new marshalling yard,

motive power depot The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine she ...

, repair workshop and staff accommodation. By 1876 sidings for 1150 wagons were complete. The GNR line from Nottingham to Derbyshire and Staffordshire was opened in 1878 and the new marshalling yard was situated in the ensuing triangle of lines. By 1879 of coal were being handled, and the continued growth necessitated further extension to the sidings in 1881. The completion of the GNR routes into the coalfield brought about further growth in 1890 and 1900. Colwick Sidings - geograph

Colwick was one of the largest marshalling yards of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) after 1923. The decline in its use of the facility began after the advent of British Railways (BR) in 1948. During the 1950s, the fortunes of the yard matched the decline in use of coal. In 1954 100,000 wagons were handled each month, but this had fallen to 90,000 by 1957 and 70,000 in 1959. The closure of Mapperley Tunnel after a rockfall in April 1960, further reduced the traffic using Colwick, so that barely 50,000 wagons were being handled by 1960. The yard was transferred to the

London Midland Region of British Railways The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

in 1966 and its remaining traffic was diverted to the nearby marshaling yards at

Toton Toton is a large village in the Borough of Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, England. The electoral ward of Toton and Chilwell Meadows population of this ward was 7,298 in the 2001 census. It increased to 8,238 at the 2011 census. Until 1974 Toton ...

. The facility was almost entirely closed 12 April 1970 and is now the site of the Victoria Retail Park.

Motive power depot

The first locomotive servicing depot at Colwick predates the marshalling yard and was opened by the

in 1858. However, the GNR greatly extended the facility in line with the growth of the yard. Facilities included repair shops, coaling plant and a turntable. On 31 December 1922, when the GNR handed over to the LNER there were 231 locomotives allocated to Colwick (almost entirely heavy freight and suburban passenger locomotives). This number had declined to 197 by 31 December 1947 when BR took over. The depot was closed to steam in December 1966.

References

* {{coord , 52, 57, 37, N, 1, 4, 2, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB-NTT, display=title Rail yards in the United Kingdom 1870 establishments in England Transport in Nottingham Great Northern Railway (Great Britain) Railway depots in England