Cricklewood 1948 Locomotive Exchanges ex-LNE B1 4-6-0 on Up Manchester express geograph-2298496-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Brent sidings was an important

marshalling yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...

and freight facility on 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 am ...

extension to London.

History

The sidings were situated on both sides of the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...

between and stations, close to the triangle formed where the Dudding Hill Line left the main line. When the line from the midlands was quadrupled, the two eastern tracks were used by goods trains; to enable these to reach Brent sidings, a flyover was provided at Silkstream Junction, north of .

Coal traffic

Coal trains, each consisting of up to 85 wagons, were despatched from the marshalling 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 ...

(between

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

and

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

), and received at Brent sidings. Here, they were split up and forwarded to the Midland Railway's own coal depots around London, and also to the London area marshalling yards belonging to other railways.

Locomotives

The coal trains from Toton were so heavy that two

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

locomotives were usually required; from 1927, special

LMS Garratt The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Garratt was a class of Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2 steam locomotive designed for heavy freight. A total of 33 were built from 1927, making them the most numerous class of Garratt in Britain. Overview After ...

locomotives were built for this traffic, one of which could handle a similar load as two of the normal locomotives.

Notes

References

* * Midland Railway Rail yards in the United Kingdom {{England-rail-transport-stub