What are the piles of soil next to Woking Station?

[Fazaar1889]

It's been there for years. Also, as the train goes past, there is a disused(?) platform next to it. Does anyone have any information about its history?

 

[simonw]

View attachment 153448
It's been there for years. Also, as the train goes past, there is a disused(?) platform next to it. Does anyone have any information about its history?

It's not soil, it's a stone depot with regular deliveries. The structure is an old goods e pot.

 

[Fazaar1889]

It's not soil, it's a stone depot with regular deliveries.

Ah interesting! I assume that the stone is sold or something?

The structure is an old goods e pot.

Apologies, what does this mean?

 

[yorksrob]

Night soil ?

 

[Gloster]

The stone is brought up from the Mendip in lengthy trains and is used by the construction industry as aggregate. I think e pot should be depot and it is a left over from traditional goods or parcels traffic.

Night soil ?

If it was you would be able to smell a pile that high from Waterloo.

 

[Surreyman]

As said, been there for years, aggregates, sand, gravel etc for the construction industry.
Usually a daily class 66 or 59 can be seen and a string of wagons loading and unloading.

 

[Fazaar1889]

Usually a daily class 66 or 59 can be seen and a string of wagons loading and unloading.

Do you know the time of day? Perhaps I may be able to spot it if I travel in that direction

 

[Gloster]

As said, been there for years, aggregates, sand, gravel etc for the construction industry.
Usually a daily class 66 or 59 can be seen and a string of wagons loading and unloading.

What do they load: I thought it was stone out from Somerset, empties back?

 

[yorksrob]

The stone is brought up from the Mendip in lengthy trains and is used by the construction industry as aggregate. I think e pot should be depot and it is a left over from traditional goods or parcels traffic.



If it was you would be able to smell a pile that high from Waterloo.

Probably good that it isn't in that case !

 

[swt_passenger]

@Fazaar1889
There’s a previous discussion of the down yard goods platform including photos and maps here:

Curious to know what this structure was for at Woking station

Just west of the main station area at Woking there is a small platform with a full size canopy just south of the main lines in amongst some sidings. It looks largely disused now, but I wondered what it was used for previously. It's a lowish platform, looks to be made of concrete, with a large...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Fazaar1889]

@Fazaar1889
There’s a previous discussion of the down yard goods platform including photos and maps here:

Curious to know what this structure was for at Woking station

Just west of the main station area at Woking there is a small platform with a full size canopy just south of the main lines in amongst some sidings. It looks largely disused now, but I wondered what it was used for previously. It's a lowish platform, looks to be made of concrete, with a large...

www.railforums.co.uk

Thank you!

 

[simonw]

Ah interesting! I assume that the stone is sold or something?

Apologies, what does this mean?

Depot

 

[Fazaar1889]

Depot

Oh my mistake. Thanks

 

[simonw]

Oh my mistake. Thanks

No need to apologise, it was a typo I made that I failed to spot.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Here's the Down Yard parcel dock in slightly happier times. Even by the 70's it rarely (if ever) got used for parcels traffic, or anything else, this being largely dealt with in the main goods shed that was adjacent to the Down Bay (Plat 6) at the station. Every evening there was an amount of shunting with one of the resident 09's positioning vans various (CCT's, BGs, PMV's etc) in to position, ready for the next days early attachments/detachments from those Down mail trains that stopped at Woking for that purpose.
In the pic the Pillbox brake, DS56086 is on the nearest siding to the yard side of the dock. This side had no rail siding serving the dock, but was the domain of road vehicles/vans. The other side of the dock (on the main line side) had the rail siding alongside the platform.

Add-on: it was the siding that served this dock that was used during Woking 150, a temporary unloading ramp being set up London end of the dock, for unloading certain exhibits such the USA tank 30072 from their road transport.

 

[Adrian Barr]

I assume that the stone is sold or something?

The stone terminal is operated by Day Aggregates with the train typically arriving around 09:00 and leaving around 15:30 several times a week (days may vary depending on customer requirements)

There are piles of different types of aggregate ready for distribution by lorry, but the whole depot appears to be raised up to a higher level using a large amount of aggregate (possibly to make it easier to offload the trains)

For example see this photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_dentons_linesidephotos-europe/9566249670/

Brief clip of offloading in action:

For a general idea of operations at a similar stone terminal, the Ashville Aggregates Youtube channel has some interesting videos

 

[swt_passenger]

The stone terminal is operated by Day Aggregates with the train typically arriving around 09:00 and leaving around 15:30 several times a week (days may vary depending on customer requirements)

There are piles of different types of aggregate ready for distribution by lorry, but the whole depot appears to be raised up to a higher level using a large amount of aggregate (possibly to make it easier to offload the trains)

I’ve seen that technique used in a few places, eg at Fareham, where there’s a fairly large pile of aggregate the length of the train that the machines never seem to reduce. I suppose they’d have to use it if there was a sudden huge demand and the trains didn’t get through…

 

[Otis]

Workings into the aggregrate sidings include:

6O02 from Westbury Lafarge FL 0908
6Y55 from Angerstein Wharf DB 1421
7Y55 from Hoo Junction Wharf DB 1421

Not all of these services run every weekday, and the latter two are either/or/or not at all

I've seen 6Y55 a few times, you can get good photos from the path over the railway from York Road, GU22 7XW. You can park here for free at certain times of the day.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

there is a disused(?) platform next to it. Does anyone have any information about its history?

Looking at a couple of Middleton Press books, the covered loading dock wasn't there in 1913, but there appear to be (from maps in said books) a couple of side loading docks alongside the siding concerned, and an end loading dock on another siding further to the South in the yard, all open to the elements, and all to the London end of where the present derelict dock stands.
From another photo in one of said volumes I think the covered dock (as is today) may have been erected in LSWR days, ie pre 1923, but can't be sure as the image (taken from a distance) is not that clear further back/in the distance.

The side loading and end loading docks (above) must have all been demolished round about the time the present structure was put up, as no trace remains of them. There was, until the present aggregates business took over the yard, an end loading dock further West, on a short siding approximately due South of Woking Junction itself.

During the 1980's there was also an additional steel framed covered structure put up over the same siding that serves the original covered dock. This addition butted up to, but was not attached to the older structure, at the station end, and was somewhat wider than the older structure, in that it stretched over the entire 'roadway' between the siding mentioned, and the next siding to the South (the one with the brake van standing on, in my earlier image), but did not, as far as remember, cover that siding. This structure may have been only there for a few years, and again, by the time the aggregate business was in place, this newer structure had disappeared, but I can't be any more specific date wise.

Attached a segment of a plan (dated from BR days) of the yard area, with the original covered dock (roof line) highlighted with red dots, and the newer, but short lived extension shown by a solid red lined rectangle. Apologies about shaky hand..

Never took any pics of either structure in their entirety, or in close detail (one comes to regret such things), but also a couple of views, one from over on the UP side through the more recent fencing, and one portraying part of the Woking 150 event, and what was (at the time I believe) Slade Green's pride and joy (08600), the view showing part of the newer structure - the best I can do!

 

[Dr_Paul]

It's been there for years. Also, as the train goes past, there is a disused(?) platform next to it. Does anyone have any information about its history?

Perhaps it's building material for Woking Council's skyscraper-building scheme, which has been such a wonderful money-making venture for the council and council-tax-payers alike?