tarboat's photos with the keyword: sleeper

The staff stand by the doors as passengers leave the Great Western sleeper service on arrival at Penzance. A scene from my 2018 Rail Rover tour of Britain.

It's just after 5.30am and I have alighted from the Highland Sleeper at Crewe after a journey from Aberdeen. 92 014 now awaits the road for London whilst most passengers continue to sleep.

A few minutes before departure 57303 waits at London Paddington with the Great Western sleeper service for Penzance.

05.31am and the southbound Highland Sleeper sees a crew change whilst it is stopped at Crewe Station.

Drivers exchange places in the cab of 92 014 during the 5.30am stop of the Highland sleeper service at Crewe. I had just 30 minutes to wait before catching the first morning service to Manchester.

57 303 rests at the buffer stops in Penzance having delivered the Night Riviera sleepers right on time.

I spotted these whilst out walking a few days ago, but it was raining so hard that I couldn't risk getting the camera out of the bag. Today the sun was shining and so I was off up to Mow Cop Edge to get a shot. These are stone sleeper blocks from the Congleton Railway of c1807, now incorporated into a wall alongside the former route of this line. The track used was oval iron bars about 3ft long with a foot cast into the ends. The wheels on the trams were double flanged according to Farey in his General View of the Agriculture of Derbyshire vol 3 (1817). The line, which brought coal from Stonetrough Colliery in Staffordshire to a wharf on the outskirts of Congleton, had only a short life and was abandoned some time after the opening of the Macclesfield Canal in 1831

In June 1845 the Manchester & Birmingham Railway opened a branch line from Cheadle Hulme to the Albert Pit of Lord Vernon's Poynton Collieries. This opened up a wide market for the coal and led to a rapid expansion of output in the coalfield. It is likely that when first built this line used stone blocks rather than wooden sleepers to carry the rails although the advantages of the latter soon saw stone replaced with wood. Bearing in mind how many stone blocks would have been required, it is surprising how scarce they are these days, presumably having been carried off for re-use in building works around the district or even further afield once they became redundant. Recently two blocks have been discovered at Poynton which look very much as if they were from the railway. This example bears the cut away for a metal chair which would have been attached to two oak pegs driven into holes drilled into the stone. There is also a suggestion of a possible second style of chair in the centre with only one hole for fixing. This has left a rectangular cutout across the elongated oval. I have been unable to find out for certain about the use of stone blocks by the Manchester and Birmingham Railway and would welcome further information if anyone knows more about the subject.