The LNER Encyclopedia

Looking for any info, reference or photos of the beer trains from Burton on Trent, or Burton Upon Trent as I remember it over the GNR line

Thanks in advance

Hi

can't provide a reference, but previous correspondence on another subject, elicited a response that York-based B16 4-6-0s hauled a regular beer service between York Dringhouses and Burton-on-Trenr in BR times.

Good luck

Greedy Boards

Many thanks for that GB, I should have mentioned in my original post the period I was interested in was the late 1930s but ......... purely by chance I was presented with a copy of Brewery railways of Burton on Trent today & that mentions the York trains hauled by B16s, even better these started in LNER days, another loco for the wishlist then

There is probably more available on the LMS and LM region trains, but there are two good books, both now OOP on Burton Railways by Nelson Twells.

At one time, just about every major brand in England had a Brewery at Burton.
Bass, Ratcliffe and Gretton,
Worthington & Co.Ltd.
Mann Crossman & Paulin Ltd.
Ind Coope & Allsop.
Marston, Thompson & Evershed.
Truman, Hanbury & Buxton Ltd.
Everards.

There were at one time many smaller concerns but these disappeared through amalgamations etc.

Beer traffic was intense until the 1930s, when Breweries set up their own laboratories and chemists produced a way to 'Burtonise' water. The water for Burton beer is drawn from artesian wells through Gypsum bearing strata and it is the Gypsum which gives the water its properties - those who indulge in home brewing may know that you often get a bag of plaster to put in with the mash! Nearby Tutbury had Gypsum works and this traffic was also worked over the NSR/GNR via Derby Friargate.

Once Burtonised water could be created on site a number of the larger breweries forsook Burton - those in bold above are some.

Another traffic was 'sour beer' (when something went wrong) and this was transported in rail tankers to the producers of Malt Vinegar , Sauces and Pickles. Modern food regulations put an end to this traffic, which in recent times was carried by road tanker.

Cheers SJ

I have one of the books by H.N.Twells, there's a couple of photos from the 50s featuring K3s leaving Hawkins Lane sidings but nothing on LNER freight trains, I've just ordered a copy of the Friargate Line, Derby & the Great Northern, hopefully that might yield some images, sadly after a quick read of the Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent it looks like my image of a Colwick K3 hauling a rake of Bass, Worthington, Allsopps & Marstons vans is wishful thinking

On the other hand it might give me an excuse to model some LNER grain wagons bound for Burton

I left Burton in 1970 & when I returned to work on the railways there in the late 1980s just about every trace of the Great Northern had been erased or covered in tarmac, I always remember Burton as a town built around the Breweries & their railways. God knows how the lorries ever made it in & out of town with 32 level crossings to negotiate

Regards

AS

Certainly there was grain traffic into Burton from Lincolnshire via the GN - there were maltings in various locations in the east and grain either arrived 'raw' or was dealt with in the Maltings at Burton.

I am fortunate that my ancestors came from Burton and worked in the Brewing Industry, and still have several contacts who can remember the good old days.

Now Marstons did have some pubs 'out east' due to a takeover back in the 1920s and I am sure that their fleet of green lorries didn't venture that far. The railway acted as carter for the breweries in certain remote locations until the big amalgamations of the 1960s brought about distribution centres and road transport for everything. I remember being told that Marshall's Social Club (The traction engine people) at Gainsborough offered Pedigree and that was delivered by British Railways from Gainsborough Goods no doubt along with other stuff for the Works.

The other thing to remember that beer was often bottled remotely - a large number of aerated water manufacturers who had bottling facilities acted as bottlers and distributors. Although the most common product to be remotely bottled was Guinness Bass Red Label, Worthington Green Shield, and Ind Coope Double Diamond were also bottled elsewhere and in some cases the bottler received delivery by rail tanker.

An interesting subject delving into transport and social history which could do with a lot more research.

A very interesting subject indeed, are any of your ancestors by chance named Bailey, Cooper (no guesses what they did for a living), Ford or Smith?

I was researching our family roots & discovered some of my ancestors had moved up from Suffolk in the 19th Century to Burton to work in the breweries, they probably started off their careers growing the raw materials & then ended up brewing them.

Unfortunately the breweries were aleady in decline by the time I was born, as was the railway system but I'm lucky enough to remember the gridlock caused by the level crossings & acres & acres of sidings, grain warehouses etc. not to mention the smell, especially Saturday mornings when Robirch burned the animal bones, while on that slightly unpleasant subject I can remember being able to hear the poor pigs squealing from the station as they met a premature end

The book on the Friargate line has proved to be a very worthwile investment & even includes a photo of one of the B16 hauled beer trains.

Regards

AS

Hi There. New Kid on the block. Finally-finally made it!

I was 21 years of age in the glorious summer of 1959 when my parents moved into Beech Drive Stretton, our house was one house away from the railway lines, the end of the road was truncated by an iron railing fence.

We soon got used to the rumble and noise as the trains went by, but there was one particular time of day, around 6.30 in the evening, when a train would come thundering by and my dog would frantically chase along an adjacent cinder path, yapping and barking in the direction of Stretton crossing until he gave up the chase and returned to base to regroup.

I wasn't familiar with the workings of the line except for the Tutbury Jinny, and that was only because of its regularity. I was vaguely interested in railways and had been since childhood, but such was the permanency of their presence I never really took much notice.

In those days the Burton A38 by-pass had not yet been conceived let alone built, neither had the hundreds of houses that were earmarked for social expansion. Consequently Stretton was essentially still a pastoral village on the northern boundary of Burton.

At the bottom of our garden was a wicket gate set in a large hawthorn hedge, which led into the fields down to the Trent & Mersey canal, the only concession to modernity (or some might say blot on the landscape) was the presence of Pirelli factory. So it was after tea I would take my permanently assembled fishing rod down to the canal side behind the factory, where there was a sluice outflow which hopefully attracted the fish to bite.

The summer of 1959 must rank amongst the best of the 20th century. Having settled down for an evenings fishing the evening became refreshingly cooler, tranquility reigned until an unmistakeable explosive bark of an engine's exhaust heralded into view a heavily laden beer train straining every muscle as it determinedly thrashed its way up the gradient - north eastwards and on to Derby Friagate and beyond.

Attentively sat fishing, about 200 yards to my right was a railway bridge over the canal, where an unremarkable shelter-like signal cabin guarded Stretton junction, a branch running off rightwards to Shobnall sidings, continuing straight on soon brings you to another bridge crossing the Derby road, there dropping down the other side into Hawkins Lane terminus sidings, formerly the Great Northern Railway good depot.

Such was the permanency of the scene, if intent on my task fishing, things railway would be ignored until another tomorrow.

It was interesting that the canal at this time was clogged with weeds and lily pads, Jeremy Fisher, would've been very much at home here, all of which suggested there was almost no boat traffic, in fact I cannot remember any at all, not like today, where there is a constant stream of narrow boats in both directions.

Today, apart from the Pirelli factory and the disused railway bridge, and the canal itself, nothing of those times remain, Stretton has been transformed by the severing of the village by the A38 By-pass, one can no longer exit the garden wicket gate and stroll down to the canal, for the motor way and and housing bars your path. Gone are the fields and hedgerows, replaced by the constant rush and roar of the traffic, house building expansion had been a constant since a young man sat contentedly fishing - with an intermittent gaze of the hypnotic effect of a steam train in full throat. The trackbed has transformed into a main artery connection from the Derby Road to the environs of Stretton's modern metropolis. An old crossing keeper's cottage survives rather incongruously among the new.

I wrote something a few years ago in which included ...

"My interest was sport, football and cricket, when not doing either I enjoyed fishing, I used to fish the canal at the back of the Pirelli factory, in those days it was quite rural, you might even say countryside, nearby was the Tutbury Jinny railway line, where steam hauled beer trains battled their way over the gradient up to Stretton, the trains and the track have long since gone, replaced by tarmac and an endless stream of traffic. The once Pirelli car park just up the road is now covered with houses, as is the entire area; it is barely recognisable from the pastures and hedgerows of my fishing days."

Memories are made of this.

Hope I haven't rambled or strayed too far off topic.