The LNER Encyclopedia

What happened to the fast 'Windcutter' coal trains when the GC main line was mostly closed in September1966?

They ran between Annesley and Woodford Halse, thence onwards to the south and south-west. Were they diverted via Midland routes, or just cancelled?

Come to think of it, the GC mainline was a major freight artery. Its closure must have made things difficult for the rest of the network.

Hi Fair question, can we assume they went the same way as New England/Ferme Park &Wellingborough/Brent Traffic mainly coal& with the introduction of the Smokeless Fuels Act in London & the following run down, which gained traction in the early'60's, the need reduced for this kind of Traffic,the only later one I can remember was the Toton/Willesden train, servicing a nearby Power Station with purpose built Hoppers,usually 9F or Stanier 2-8-0 hauled and Toton(18A) based .jj

You could be right. Annesley's allocation of 9Fs and 8Fs started to be dispersed around about July 1965, possibly indicating that there was no longer any work for them. From my scanning of BR Databse it doesn't seem as though any other shed picked up the slack.

While the demand for housecoal had certainly declined by the mid-1960s in London and the southeast, it would still have been required by industry and for power generation.

Given that the coal contained in the Windcutter wagons probably came from the general Kirkby In Ashfield area, it would be quite straightforward to run some of the trip workings to Mansfield coal sidings and then send them in trains to Whitemoor via the GN&GE. There certainly continued to be a large number of coal trains between those two yards in the late 1960s.