Hi , I'm new here , but recently I was working at a building that appears to have previously been a meat depot, about a mile or so away from Doncaster town centre. I've been looking into the history of the building and area and the best thing I've found so far were old maps at Doncaster library which date the building to between 1935 and 1949. The depot has platforms either side still to this day and is now know as Churchill Business Park, it is split up into units and is off Churchill Road.
The rail line has now been lifted but originally ran from under what is now St Georges Bridge, alongside Mile Thorn Sidings over a bridge over the canal, along Wharf Road, then Churchill Road and eventually followed Wheatley Hall Road. The maps I saw show the line in place 1956 to 1972 at least, but by 1984 it had been lifted.
I'd love to know more information on the area/ line / engines and am interested to know what type of engines would have worked this line , presumably delivering / distributing goods from this depot , I'm told they would be tank engines of some kind but does anyone have any ideas
Hi.
I used to work at the Doncaster ICI Fibres plant (formerly (British) Bemberg and British Nylon Spinners, and latterly DuPont Nylon). This factory was on Wheatley Hall Road. At the entrance to the site (opposite the security lodge) was a weighbridge - this still had railway tracks as part of its surface when I left the site in 1993. Also, as you mentioned regarding the 'platforms' of other nearby buildings, the 'stores' building at ICI also had a platform along its front (in line with the 'rails' of the weighbridge, although no tracks remained). Note that this line would have been at an angle of some 90 degrees (i.e. perpendicular) to the Wheatley Hall Road line, possibly a branch to the factory? Earlier employees of the site might be able to offer more of an insight. (PS I also remember in the late 1970s/early 1980s, that old railway signs still existed along the side of Wheatley Hall Road. These were on the wide grass verge on the north side of the road, obviously the location of the line(s).) Good luck with your enquiries (I would also like to learn more about this section of line).
hi there, i was browsing for 'wheatley hall lner' and this discussion popped up.......
i grew up in Doncaster, and this line always fascinated me. i remember seeing trains on it in the early sixties as a small child as my dad worked at crompton parkinsons.
there always seemed to be brown [bauxite] wagons and i do remember seeing a train hauled by a diesel shunter.
i briefly worked as a van driver in student days at 'castle Frozen foods' and this is the building formerly rail served described by the first poster. there were clearly rails set into the tarmac [date c 1977] and i later took some photos of this and other parts of the line.
for ages, there was a speed restriction sign, long after the rails had gone.
international harvesters still used rail into the late seventies, but tractors were taken by road to shakespeare dock goods depot for shipment by rail. i worked as a temporary driver for NCL/Rail Express Parcels in 1976-78 and there were a lot of spares and other consignments sent via Red Star.
ICI and their later derivatives also used rail at a later date, but not on the branch.
i always felt that this branch was somehow 'hidden' i know of nothing published on it, yet it was a miniature Slough/Trafford Park and very much of its time.
ironically one factory [rockware glass]is still rail served nearby but from a spur constructed 40 years later and from the opposite direction.
Hi I would love to see those photos , many thanks for the insight , much appreciated ! So the whole building was a frozen food depot at that time ? (mid seventies ?) sorry for the late response
Do you know what the tall towers would have been that remain on there ? water towers ? was there ever access to the canal possibly for good to go by water also ?
