Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

All the industries had their own sets of holding and exchange sidings, with NORI housing the engine shed for the industrial locomotive which worked over these lines, the first of which was a 0-4-0 saddle tank, called ‘Whinney Hill’, built by Andrew Barclay & Sons in 1897. Most of the material associated with the manufacture of building materials was held and transferred at the sidings to the west of Bolton Avenue, whilst the fuel and associated products were transferred through the sidings adjacent to Enfield Road. Each of these sites was controlled from a signal box, the one at Huncoat also being responsible for operating the level crossing gates. Highbrake Mill was demolished leaving the brickworks as the only building on Brake Terrace, the brickworks itself standing in part of a disused quarry. By this time it was receiving its raw materials by an elevated conveyor, which carried the shale over half a mile from the Coppice site over Burnley Road into the works. The line fell out of use in the early 1960s and the high viaducts demolished, with the rest of the trackbed turned over to a nature trail in the 1980s that can be walked today, except for where the M65 cuts across at Clough Bank. ( As a boy the cricket field was a great place to go trainspotting. It was just by the side of the footbridge over the railway from Whitewell Road, and also where some exchange sidings were located. I well remember watching a cricket match with my father on a Saturday afternoon, whilst the driver and fireman were shunting wagons on the spur behind the cricket pavilion. They often used to pause for a minute or two to watch the game over the boundary wall, from their elevated perch on the locomotive footplate .) At this particular period in time Bolton Avenue ended as a highway at the railway, but later the road was lowered to enable it to connect with Whinney Hill Road at a ‘T’ junction. During the 1970s the land between the railway and Whinney Hill Road was transformed into an industrial estate, with one works turning out massive concrete girders for the construction industry. By this time the industrial railway had been abandoned and the viaducts removed, although it was and still is possible to walk along the line of the old railway for a good distance. Both the Nori and Redac sites are now housing estates, but the Brick & Tile Company still is capable of manufacturing bricks when it is not being ‘mothballed’. The quarry ceased to be worked for clay in the 1960s and was turned over to a massive land-fill site which at the time of writing is almost full, allowing Whinney Hill to be landscaped and replanted. The coke works also closed in the 1960s leaving the Moorfield estate deserted for a long period. Some of the embankments and cuttings which carried these lines around Whinney Hill can still be walked until they reach the M65 motorway. HUNCOAT’S INDUSTRIAL LOCOMOTIVES Builder’s Abbreviations - AB = Andrew Barclay. FW = Fox Walker. GR = Grant Ritchie. HC = Hudswell Clarke. HE = Hunslet Engine Co. HL = Hawthorne Leslie. MW = Manning Wardle. NB = North British Locomotive Co. S = Sentinel Wagon Works. ST = Saddle-tank. DH = Diesel-hydraulic, coupled wheel arrangement either 0-4-0 or 0-6-0. Huncoat Colliery (MW) ‘ Magnet ’ a 0-6-0ST new 1867, ex-Cronton Colliery, Whiston in 1948, scrapped during 1951. (MW) unnamed a 0-4-0ST new 1881, ex-T.A. Walker (contractor), then Planet Foundry, Guide Bridge. (HL) ‘ Raven ’ a 0-4-0ST new 1883 and scrapped on site during 1969. (WM) ‘ Robin ’ a 0-4-0ST new 1883, ex-Baxenden Colliery, then Bank Hall Colliery, Burnley. (HE) ‘ Kathleen ’ a 0-4-0ST new 1891, ex-Towneley Demesne Colliery, Burnley, then to Bank Hall Colliery, Burnley in 1948. (GR) ‘ John ’ a 0-4-0ST new 1901, ex-Bank Hall Colliery, Burnley in 1956, scrapped during 1958. (MW) ‘ Linnet ’ a 0-4-0ST new 1902, scrapped on site during 1964/65. (MW) ‘ Lark ’ a 0-4-0ST new 1907, scrapped on site during 1964/65. (HC) ‘ George ’ 0-4-0ST new 1917, ex-Bank Hall Colliery, Burnley in 1956, then returned to Bank Hall. (MW) ‘ Kestral ’ 0-4-0ST new 1936, scrapped on site in 1969. (HL) ‘ Falcon ’ 0-4-0ST new 1936, ex-Ince Moss Colliery, Wigan 1961, then to William Pitt Engine Sheds, Cumbria 1968/69. (S) Unnamed 0-4-0 new 1954, during 1955 for demonstration purposes, then to Lancs Steel Corp, Irlam.

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