Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

regard to the ongoing campaign to have a footbridge built to connect Scaitcliffe Street directly onto the platforms at Accrington Railway Station. It was resolved to appoint a deputation, which included representatives of these residents to meet with the Directors of the L & Y to urge them to give effect to this proposal. The Health Committee heard that the subway under the railway close to the Corporation’s yard was repeatedly flooding, to the extent that it became impassable in bad weather due to poor drainage. It was resolved a deputation would make an inspection of the subway, whilst at the same time considering the proposal to erect a urinal in the immediate vicinity! A meeting of the Health Committee received a letter from the Engineer of the L & Y, in which it was stated the work of stopping water from running out of the Scaitcliffe Street Bridge and the ‘other’ bridges where problems of this kind had occurred, had been in hand for some time. However, due to bad weather the work had been temporarily suspended but as soon as it relented the work would be completed with as little delay as possible. In late December a letter was received from the Engineer of the L & Y with regard to a complaint made about water dripping down from the railway bridges on Eagle Street and more specifically Scaitcliffe Street. He explained that the work of rectification was in hand, but had been temporarily suspended due to the bad weather. It was also decided that a gentleman’s urinal would be built under the railway bridge at the junction of Eagle Street with Ormerod Street. 1898 The second of Accrington’s engine sheds was turned over to use as a carriage shed, when a third ( and final ) engine shed was constructed a further 300 yards further towards Church. The cost of this adaptation amounted to £190. During 1875 the then new Chief mechanical Engineer of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, Barton Wright, on taking up his post, had made an inspection tour of the facilities for the repair of engines all across the company’s system. As a result of this he drew up a blueprint for 30 new locomotive sheds, of which Accrington was one. This incorporated a north-light roof and a shedmaster’s office with a bay window overlooking the yard. With access off Charter Street and backing onto Lonsdale Street, it required deeper foundations than the contractors, Hulme & King, had first anticipated, which meant it exceeded the original tender for its construction of £38,840, the final bill being £52,859 It had eight dead end roads all covered by a north light roof. Accrington shed contained a wheel-drop on Road No1, and heavy lifting equipment, which allowed it to carry out major repairs to the largest locomotives. On Road No 3 was a wheel turning lathe, also had sand drying equipement situated to the rear of Road No1, which was adjacent to an outside road, where wagons containing sand were stabled. This enabled the sand to be shovelled through a hatch into the kiln. Initially it had a hand winched crane capable of lifting loads up to 25 tons, built by Knapman & Co. This was accompanied by a second wagon known as a 'jib runner ', which supported the arm of the crane and vans containing tools, steel ropes, equipment and a messroom for the gangers that contained cooking, wardrobe and washing paraphernalia. Other vans contained hardwood packing and jacks. Later the shed had its own steam driven crane, which replaced a hand winched one and hydraulic jacks to replace the hand-cranked ones. This latest crane required a radius of 16 feet in order to operate safely. All this made it the most important one in the East Lancashire area, as a result of this it was classified as an ‘A’ shed, and the sheds in the area which were classified B, C, D, and so on, despatched engines to Accrington in order for minor and repairs to be done they were unable to carry out themselves. In the days of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway it was given Shed Code 22 and had sub-sheds at Rose Grove (23) and Colne (24). The coaling tower replaced a ramp from which coal was shovelled into the engines' tenders during a modernisation of the shed in the mid-1930s, which included an ash plant. By 1938 only six of the eight roads were given a new roof, the two remaining open to the elements. George Hughes the Locomotive Superintendent employed a system of ‘calling in’ engines for general repairs on a ‘mileage run’ basis. In order to compensate a running shed when one or more of its locomotives was taken to Horwich for attention, a pool of un-allocated engines was set aside in order to compensate the shed on a like-for-like class basis. In 1908 Accrington had no less than 101 engines on its books

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