PITT RAIL?

[Osgood]

Can anyone throw any light on this company? A web search has come up blank.

I have come across their name as track dismantlers and resellers - and have seen photos in books of their equipment in use taking up lines.

I have used an old chair as a gate stop for a year now, and was very surprised only the other day to find their name on it!

It just seems odd that, with the vast stocks of surplus track components available, a company in the business of dismantling and reselling it should be having new chairs cast.

 

[daifly]

Is it possible that it is the Pitt of Stothert & Pitt?

 

[Osgood]

Yes it is quite possible. S&P were heavily involved with large industrial rail crane installations which would have used some chaired rail no doubt. They also had their own foundry - although I would have thought it far more economical to commission a specialist foundry set up for the specific job to cast these chairs.

I can't remember where I saw the Pitt Rail train photos - it may have been in a book documenting the dismantling of the S&D lines south of Bath, in which case the connection to S&P would be more compelling to believe.

S&P are no more, and I can't find any reference to a rail division in the snippets of company history found so far online.

 

[Osgood]

I've now found a couple of past publications dealing with the history of Stothert and Pitt, so secondhand copies are on their way.

And I've just realised I never thought to ask the nice man at the Titfield Thunderbolt emporium - doh!

 

[Dog Star]

And I've just realised I never thought to ask the nice man at the Titfield Thunderbolt emporium...

Ah, that nice Mr. Pitt the elder younger Larkhall Bookseller .