Hi Geoff.
With huge apologies I'd forgotten about this image, taken and bequeathed to me by Arthur Dudley, a friend's father in law. I've not checked my full description in order to get it to you quickly, but I'm pretty certain it's at Lowestoft, probably mid to late 1930s. If location and date is important let me know and I'll do a check on my written records.
.....and then I found my full records of this shot:
LNER Shunting Tractor RD8306. Possibly Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft. c1935. Comments follow from Mike Bootman. Unfortunately I do not have any information on these tractors, but I will find someone who does. A similar type was still in use in BR days in the late 1960s. However the location is also alongside Waveney Road, the same as the Y1, but a little to the West slightly nearer Lowestoft Central Station. You can identify the same buildings in the background. The tractor is hauling a train of empty (note the springs) Fish Vans. The first two are of the ex-GCR type described above whilst the remainder that are visible are of the LNER type also described above. I wonder if that is the same rake of Fish Vans as seen behind the Y1? From the Journal of the LNER Study Group, Summer 2011: In addition to the Sentinel locomotives 13 horses were previously used for shunting but were replaced in 1933 by 4 tractors. Similar types of tractor were still in use in BR days in the late 1960s. As a motor vehicle it had to be licensed for use on the public highway. Its vehicle registration mark was AGP 265; GP being one mark issued by the Greater London Council.
There is little information available but it seems that a number of Fordson tractors (the name was derived from Henry Ford & Son) were purchased and adapted by fitting large rectangular steel plates front and rear joined by a steel beam to take the buffing forces. Co-incidentally Ford moved tractor production from Cork in Ireland to Dagenham in 1933, and the 27.3 HP model N was produced between 1929 and 1945. It seems other makes of tractor were also converted, and probably all by Muir-Hill Service Equipment (E. Boydell & Co. from 1931).
From the small number of photographs found the cabs may have been fabricated locally since they vary in design and style. This one has a rectangular cut-out each side, while others had an oval LNER Study Group JOURNAL No 45
opening. Some had a platform on the nearside for the shunter to ride on. Mainly used at locations where the changeover to electric cranes rendered hydraulic capstans used to winch wagons redundant, one advantage of a tractor was that it could move across tracks and around lines of wagons and nip in, moving isolated wagons with ease in either direction.
The tractor is attached by a rigid bar to the leading coupling and hauling a train of empty (note springs) Fish Vans. The first two are ex-GCR 10 Ton 18' Fish Vans whilst those behind are to the early LNER 10 Ton design, possibly the same rake as seen behind the Class Y1.
There are various stalls in the background, including one selling Thain‟s Fish, one of several local Fish Merchants that shipped fresh fish to London by rail since before the First World War. The Shunter carrying his pole walks alongside the vans. A recessed switch lever is in the planking to the left, and there are the remnants of a turnout underneath the tractor. There is an Eastern Counties single-deck omnibus parked across from the prominently-advertised Smith‟s Restaurant; its driver, wearing white coat and a cap, leans observantly on the railings.
Personal Collection. Photo by the late Arthur Dudley. Neg No 39. FINAL
And then I did a blow up of a section from the original neg which confirms the presence of the chain between the tractor and wagon:
Sorry to say that's not a conventional loco, but is certain proof that shunting using chains was not so unusual.
But then I delved a bit further and what do we have here? Looks almost like a proper loco and definitely chain hanging over the buffer. If the Sentinels were used for chain shunting is there any reason why other locos were not?
Full description for this one is:
8404. Double ended Sentinel. LNER (GER) Class Y10. Renumbered 8187 and withdrawn in August 1948. Location Yarmouth. Date approx 1935. Notes from Mike Bootman follow: Yarmouth - on the Quayside line to the east of the River Yar between Yarmouth Vauxhall and the Fish Market, facing south toward the Fish Market. The first 1 1/4 miles of this tramway was opened in 1847 and was extended to the new Fish Market in 1867. Class Y10 Sentinel No 8404 with coal wagon on quayside The locomotive Class Y10 Sentinel 200 hp vertical boilered DEDG (Double-Engine, Double-Geared) Loco No 8404. Just two of the class were delivered new to the LNER in June 1930 numered 8403 and 8404 and sent to the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway, hence the side skirts and end guards. It was quickly realised that they needed to be worked to their fullest extent during the fruit season and also their limited capacity to carry coal (12 cwt) and water (600 gals) restricted their operational range. Being suitably protected for tramway, dock and harbour work they were both transferred to Yarmouth (Vauxhall) by 8/5/1931, 8404 remaining on the W&U until then. Whilst 8403 stayed in East Anglia (variously Wisbech, Yarmouth, Ipswich and Norwich), No 8404 was sent much farther afield, from Yarmouth to Kittybrewster on 12/2/1934 for trial in the docks at Aberdeen, then to St Margarets on 28/4/1934, returning to Yarmouth 15/5/1934 - clearly the engine was either not successful or not wanted and was moved on as soon as could be contrived. Apart from a six-month sojourn in Norwich between 19/5 and 24/11/1940, the engine remained at Yarmouth until being condemned on 13/8/1948, It was renumbered No 7776 on 20/2/1943 and No 8187 on 5/1/1947 but was condemned before receiving a BR number. The chain looped around the near front bufferstock would be used for shunting, often for moving wagons on an adjacent line. Location is on the Quayside line to the East of the River Yare between Yarmouth Vauxhall and the Fish Market, facing South toward the Fish Market and with at least one PO mineral wagon (Ricketts of London) having been unoaded (the wagon side door is dropped and the wagion is empty). Given it's situation alongside the dock presumably this would have carried bunker coal for a trawler or coaster. In the 1930s Rickett Cockerill & Co Ltd claimed to be the principal supplier of house coal in London and the Home Counties, with 4,500 wagons. London depots included Mile End and Stratford, but as coal contractors and factors the company shipped coal all around the country, principally from the Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire coalfields. This particular wagon is a 7- plank type to the 1923 Railway Clearing House specification, with side and end door (and probably bottom doors but these are not visible), RCH pattern axleboxes and buffers and three-hole disc wheels. The cut-out to the top plank over the side doors is to make hand unloading slightly easier and was more common on wagons owned by companies in the London area. Several hundred of these wagons were ordered from Chas. Roberts & Co. Ltd of Wakefield in 1937 but these had the "S" omitted from the name painted on the side, so this wagon will be from an earlier batch, and probably from the same wagon builder. A ship's gangplank is partly visible in the left foreground but the cotents of the two baskets in the right foreground are not quite discernable. Personal Collection. Photographer the late Arthur Dudley. Final rescan for height. Rotated 1 degree right. Neg ID No 41. FINAL
Note in particular the statement "The chain looped around the near front bufferstock would be used for shunting, often for moving wagons on an adjacent line."
As they say in the best circles, QED I reckon.
I have a third photo in the same location of a Y1 Sentinel during shunting but with no evidence of a chain, so have not included it.
Brian
