49-508: Esholt Sewage Works Railway was a standard gauge works railway constructed in 1910 to serve a sewage works in Esholt , West Yorkshire , England. The works were built to remove wool-grease and other wastes from effluent coming out of the many mills of the Bradford woollen district. At its peak, the railway extended to 22 miles (35 km) of track served by 11 locomotives, as well as
98-622: A limited company in 1899. In 1862, soon after the company had been formed, they were given the initial design work on William Hamond Bartholomew 's compartment boats for the Aire and Calder Navigation . The choice of the company may have been influenced by the fact that Bartholomew, the chief engineer of the Navigation, and William Clayton, one of the founders of Hudswell and Clarke, both lived on Spencer Place in Leeds. They produced at least one of
147-649: A country (for example, 1,440 mm or 4 ft 8 + 11 ⁄ 16 in to 1,445 mm or 4 ft 8 + 7 ⁄ 8 in in France). The first tracks in Austria and in the Netherlands had other gauges ( 1,000 mm or 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in in Austria for the Donau Moldau line and 1,945 mm or 6 ft 4 + 9 ⁄ 16 in in
196-660: A replacement. They went on to build two more 4-6-2 class locomotives, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose for Billy Butlin to use at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow in 1938 which were then transferred to his holiday camp in Clacton when the exhibition closed. In later years, Hudswell Clarke designed and built diesel locomotives for both main-line and private company use, mainly for use on shunting operations. *Skildpadden (The Turtle)* Built for
245-524: A short section of standard gauge track ran parallel to the Midland Line and ran underneath the line to access an area of land used for tipping. By 1957, the works was down to 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of track and full employment for only two locomotives, 'Nellie' and 'Elisabeth', both Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST engines. Steam engines were the workhorses for most of the railway's life, only yielding to diesel traction in 1976. The railway closed in 1977 with
294-404: A shorter section of narrow gauge railway served by three engines. Trains were employed to remove solid waste from the site; several of the engines were converted to run on oil derived from recovered wool-grease. The railway was closed completely in 1977, but the sewage works continues to operate. Bradford was a major force in woollen products in the 19th and into the 20th century; nearly 20% of
343-510: A standard gauge of 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ), and those in Ireland to a new standard gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ). In Great Britain, Stephenson's gauge was chosen on the grounds that existing lines of this gauge were eight times longer than those of the rival 7 ft or 2,134 mm (later 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in or 2,140 mm ) gauge adopted principally by
392-423: A time-consuming and expensive process. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a "standard gauge" of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ), allowing interconnectivity and interoperability. A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937 traces the origin of the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge even further back than
441-583: Is believed her original livery was grey with the name painted in red letters on the side tank. During the Second World War the company was one of many engineering firms that diversified into armaments . After the War, Hudswell Clarke was closely involved in various secret programmes, including the British nuclear weapon programme. The airframe (casing) for the first British nuclear bomb, Blue Danube ,
490-766: Is currently operated by the Ghana Railway Company Limited . Kojokrom-Sekondi Railway Line (The Kojokrom-Sekondi line is a branch line that joins the Western Railway Line at Kojokrom ) Indian nationwide rail system ( Indian Railways ) uses 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) broad gauge. 96% of the broad gauge network is electrified. The railway tracks of Java and Sumatra use 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ). Planned and under construction high-speed railways to use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in ) to maintain interoperability with
539-480: Is defined in U.S. customary / Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1 mm. As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between the inner sides of the rails) to be used. Different railways used different gauges, and where rails of different gauge met – a " gauge break " – loads had to be unloaded from one set of rail cars and reloaded onto another,
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#1732797265783588-668: Is now part of the Hunslet Engine Company . Locomotive-building was always only one part of a diverse product inventory that included underground diesel-powered mining locomotives, hydraulic pit-props and related mining equipment. In 1911 Hudswell Clarke entered into an agreement with Robert Hudson for the manufacture of narrow gauge locomotives. This arrangement produced sixteen standardised designs, designated 'A' to 'Q', which ranged from four-coupled ( 0-4-0 ) 5 hp engines to six-coupled ( 0-6-0 ) 55 hp models. The designs were sufficiently flexible to allow for
637-571: Is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia , Finland , Uzbekistan , and some line sections in Spain . The distance between the inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it
686-547: The Centurion main battle tank conversion into an armoured bridgelayer, that served with the British Army for many years. The contraction of defence manufacturing in the mid-1960s contributed to the sale and demise of the company. Locations of preserved Hudswell Clarke locomotives include: United Kingdom Ireland New Zealand Denmark United States In 2012, Ixion Models introduced an O gauge model of
735-608: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway , authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The extra half inch was not regarded at first as very significant, and some early trains ran on both gauges daily without compromising safety. The success of this project led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Thus the 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ) gauge became widespread and dominant in Britain. Robert
784-666: The Forster Square line. 53°50′40″N 1°43′01″W / 53.84441°N 1.71707°W / 53.84441; -1.71707 Standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson ), international gauge , UIC gauge , uniform gauge , normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It
833-913: The Great Western Railway. It allowed the broad-gauge companies in Great Britain to continue with their tracks and expand their networks within the "Limits of Deviation" and the exceptions defined in the Act. After an intervening period of mixed-gauge operation (tracks were laid with three rails), the Great Western Railway finally completed the conversion of its network to standard gauge in 1892. In North East England, some early lines in colliery ( coal mining ) areas were 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ), while in Scotland some early lines were 4 ft 6 in ( 1,372 mm ). The British gauges converged starting from 1846 as
882-647: The Netherlands for the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij ), but for interoperability reasons (the first rail service between Paris and Berlin began in 1849, first Chaix timetable) Germany adopted standard gauges, as did most other European countries. The modern method of measuring rail gauge was agreed in the first Berne rail convention of 1886. Several lines were initially built as standard gauge but were later converted to another gauge for cost or for compatibility reasons. 2,295 km (1,426 mi) Victoria built
931-590: The advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. By the 1890s, the entire network was converted to standard gauge. The Royal Commission made no comment about small lines narrower than standard gauge (to be called "narrow gauge"), such as the Ffestiniog Railway . Thus it permitted a future multiplicity of narrow gauges in the UK. It also made no comments about future gauges in British colonies, which allowed various gauges to be adopted across
980-523: The canal alight. Resolved to do something by new laws and the desire to rid themselves of the problem, Bradford Corporation initiated first the Frizinghall works (being the lowest part of the city at that time) and when this did not work, they bought the estate at Esholt adjacent to the River Aire . This was a protracted process that wasn't completed until 1906 with assent from parliament to build
1029-483: The coal mines of County Durham . He favoured 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham , and used it on his Killingworth line. The Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington railway (S&DR) was built primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees . Opening in 1825,
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#17327972657831078-493: The coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire . Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons. ' " The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) apart probably derives from
1127-534: The colonies. Parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. The American gauges converged, as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. Notably, all the 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) broad gauge track in the South was converted to "almost standard" gauge 4 ft 9 in ( 1,448 mm ) over
1176-459: The course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States . In continental Europe, France and Belgium adopted a 1,500 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 1 ⁄ 16 in ) gauge (measured between the midpoints of each rail's profile ) for their early railways. The gauge between the interior edges of the rails (the measurement adopted from 1844) differed slightly between countries, and even between networks within
1225-531: The east and north of the canal, and west and south of the river as both curve north of Thackley . Branches at Thackley Hill bridged both watercourses. The connection with the Midland line required a signal box and exchange sidings for the transfer of wagons between the two systems. Sludge was pressed into 'Cake' at the Press House, a 237 feet (72 m) long, by 92 feet (28 m) wide building which housed
1274-740: The first railways to the 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) Irish broad gauge. New South Wales then built to the standard gauge, so trains had to stop on the border and passengers transferred, which was only rectified in the 1960s. Queensland still runs on a narrow gauge but there is a standard gauge line from NSW to Brisbane. NMBS/SNCB 3,619 km (2,249 mi) Brussels Metro 40 km (25 mi) Trams in Brussels 140 km (87 mi) 1,032 km (641 mi) The Toronto Transit Commission uses 4 ft 10 + 7 ⁄ 8 in ( 1,495 mm ) gauge on its streetcar and subway lines. Takoradi to Sekondi Route,
1323-429: The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made, debuting around 1850, to the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge. The historic Mount Washington Cog Railway ,
1372-730: The ironstone quarry at Burton Latimer and moved to the Cranford Ironstone Co in 1921. Purchased by the Scaldwell Tramway in 1936, it last worked there in 1961. Purchased in 1964 by three W&LLR volunteers: Gerald Rainbow, David Plant and Bob Harris. They sold it to Alan Keef in 2004, who in turn sold it to the National Railway Museum in July 2008; transferred to Statfold 2021. Some cosmetic restoration undertaken. Currently in faded green but it
1421-491: The locomotives were not being used (especially at night) the grease was kept molten by piping steam into the fireboxes. The grade 'A' product of the sewage works was used by the railway companies as an axle grease for freight wagons. Coal for the sewage beds was transhipped into the works via the connection from the Midland Railway as was Sulphuric acid until the works commissioned their own Sulphur plant in 1922. Because
1470-607: The old 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ) plateway was relaid to 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) so that Blenkinsop's engine could be used. Others were 4 ft 4 in ( 1,321 mm ) (in Beamish ) or 4 ft 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,410 mm ) (in Bigges Main (in Wallsend ), Kenton , and Coxlodge ). English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for
1519-411: The prototype Tom Pudding compartments, but did not get the main contract for their production once the design work had been done. As steam locomotive builders, like many of the smaller builders they specialised in small contractor's and industrial tank engines , and rarely built anything bigger than an 0-6-0T. They never built any locomotives with superheaters . The locomotive part of the business
Esholt Sewage Works Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
1568-436: The rails is better, thus the minimum distance between the wheels (and, by extension, the inside faces of the rail heads ) was the important one. A standard gauge for horse railways never existed, but rough groupings were used; in the north of England none was less than 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ). Wylam colliery's system, built before 1763, was 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ), as was John Blenkinsop 's Middleton Railway ;
1617-573: The railway from Bradford Council in 1975. No railway exists at Esholt today, though many of the overbridges spanning the River Aire and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal are still extant. 0-4-0ST 'Nellie' was preserved at the Bradford Industrial Museum at Eccleshill , and one of the diesel engines, another 0-4-0 built by Hunslet of Leeds, found employment at Crossley's scrapyard just up the valley outside Shipley station on
1666-510: The railway wagons in the basement. This allowed the 'Cake' to be gravity fed into the railway wagons for transfer to another part of the site. This would involve running into a siding, dumping the 'Cake' and leaving it to dry, before being sold as fertiliser and transhipped via the exchange sidings on the Midland line. At the peak of the workings in 1931, 22 miles (35 km) of track existed being worked over by 11 locomotives, some of which were converted to run on oil derived from wool grease. When
1715-411: The rest of the network. All other railways use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in ) ( broad gauge ) and/or 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) metre gauge . BLS , Rigi Railways (rack railway) 449 km Several states in the United States had laws requiring road vehicles to have a consistent gauge to allow them to follow ruts in
1764-513: The road. Those gauges were similar to railway standard gauge. Hudswell Clarke Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited was an engineering and locomotive building company in Jack Lane, Hunslet , Leeds , West Yorkshire , England. The company was founded as Hudswell and Clarke in 1860. In 1870 the name was changed to Hudswell, Clarke and Rodgers . There was another change in 1881 to Hudswell, Clarke and Company . The firm became
1813-459: The same year they supplied a 4-6-4 T Robin Hood to Golden Acre Park in Leeds followed by a 4-6-2 May Thompson in 1933. They also supplied 4-6-2 Mary Louise and 4-6-4 T Carol Jean to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for use on the 21 inches (530 mm) gauge Pleasure Beach Express in 1933. A fire in 1934 badly damaged Carol Jean so 4-6-2 Princess Royal was ordered as
1862-415: The sewage was gravity fed into the works, some steep inclines were present (as steep as 1 in 49 in places) and several sidings were taken up and re-laid in line with the building programme and whenever a section became redundant. A small section of 2-foot (0.61 m) gauge railway also ran around part of the site. This was operated by two Simplex petrol tractors and one small steam locomotive. Additionally,
1911-492: The term "narrow gauge" for gauges less than standard did not arise for many years, until the first such locomotive-hauled passenger railway, the Ffestiniog Railway , was built. In 1845, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , a Royal Commission on Railway Gauges reported in favour of a standard gauge. The subsequent Gauge Act ruled that new passenger-carrying railways in Great Britain should be built to
1960-409: The various track gauges in use. Over the years, 188 locomotives were supplied to these designs. In the 1930s the company manufactured narrow gauge steam outline diesel-hydraulic locomotives for use at amusement parks around the country. In 1931 4-6-2 Neptune was delivered to Scarborough North Bay Railway , followed a year later by 4-6-2 Triton , both being 20 inches (510 mm) gauge. In
2009-479: The width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages". In addition, while road-travelling vehicles are typically measured from the outermost portions of the wheel rims, it became apparent that for vehicles travelling on rails, having main wheel flanges that fit inside
Esholt Sewage Works Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
2058-497: The works engine shed being transported brick for brick to the Industrial Museum at Armley in Leeds. As with other industrial railways, it was owned and operated by a private enterprise and not by a railway company. As such it was never grouped or nationalised. The railway was operated by the water division of Bradford Corporation until 1973, when Yorkshire Water was formed. Yorkshire Water eventually took over running
2107-470: The works not being granted until 1909. In 1910, a railway branch line was connected to the Midland Railway's Leeds & Bradford Railway Line , leaving as a northerly spur west of Apperley Viaduct and east of Thackley Tunnel . The spur left the mainline immediately east of the rail bridge over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal with the branch and associated sidings staying, for the most part, to
2156-426: The world's first mountain -climbing rack railway , is still in operation in the 21st century, and has used the earlier 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge since its inauguration in 1868. George Stephenson introduced the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge (including a belated extra 1 ⁄ 2 in (13 mm) of free movement to reduce binding on curves ) for
2205-499: The world's wool production was being handled at Bradford. A branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal extended up Bradford Dale from Shipley to a point near to where Bradford Forster Square railway station is today. Bradford Beck spilled into this canal arm and it suffered from very bad sewage problems. It was rumoured that the canal was so badly affected with incendiary chemicals and sulphureted hydrogen , that children used to set
2254-646: Was 1650 lb. It was deployed on a wide variety of aircraft of the RAF and Royal Navy, being stockpiled in the UK, Cyprus, Singapore and afloat on carriers. Hudswell, Clarke also worked on Violet Club , the Interim Megaton Weapon. All the bombs detonated at the Christmas Island H-bomb tests were contained in airframes designed and built by Hudswell Clarke. The company were also major contributors to other military projects, including
2303-410: Was a consultant on the design of Blue Danube. The airframe for Red Beard , the second generation tactical nuclear bomb was also built by Hudswell, Clarke. This tactical atomic bomb had perforated baffles to reduce bomb bay buffeting when dropped from a Canberra bomber ; they were not needed on other aircraft. Red Beard was known to the RAF as "Bomb, Aircraft, HE 2'000 lb MC", although its actual weight
2352-466: Was manufactured by Hudswell Clarke at its Roundhay Road plant in Leeds. The Blue Danube was 24 ft long x 62 inches diameter. It was known to the RAF as "Bomb, Aircraft, HE 10,000 lb MC". Released from 45,000 ft at 500 knots (930 km/h) its maximum velocity was 2480 ft/s (Mach 2.2). It bears a likeness to the Tallboy and Grand Slam "earthquake" bombs designed by Barnes Wallis . Wallis
2401-605: Was reported to have said that if he had had a second chance to choose a gauge, he would have chosen one wider than 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ). "I would take a few inches more, but a very few". During the " gauge war " with the Great Western Railway , standard gauge was called " narrow gauge ", in contrast to the Great Western's 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge . The modern use of
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