I’m sat in avonmouth dock watching a train go past with what looks like tar ■■ in the carts if so where would this be going ■■?
If it’s tar then perhaps a quarry with a railhead and asphalt plant? In Bristol area you’ve got Whatley and Tor quarries.
Was leaving avonmouth dock all signed with hansons
Are you sure it wasn’t coal? Much of which is very fine powdery stuff. If it was Hansons don’t they have a big rail served quarry near Westbury?
Isn’t there a cement works at Westbury (coal for the kilns?) but I thought that was ex Blue Circle (now LaFarge Tarmac?).
Tytherington is Hansons but I thought that was closed to asphalt production?
Not sure how the kilns are fired at Ketton (Hanson) cement but I’d guess the tanks are bitumin oil for a blacktop plant.
A vintage photo of where I’m based. Only one chimney remains (waiting to be blown up) and a big hole in the fields above the buildings.
That be coal there boy, there be another one leaving between 11 and 12 tonight
from a railway forum
I’ve not heard wagons called ‘carts’ before… Even in the days of horse-drawn ‘trains’, they were called ‘waggons’. The only traffic I’ve heard of from Avonmouth lately has been either coal from the bulk terminal, cement to what was known as ‘Bennett’s Sidings’, and possibly stone from another siding near Bennett’s. As we can rule out cement (because it’s in closed hopper/tank wagons), that leaves coal or fine roadstone. As to where it might be going; if it’s coal, then a power station somewhere (Rugeley, Ironbridge, Uskmouth or Aberthaw are all possibilities.
snowman77:
I’m sat in avonmouth dock watching a train go past with what looks like tar ■■ in the carts if so where would this be going ■■?
The Benson And Hedges factory 
Yes ok I used the word carts couldn’t think what they were called at the time, now that I think about it it could of been coal / slag but it realy did look like tar at the time
Muckaway:
0
A vintage photo of where I’m based. Only one chimney remains (waiting to be blown up) and a big hole in the fields above the buildings.
Literally round the corner from me
snowman77:
I’m sat in avonmouth dock watching a train go past with what looks like tar ■■ in the carts if so where would this be going ■■?
It’s coal which would have come from Portbury Dock under the river to the 2 silos you can see on the left as you go down St.Andrews Rd, each silo holds about 2,200 t. Some coal can be slurry like in appearance hence why you thought it might be tar.
It could be bound for Rugeley, Didcot, Aberthaw (if it’s still open)
Didcot power Station doesn’t burn coal anymore BB.
Muckaway:
Didcot power Station doesn’t burn coal anymore BB.
Right didn’t know that but they were the biggest taker of coal when i was docking.
from the time of your post csi trainspotters have come up with this
realtimetrains.co.uk/train/R … 6/advanced
apparently roadstone so close with tar
The quarries this way on the Welsh Borders, send thousands of tons of stone every week from a rail-head near Hereford.
The self discharging stone trains are impressive; The wagons have conveyor belts so they can unload into yards without processing plants. LaFarge Tarmac at Banbury do this with stone ex Mountsorrel.
Mountsorrel; There’s an impressive quarry.