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Mossend is now undoubtedly the main Railfreight centre in Scotland, with the opening of the Channel Tunnel rail terminal a few years ago being the icing on the cake. Prior to that, for a while things didn't look so rosy, as the decline in the steel industry led to the loss of major customers such as the British Steel Corporation's works at Ravenscraig and Clydesdale, and traffic declined alarmingly. The following photographs were taken during the final years of the main steel flows, when the spectacle of triple headed class 37's attacking the bank up to Holytown attracted enthusiasts from all over Britain. At that time most of the action took place in the "up" yard and access to the site of the old Mossend passenger station was tolerated, if not strictly legal. Today this access is denied (did someone abuse that tolerant attitude?) EWS now uses the regenerated "down" yard with the Eurotunnel terminal occupying the bulk of the site of the "up" yard.
Bibliography.
An excellent history of the yard can be found in "The Illustrated history
of British Marshalling Yards" by Michael Rhodes, published by OPC.
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| The above scan shows
the official document informing B.R. staff of the signalling arrangements
for the yard, as commissioned under stage 5 of the Motherwell signalling
Centre. Just off to the right, Mossend North Junction was always
hampered by the lack of a facing crossover which prevented a direct movement
from the Down Main to the Up Yard. Arriving trains were stopped on
the down main and reversed to the Down Holytown line (controlled by M326),
then into the yard.
To the right is a diagram of the lines between Mossend and Motherwell. |
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| General
Views
The top view of the yard taken in 1982 was from the old bing which was at the north end of the "up" yard and shows the general layout of the yard with both the up and down sidings in use. The up yard was used for air braked stock and the down yard for unfitted or vacuum braked wagons. Below that is a view taken in the early 1990's with the down yard sidings partially lifted and additional double ended sidings in use to the east side of the up yard. The entire up yard was then lifted to make way for the European freight depot, and sidings relaid in the down yard for Enterprise traffic. Below is the view most enthusiasts associate with Mossend, taken from the site of Mossend station. Classes 26, 37, 08 and 90 can clearly be seen.
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