End of CDA Wagons

[MattW]

This week saw the last use of CDA four-wheel wagons on the local china clay traffic. They replaced the old 'Clay Hoods' 35 years ago! All have now been placed in store in St Blazey yard. Hopefully at least one will be preserved - the Bodmin & Wenford railway has a plan to preserve a rake of as many as 12 but I'm not sure where they stand with that financially.
Traffic from Rocks/Goonbarrow and Treviscoe to Fowey docks will now be handled in JIA bogie wagons, the same as are used for the weekly train from Par to the Potteries.

After running round at Lostwithiel, 66199 heads for Fowey with the last train of CDAs

Passing Golant on the Fowey branch

Shunting at Fowey

Shunting the final empty working into St Blazey yard for storage

JIA wagons being loaded at Par (by me!)

(Photos by myself and courtesy Phil Parratt)

[TimBrown]

Thanks for posting, I hadn't realised that China Clay trains still ran from Par to Cliffe Vale. They used to run via Droitwich and the 'Dark Side' in the 1970's and I seem to vaguely remember Western Hydraulics D10XX occasionally being in charge, or was that a regular oil train working to the Black Country from Avonmouth? On checking RTT I see that the current Cliffe Vale northbound service works through Bromsgrove at 02-13 AM and goes via the Lickey Incline, completely avoiding Worcester which explains my ignorance - well some of it!

[ANDREW]

Hi Tim. The Friday loaded northbound china clay is normally at Bromsgrove around 7am. The southbound is around 6pm on a Monday. As I type ,it's working it's way around the Sutton Park line. So you have time to go and see it. Cheers. Andrew.

[MattW]

CDA wagons are now being cut up in St Blazey yard. Seems as if the bodies are being separated from the chassis, then removed on lorries to Henry Orchards, the local scrap merchant.
I'm told there has been a bid for a rake of 8 to be preserved at Bodmin. Despite the short distance I bet they'll be taken there by road too!

[MattW]

Well I was kind of right about the preserved CDAs - 8 have gone to the Bodmin & Wenford, and 1 to the Plym Valley.
They were shunted into the docks complex last week by DB Cargo, so are the last CDAs ever to run on Imerys/ECC tracks. Here's some great drone shots by my friend Jon Hird.

66165 pushes the wagons back towards the docks - the line used to go all the way to Fowey.

The 'main line' to Fowey used to bear left through the left hand arch. The current border between NR and Imerys tracks is about where the rearmost wagon is.

Wagons were spread on two of the three operational sidings.

As DB would have charged a huge amount to shunt the wagons onto a lowloader, the Bodmin & Wenford railway brought down shunters 'Brian' and 'Peter', plus a GW box van to serve as a barrier wagon. I've been on nights most of this week so this is the only shot I managed to get - illuminated by my loading shovel!
There is still a rail connection to the mainline at Bodmin parkway station, so surely the 8 could have been takn up there by rail, but I guess the cost for that would have been too much too!

Finally today I took a trip to another clay dryer (Rocks / Goonbarrow), where Rail Support Services' 08752 was resting next to the carpark.

[MattW]

All the remaining CDAs in St Blazey Yard have now been cut up and disposed of, except for one in the care of MPower Kernow - not a BMW garage , but an organisation set up to teach engineering and construction skills to local young people. They've taken over part of the old depot and been instrumental in getting the turntable back to working order, so Cornwall can be visited by mainline steam engines again.