Before the Channel Tunnel opened, through international rail traffic was handled at Dover. Trains of railway wagons for export on the train ferry service from Dover to Dunkerque were made up at Willesden Brent Sdgs (in London), Severn Tunnel Jn (for traffic from South Wales), Crewe Basford Hall (for traffic from the North-West and Scotland) and Bescot Yard (in the West Midlands) and travelled to Dover Town Yard, located just off the beach at the Western end of the harbour. These services usually ran via one of Orpington, Maidstone East or Bat & Ball, and Ashford - but there were occasional diversions via Sole Street or Dartford due to engineering possessions. At Dover Town Yard the trains were broken down into smaller sections to be shunted on to the trainferry. Until the late 1980s the trainferry berth was in a lock and 2x Cl.09 were used to shunt wagons on/off on both roads simultaneously. A new linkspan was then built further out in the harbour and operations transferred there, with a small pool of Cl.33 locos subsequently taking over the loading/unloading, and also making occasional journeys to/from Willesden Brent Sdgs to cover for Cl.47 failures / shortages. Here, in around 1993, two class 33/2 diesel locomotives and one of the resident class 09 shunting locomotives await their next spell of unloading and loading.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 07:01:39 +0000
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