The last update showing the sidings at the Ransome and Marles factory at Greencroft generated a couple of comments about what sort of traffic the sidings saw and how they were worked. I have a few photos taken over the years that show a few 16T mineral wagons in the sidings but nothing else.
I’d also been told that the factory had its own shunter, a Ruston 48DS, but without any photographic evidence.
To my delight, a previous contributor to the site, Clive Bennet, who used to live in a house that overlooked the sidings in the 1970s, sent me the photo below showing the Ruston at work in the sidings. My thanks to Clive for this which has answered some of the questions of how the sidings were worked.
My Dad told me of an incident in the early 70’s at RHP as it was then, wagons full of steel swarf and scrap were being shunted up in the siding for BR to come in and take them away. Seemingly the loco driver failed to couple two of them and they rolled down the steep incline back towards the factory, they crashed through a large set of roller shutters at some speed and embedded themselves into the factory wall at the Greencroft Lane end. I even remember the loco drivers name but to save any embarrassment I’ll keep it to myself.