Inside keyed track on Portreath branch

jc2001

Western Thunderer
I was given a copy of West Cornwall Mineral Railways (Maurice Dart - Middleton Press) recently and was intrigued to see a photo of Illogan Highway on the Portreath branch from March 1937 which clearly shows inside keyed bullhead track. I know there were some old railways that used inside keys but thought it had long gone by mid 20th century. Does anyone know the history of this, i.e. is this original track from the Hayle Railway?

John
 

Tim V

Western Thunderer
Inside keyed track in sidings was still to be seen on the Western into the 70s. I think a siding at Highley has been preserved as inside keys - resleepered. I have a picture of Brislington station in 1949 with inside keyed pointwork. There was lots of it around. So I'm not surprised to hear of this track surviving in an out of the way place like Portreath.
 

jc2001

Western Thunderer
Thanks Tim,

As a self confessed trackwork nut I thought I would have seen some myself. I am a little too young to recall the Portreath branch itself nor the Helston and Perranporth lines - I've only recently realised that the year I started commuting to school from Falmouth to Truro as a very young boy was only one year after steam was cleared from Cornwall! At least Falmouth docks had a steam fix for a long time.

John
 

Fredsdad

New Member
There were about 6 sleepers with inside keyed chairs in the former Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone bay at Wrexham General just by the stop block yesterday 31st March 2017. I assume that bay used to serve the Brymbo branch? AND NO...this is NOT an April Fool! As a new member I haven't yet worked out how to post a photo yet!
 

Brian Wainwright

Active Member
Not sure when inside keyed track vanished, but the GCR had a surprising amount of it, especially in sidings, as can be seen in many photos. Some years back I went on a tour of the former Dukinfield Carriage and Wagon works and was shown a three bolt chair that had been found on the site - this alerted me to the subject and since then I have found lots of evidence of it being used.
 

Marc Dobson

Western Thunderer
It was quite common on the Furness. I was told that it was used so it only needed one man to check the track as they just had to walk up the centre of the P-way in. I just thought it was just the Furness being economical. It did have the down side of generating extra wheel wear.

Marc
 
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