Although this is related to the Friargate Line, I've started a new thread in case this might help anyone else. There must be other lines where something similar was done.
I have restarted work on the route but found it hard to get back into painting the terrain at West Hallam - as always! - so I decided to play with the signals along the GCR and from Bagthorpe Junction to Basford North for a change of scenery. Although they aren't perfect, they're not too bad for a work in progress so I decided to carry on towards Derby. And found something interesting along the way.
As well as some interchange sidings for Watnall Colliery, at Nuthall there were also a couple of sidings used to bring sand to Stanton Ironworks from the company's own quarry. It appears that the area of the sidings was itself once a quarry but, presumably when that worked out, at least one other was opened on the other side of the line and a narrow-gauge line was laid to bring the sand to the railway. In the RCTS book by Alfred Henshaw, one photo shows side-tipping wagons of the type in Richard Maxted's pack UKTS 27184 at the top of the embankment.
One of the OS maps at old-maps.co.uk shows the arrangement. I read it that the n-g trains came in from the top left of the attached screen-grab, ran into a head-shunt and then reversed onto a bridge to discharge into what I guess would be Stanton's own wagons. I have not been able to find any photos of the sidings themselves so I have no idea what it might have looked like. It could be ages before I get back to this section but I wonder whether anyone has any ideas about how this might have looked? I would guess that the bridge over the main line and up to the unloading point would be quite lightweight and reckon that the discharge arrangement could be as simple as a chute on one side of the gantry so that the wagons could simply be tipped and the sand slide into the waiting wagon.
I can't imagine anyone wanting to run a scenario with this so I'm not fussed about working loading points but I'd like it to look reasonable, obviously. Any thoughts or, better still, examples of similar arrangements?
Keith