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Burslem branch - Wrong railway?


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Been to see the Burslem branch today, which led off the summit of the Trent and Mersey and closed around 55 years ago. Towards the terminus there is a warehouse which quite clearly, albeit faintly, says Shropshire Union Railway...

 

But the T&M  and therefore presumably the branch,  was owned by the North Staffordshire Railway... 

 

I'm puzzled...

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Presumably it was in the capacity as a carrying company that they had the warehouse. There were FMC warehouses around the network and they didn’t own any canals.

 

It was also not uncommon on railways to find warehouses of companies off-territory as it were.

 

JP

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10 minutes ago, archie57 said:

One of the warehouses in Coventry basin used to carry the lettering "Grand Union Canal Warehouse" - it was changed to the present lettering perhaps 30 years ago

 

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Just now, RLWP said:

Was that the bondage one in Stourbridge?

Spoke to the organisers at Tixall Wide earlier this week.

Bonded wharehouse.jpg

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I guess I was aware that carriers had warehouses, and of course GUCCCo was a carrier and the Coventry a logical extension of their network. I also know that canal companies had wharves on other canals, the coal canal had a wharf in Bath (on the KandA) to protect their interests.

 

It's just the Shropshire Union Canal was a rival to the T&M and the Shropshire Union Railway came no closer than Stafford, and Stoke is in the heart of North Staffordshire Railway territory... 

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16 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

I guess I was aware that carriers had warehouses, and of course GUCCCo was a carrier and the Coventry a logical extension of their network. I also know that canal companies had wharves on other canals, the coal canal had a wharf in Bath (on the KandA) to protect their interests.

 

 It's just the Shropshire Union Canal was a rival to the T&M and the Shropshire Union Railway came no closer than Stafford, and Stoke is in the heart of North Staffordshire Railway territory... 

Peter Brown's recent book on the SUC, https://rchs.org.uk/product/the-shropshire-union-canal-from-the-mersey-to-the-midlands-and-mid-wales/, seems to suggest that the LNWR and the NSR were not really competitors, and that the SUC did have warehouses outside of their system. 

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4 minutes ago, Pluto said:

Peter Brown's recent book on the SUC, https://rchs.org.uk/product/the-shropshire-union-canal-from-the-mersey-to-the-midlands-and-mid-wales/, seems to suggest that the LNWR and the NSR were not really competitors, and that the SUC did have warehouses outside of their system. 

Like many of these relationships between railway companies, I suspect it depended on what was at stake.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Staffordshire_Railway

 

Richard

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2 hours ago, RLWP said:

Like many of these relationships between railway companies, I suspect it depended on what was at stake.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Staffordshire_Railway

 

Richard

Absolutely. Just like canal companies their allies and enemies changed depending on the politics. The LNWR and MR were competitors that were united in their joint hatred of the GWR.

 

That the NSR survived as an independent company until 1923 while owning a small part of the shortest route from London to Manchester is surprising.

 

Deviant buggers they were too. Mileposted their railway backwards, ascending in the up direction. Probably had a left handed Chairman.

 

JP

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The Shropshire Union Railway & Canal Company carried on Trent & Mersey Canal network and had warehouses at different places on that network, the Burslem Arm at Burslem being one of them. This warehouse was used for their extensive pottery trade that travelled to/ from Ellesmere Port via the Middlewich Branch.

 

They had a fleet in this respect that mostly passed to the Anderton Company, once the LNWR chose to close down the operation. The only survivors were the Station boats which are detailed in a book I published- Industrial Canal Volume 2- Railway Interchange Trade- Tom Foxon being the author.

 

 

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When the RCHS visited this spot in May 2018, as part of the AGM Weekend, Peter Brown made the observations about the plural "RAILWAYS". The Shropshire Union had one public railway that linked Shrewsbury with Stafford and was vested in the LNWR. Peter suggested that the other railways were the canal tramways, such as the Afon Eitha, that had been reconstructed to standard gauge railway from the narrow gauge plateway that had existed since the Ellesmere Canal had been opened to Trevor, and some suggest, a little earlier.   

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