The Mid Cheshire Chronicle stopped publishing my column and other local history articles when they became free.

THE I.C.I LIGHT RAILWAY

The I.C.I or Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. was formed in 1926 from four British chemical companies, British Dyestuffs Corporation Ltd, Brunner Mond & Company Ltd, Nobel Industries Ltd, and the United Alkali Company Ltd. The Alkali Division was based at Winnington in Mid-Cheshire and had works at Winnington, Wallerscote, Lostock, Sandbach and Middlewich in Cheshire, and Fleetwood in Lancashire, Silvertown in London and Wilton in Yorkshire.

This Division has recently been split up and assumed other names. One of them being Brunner Mond Ltd, the company that was originally set up in Mid Cheshire.

There has been little written of the extensive railway network within the various works but to get an idea of the amount of internal rail usage.  In 1955 the I.C.I, as a company, owned 142 locomotives, both steam and diesel. 3,330 main line rail wagons of which 2,600 were used exclusively within the I.C.I works nationally and available to this network were 260 miles of sidings. The daily tonnage of products dispatched by rail from the various factories represented well over 50 trainloads.

The I.C.I Light Railway was purely for goods; I can find no evidence of rail passenger transport anywhere in the system. Although the ICI used mainly steam locomotives, in the 1950’s diesel power was introduced. In the main, the locomotives both steam and diesel powered were well looked after, they were nearly all given names usually relating to the chemical industry and honouring well known chemical engineers such as Joule, Davy and Watt. 

Warrington Wigg works was part of Mond Division and they had a small internal rail network. This network used locomotives borrowed from the nearby Manchester Ship Canal Company for internal workings. There are other ICI works such as Billingham in the North East but the Cheshire based Alkali operations are featured here. 

Gorstage near Weaverham was at the extremity of the Northwich ICI private lines these sidings were only built in the late 1940's, early 1950's and they gave access to the West Coast Main line at this location. Access could also be gained from them to the Manchester - Chester line near Hartford. An interesting fact regarding this Gorstage sidings, is that after it had ceased operations in the 1990’s, the local Council, Vale Royal Borough had its heart set on bringing the Dinting Railway Museum, then based in Glossop, Derbyshire, to the sidings and surrounding waste land. The deal would have gone through, but unfortunately the ICI owned the land and they declined to sell it. This famous museum is now located at Keighley in Yorkshire and attracts many visitors every year.

In the early 1990's, the Alkali Division closed down most of their sidings and sold off the locomotives. The last rail foreman was Tom Walton and he was tasked with undertaking the run down of the network. This included the leasing of a small number of diesel locomotives to be used by Brunner Mond shunters. They were required for the increasingly few shunting operations necessary to handle the three trains per day that brought limestone from the quarry at Buxton together with the coal trains.

A photograph is included of one of the small engines that worked the Buxton quarries. This one has the quaint name Peep’o’Day!

I would like to thank Tom Walton, the last running foreman on the ICI Light Railway at Northwich, (who is now a driver on the preserved Llangollen Railway). Together with the ICI Alkali Division archives and the Industrial Railway Society for their help in compiling this article.

PHOTOGRAPHS Attached

Photo No 1. This small saddle tank was used at the Buxton limestone quarries. It is seen with its crew hauling a load of limestone rocks.

Photo No 1.    It was usual for all I.C.I locomotives, both steam and diesel to have bells fitted that chimed constantly to warn of their presence. A good example of this can be seen in the photograph of the well turned out and probably ex works 0.4.0WT shunting engine 'CROOKES.' This engine was built by Kerr Stuart & Co Ltd. in 1917 and is seen in the 1950's passing under the road bridge between Wallerscote and Winnington works. This bridge was known in the works as 'Four span bridge.'  The engine was sent to Silvertown Works, Essex in 1957.

Photo No 2.   The 0.4.0ST 'JOHN DALTON,' is photographed in the I.C.I locomotive workshops, believed to be at what was known as the 'Avenue Works.' This locomotive was built by Kerr Stuart & Co Ltd. in 1900 and sold to Bryn Hall Colliery Co Ltd Lancs. in 1932.

Photo No 3.    Each of the I.C.I works had their own locomotives, one based at Lostock works was the 0.4.0WT shunter 'KELVIN,' which was built by E Borrows & Sons of Sutton, St Helens in 1908 and can be seen on the works in the 1950's. The locomotive was sent to Cox & Danks at Pendleton for scrap in 1955. The photograph shows another good example and location of the bell, which was operated by the drive gear. Members of the crew are also seen in the photo. Originally, each locomotive had to have a crew of four for shunting purposes. The I.C.I then introduced two-way radios and this enabled the shunting duties to be carried out by only two, a driver and mate.

The Weston Point Light Railway

Another works in the area using steam locomotives was the Weston Point Light Railway in Runcorn. Permission to build this railway from Runcorn station on the London & North Western Railway to the chemical works of Castner Kellner Ltd at Weston Point was granted by the Government in 1920. A small branch already existed to Runcorn Docks on the Manchester Ship Canal and it was proposed to extend this into the works. Eventually, this line served the nearby power station together with Weston Point works, Castner Kellner works and Rock Savage works.

Photo No 4.

0.6.0 tank engine 'Castner' was built by Andrew A Barclay & Sons of Kilmarnock in 1932. This engine was reputed to be the most powerful 0.6.0 engine at use anywhere in the private sector. It was built with flangeless centre wheels, in order that it could negotiate the tight curves on the works. The engine is shown fresh from an overhaul. It remained at the works for the whole of its life being scrapped there in 1960 after a period left standing.

Winsford Alkali Division 

Incorporated the South Works, the West Works and the Meadow Works and it was involved mainly in the mining of rock salt from the salt beds that lie beneath Cheshire. There was a rail network operated by a pool of locomotives and access was gained to the main line via the short branch to Cuddington. This was the longest branch line operated by the old Cheshire Lines Committee. The line was built to work the salt industry, but was extended for passenger use to a station named Winsford & Over and situated behind what is now the Liquor Lounge Club in

New Road

. The picturesque line was about 6 miles long and had one intermediate station at Whitegate, a very small village.

The passenger aspect of the line had an extremely chequered history and it was not a very good investment for its shareholders. The line opened to passengers on the 1^st of June 1870 and passenger services were withdrawn on the on the 1^st of January 1874. It was reopened on 1^st May 1886, closed on the 1^st of December 1888, reopened on the 1^st of February 1892, finally closing to passengers on the 1^st of January 1931. In 1929 the small engine shed at the station was closed. Rail traffic ceased on the 13^th of March 1967 but the line did not close completely until the 5^th of June 1967. The track was lifted and the trackbed is now the popular

Whitegate Way

countryside walk.

The amount of use that the ICI Light Railway was put too enabled most of their products and raw materials to be carried by rail. The ICI at the time also had it’s own fleet of river boats that travelled between Mid Cheshire and Liverpool where the goods could be transferred to ocean going ships. They were a common sight in their ICI livery sailing along the picturesque River Weaver. Now both of these efficient methods of goods conveyance have been assigned to the dustbin of history. The country roads of Cheshire and the motorways of Great Britain now carry the heavy wagons from what is left of these works, but then, that is progress, and we must have progress! Mustn’t we?

Photo’s 5 & 6

These two photographs show Whitegate station as it is today.

Words not attached to Photographs. 1,057

Copyright Paul Hurley March 2004