SORTING OFFICE

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

5

Date Released

Jan 1952

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1SORTING OFFICE
2. 2HIGH TENSION
3. 3UNDER THE BORDER
4. 4TEE BOY

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: the rail marshalling yard at Toton, Derby.
NCB Commentary - With the winter fuel demand at its peak, this Midland colliery, like all the other pits, is turning out laden coal wagons as fast as possible. Destined for scores of addresses in the South and West of England, they can’t just be sent out as one long train. They have to be sorted out - and that’s where the railways’ marshalling yards come in.
At Toton, near Derby, British Railways have one of their most highly mechanised marshalling yards, handling thousande of trucks a day.
First of all, the wagons are marked with the number of the siding where their trains will be made up. While the wagons are uncoupled, the chalker telephones the Pump Room, the nerve centre of this million pound layout. From now on the job will be automatic. Up comes a 450 horsepower Diesel to shove the wagons to the crest of the hump.
Now the trucks are rolling under gravity. As they pass the operator in the Pump Room, the chalked numbers tell him what button to press to select the points which will guide each truck to its destination.
A little way on, where the lines have divided into four sets of rails, is the Control Room. The operator brakes the speed of each wagon with these rail arrestors, which ease the trucks up off the rails, so that as they roll on into the network of sidings which fan out beyond the Control Room they’ll have just enough speed to bring them gently to their destinations.
Load after load roll down from the Pump, where the push-button operators can clear up to 5,000 wagons a day. The yards are floodlit at night, and there’s no stopping for frost, ice or fog.
From the despatch sidings the completed trains are signalled out, off with their loads to wherever they’re most needed.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was filmed from the 15th to the 17th October 1951. The budget was £125 1s 10d. The British Transport Commission film used was charged at 5s per foot. Commentary recorded 4 December 1951.

Keywords

Railways; Transport; Mining

Locations

Derbyshire; England

Footage sources

British Transport Commission

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.6 No.74 December 1952, p651.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Camera

John Gunn

Director

Leslie Shepard

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Camera

Ronald Bicker