# Dartmoor - Merrivale Quarry & Meldon Quarry Railway



## Scaramanger

Headed out on this mission with Dangerous Dave who provided valuable intel on location and directions. 

Dave's gonna add his version of events later on...


WARNING !

Don't venture out unless you have to was what the weather reports were saying. We started off in mid cornwall where not a spec of snow was to be seen but by the time we reached dartmoor it was a total white out. Roads were blocked, snow drifts swept across the roads but we were persistent and managed to get through..



A bit of info (thanks wiki) before we get to the pictures.

Merrivale Quarry is in the heart of Dartmoor and closed down in 2003. It was a granite quarry which since falling out of use has become flooded. It has gradually been stripped and today is a bare shell except for the foundry which still has a few interesting pieces inside.

Meldon quarry station was originally constructed in the 1920s as Meldon Quarry Halt. It had no public access and functioned as a Staff Halt for Quarry Workers, their families and Railway Staff working at Meldon Quarry.
The Halt was not shown in the public railway timetable and local passenger services only called by special arrangement. A Workmans' service from Okehampton also operated during this time using a workmens' coach attached to one of the ballast trains.
A new station at Meldon Quarry was opened in 2000 by Dartmoor Railway. This was built as a single platform on a site adjacent to the former up line and situated slightly nearer to Okehampton. It is a new construction entirely unrelated to the previous Staff Halt. The station was improved in 2002 with the installation of concrete platform walling and a wooden platform shelter in BR Southern Region style and colour scheme.

Although we didn't really venture into the quarry due to it being under a good covering of snow and didn't fancy falling to a hideous death we had a look around the adjacent rail yard instead.....

Poor old ponies, -5 degrees and the water their trying to drink has turned to ice - Ice licking can't be fun












On to Merrivale






Inside one of the buildings..not much left






Ever seen a cutting wheel this big ? we believe it was to cut slate











The original quarry.. now flooded






An old foundry building that seems to have been partially restored






Inside the foundry






A piece of interesting equipment 






And then on to Meldon...

On the way up and under meldon viaduct






Dangerous looking towards the dam on the viaduct
















Quite an unusual sight, rail yard with a quarry backdrop
















Class 08 shunter in its shed
















looks like its recently been painted 






Not many loco's to be seen here but no doubt the jewel in the crown here is this sixties liveried Class 47 "Waverley"






Thanks for looking


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## night crawler

Interestion report that , the piece of equipment in the 10th photo said drill sharpener on it. My mind is raceing as to what size drill was sharpened on that, it looked huge.


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## dangerous dave

nice images mate ive thrown em on my tumblr http://urbandesolation.tumblr.com/post/2376627629/trains?ref=nf

was a epic day ive worked thru the quarry shots nothing exceptional sadly so a shame


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## night crawler

Forgot to add I liked the shot under meldon viaduct for th esteelwork and how it goes into the distance.


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## hydealfred

Some really nice shots there - thanks for making the effort to get out in the snow  That 47 looks in very good nick.


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## Scaramanger

night crawler said:


> Forgot to add I liked the shot under meldon viaduct for th esteelwork and how it goes into the distance.



Thanks although sadly I can't take all the credit for it. Dangerous suggested the shot as I had a wide angle lens that would just about squeeze it all it. Its a fantastic piece of engineering.


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## Foxylady

That's a cracking explore and pics, 114...especially in this weather! Some great stuff there and loving the excavations. 
Great ponies shot.


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## Scaramanger

dangerous dave said:


> nice images mate ive thrown em on my tumblr http://urbandesolation.tumblr.com/post/2376627629/trains?ref=nf
> 
> was a epic day ive worked thru the quarry shots nothing exceptional sadly so a shame





Some sharp images there dangerous with nice understated tones. Good stuff


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## Munchh

Very interesting report, thanks for posting and braving the elements to do so. 

I thought your large cutter could actually be for cutting granite into slabs. A colleague of mine does this for a living and I've been in his workshop a few times. Have a look at this link............... 

http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/sett_makers.htm

...................which may relate directly to the quarry. If it does, it may well be worth going back when the snow's gone for a wider explore of the area. According to the article, there's a bit of late 1800's history lying around.


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## borntobemild

fantastic place - something for everyone.

Seen a similar wheel to that in a slate quarry in N Wales - athough not still in situ.


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## Badoosh

Nice report & pics. As Munch said above, the disc cutter is definitely granite. Shame they moved the crane from Merrivale. Some interesting stuff round that way.


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## rb211

*Hey Nightcrawler*

The answer is here. Interesting reading. http://www.dmm-gallery.org.uk/minequar/3701-01.htm


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## jonney

114 072 22 said:


> ever seen a cutting wheel this big ? We believe it was to cut slate


i used to use blades like this for cutting sandstone. They hang them up so that they don't warp with standing propped up against something because they are a pain to re-straighten and cost a bomb


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## professor frink

Looks like a great day out, there's something there to please everyone.


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## J_a_t_33

Great pics mate, particularly likin this one:


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## theoss

jonney said:


> i used to use blades like this for cutting sandstone. They hang them up so that they don't warp with standing propped up against something because they are a pain to re-straighten and cost a bomb



Biggest cutting wheel I have seen was 72" and fitted to a machine known as a Grice. It was used to cut carbon blocks at Hepworth/ Premier refractories in Sheffield. I helped with a breakdown job on it some years ago. Whilst we were repairing the slider mechanism, someone was retipping the diamond blade. I have been back to the plant now it has closed for good and, like the engineering firm I used to contract for based on site, the machine has gone- before I left Sheffield there was talk of relocating it to Bawtry.

This report brings back memories- we used to go to Newquay every September and stay a night at Bundu campsite on the way, we would take a stroll up Yes Torr, and so walked over that bridge. There are some Kiln remains under the bridge. Could never get near the ponies though. Sadly 700 ponies were pulled off Dartmoor last year, shot and sold for meat, althouth I suppose at least they were shot locally and not shifted around for hundreds of miles and then shot.


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## Incognito

Nice report, recently did the train yard and meldon quarry. The sixties liveried Class 47 "Waverley" was a very nice end to the explore and is pretty cool inside.


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## smiffy

jonney said:


> i used to use blades like this for cutting sandstone. They hang them up so that they don't warp with standing propped up against something because they are a pain to re-straighten and cost a bomb



I'd love to see the angle grinder that fits on harharhar!


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## jonney

theoss said:


> Biggest cutting wheel I have seen was 72" and fitted to a machine known as a Grice. It was used to cut carbon blocks at Hepworth/ Premier refractories in Sheffield. I helped with a breakdown job on it some years ago. Whilst we were repairing the slider mechanism, someone was retipping the diamond blade. I have been back to the plant now it has closed for good and, like the engineering firm I used to contract for based on site, the machine has gone- before I left Sheffield there was talk of relocating it to Bawtry.



We used to use an Anderson-Grice Pedlistle saw with a 36" blade, 2 Diavro frame saws with 63" blades, a Van Voorden Frame saw with a 118" blade and a BM frame saw which was just a huge stone cutting hacksaw and a couple of smaller cross cut saws with 24" blades


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## smiffy

there's some pretty impressive saws at work nowadays in the stone mills at The Forest of Dean Stone Firms........
http://www.fodstone.co.uk/manufacture.htm

maybe not the same size as yer on about but impressive none the less..........


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## theoss

jonney said:


> We used to use an Anderson-Grice Pedlistle saw with a 36" blade, 2 Diavro frame saws with 63" blades, a Van Voorden Frame saw with a 118" blade and a BM frame saw which was just a huge stone cutting hacksaw and a couple of smaller cross cut saws with 24" blades



Your saw is bigger than my saw...

What sort of stuff they turning out at your place? I had never heard of 'Grice' until that job, and came away thinking surely there is only one.

These were carbon blocks for furnaces and similar rubbish things, the plant itself was huge, but run down and only kept open for this saw, and the perfectly level assembly floor. The blocks were trundled through a door on a rail mounted trolley, and the mad italian would operate the machine. I had never seen a machine like it before, or since, and I feared the worse when they restarted it after we had been waving oxy torches around to replace the traverse bush- a job requiring brute force and precision alignment at the same time. They wanted it running again urgently so it was the only time I worked a week contracting and wasn't expected to do anything since they wanted us on standby for when the new part came back from the machinists. Infact, oli drum based bonfires began cropping up all over the place directly resultant of my boredom.And when the part arrived it was chaos, since the usual proper, coded, welder was om holiday it might have been I wading with the welding rods- little wonder the machine has gone now, it's probably in orbit somewhere. Happier times- 'flow' springs to mind.

And it was, looking at pictures, actually an 84" Grice. Scary.


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## jonney

theoss said:


> Your saw is bigger than my saw...
> 
> What sort of stuff they turning out at your place? I had never heard of 'Grice' until that job, and came away thinking surely there is only one.
> 
> These were carbon blocks for furnaces and similar rubbish things, the plant itself was huge, but run down and only kept open for this saw, and the perfectly level assembly floor. The blocks were trundled through a door on a rail mounted trolley, and the mad italian would operate the machine. I had never seen a machine like it before, or since, and I feared the worse when they restarted it after we had been waving oxy torches around to replace the traverse bush- a job requiring brute force and precision alignment at the same time. They wanted it running again urgently so it was the only time I worked a week contracting and wasn't expected to do anything since they wanted us on standby for when the new part came back from the machinists. Infact, oli drum based bonfires began cropping up all over the place directly resultant of my boredom.And when the part arrived it was chaos, since the usual proper, coded, welder was om holiday it might have been I wading with the welding rods- little wonder the machine has gone now, it's probably in orbit somewhere. Happier times- 'flow' springs to mind.
> 
> And it was, looking at pictures, actually an 84" Grice. Scary.




Sadly our place is no more (recession etc.) but we used to quarry sandstone and turn it into all types of building stone. Everything from lintles to window cills, quoins to coping and the waste we turned into rockery stone. The block of quarried stone (usually about 4-5 tonne) was slabbed up on the BM Frame saw then put on the circular saws to cut them up to the required sizes. We supplied stone all over the country and worked on some big jobs over the years.


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## waynezbitz1

theoss long time no see fella! how ya doing?

going back to the quary! is this the quarry just up from prince town? if so i visited this several years ago whilst staying at my parents caravan in peter tavy. if my memory serves me correctly there used to be a large crane or gantry over hanging the quarry itself and the building had dozens of various size grinding wheels in them.
i also recal going into a small store shed and finding a dead sheep in there rotting away and it stank to high heaven.
ive not been down that way since about 2004 but im hoping to go down this year for a weekend and chack this and a coupld of places out again and also take a camera with me this time lol


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## theoss

waynezbitz1 said:


> theoss long time no see fella! how ya doing?
> 
> Hello.
> 
> Still around with my wavering zest of life....
> 
> Did you make Dorset last year? I just had two days at Wiscombe cider, then off. It's either back to normal this year, or I might not be there at all depending whether I get any festival work this year.


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