Ripple Lane TMD - April 2017

Hi All

Well this is an unusual part of DP for me to be in.............

What - No bunkers

No not this time, this time its the derelict British rail loco shed in East London called Ripple lane TMD between Barking and Dagenham.
The depot was an out base for Stratford TMD and closed it doors to it`s final locos in 1992-3, all the rail line leading to and from the shed have been pulled up and the shed complex stands derelict.
I arrived at the location at around 3:15 in the morning and with an added bonus of an almost full moon.

Picture time.

Looking at the main 4 road loco servicing shed.



Next up a shot of the inside where the locos would of been worked on (For the rail geeks out there, the work carried out would of been A & B Exams and general day to day servicing).



As with any other large shed, there are stores, boiler rooms, mess rooms for the fitters, and a large Admin building.
Looking at the Admin block with the loco shed on the right and the stores etc on the left.



The boiler room for the site.



Heavy weight stores flat bed.



One thing that is cool about the site is out side at the far end is a sand hopper tower.
(railway locos use sand to stop there wheels from slipping)



Right that will do, Thanks for looking and all comments are most welcome.
If you want to see a few more shots from Ripple Lane TMD head on over to my FlickR site at :-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/albums/72157682322640266

Cheers Newage

Lovely pics, enjoyed that

Bit different that one. The ex-spotter in me enjoyed that one!

You got some interesting shots Newage, I liked the one of the flatbed truck, Thanks

Great one Newage.

I have seen coaling towers, but never a sanding tower. That looks really interesting.

Very nice. The depot used to service Warships, Class 08 shunters, 47s and 37s. I remember this depot and often wondered what happened to it after closure.

I must admit I don't understand your technical terms but I appreciate them...I've never heard of a "sand hopper tower" but now I have I bet i will be spotting them everywhere. Thanks for that tricky night shoot!

nice one Newage, i enjoyed that and lovely shots in the dark too. 3:15am is far too early for me.

With regards the sand hopper tower, if you think about the amount of sand that would be needed during an
Average week in the winter months it's a lot, and lifting bloody great big bags above your shoulders to fill
Loco sand boxes is hard work and takes a lot of time, so sand if it's dry will flow just like water so it
Gravity fed in to the boxes, loco traction sand is very very fine.

Cheers newage

Having worked 30 plus years for British Rail Research and been involved in many rail head/wheel adhesion problems, I can categorically state that 'very very fine' sand is the worse mineral for increasing motive power adhesion. Also under normal movement vibrations, sand that is too fine will compact down in such a way that it does not flow out of sandboxes in any manner at all. Sieve/grain size, particle shape and hardness, along with water content, are the most important criteria in ensuring that 'sand' is delivered correctly into the nip between wheel and rail head. In certain areas of the network one can find Autumn usage of sand greater than any normal Winter applications, especially when tree trimming and trackside vegetation cutback has been allowed to lapse. The coefficient of friction of crushed leaf/vegetation sap can be so different from than that of frozen ice and snow on the rail head and this is why the Autumn period can cause such great traction problems. Yes; this country can have very different forms of snowfall and leaf fall can be very unpredictable and it is this unpredictability that is the very problem in the UK. On the Continent there are rail systems that have very predictable seasonal weather and winter, summer or autumn timetables and procedures are easily implemented - year on, year out. What global warming will do to this ordered system remains to be seen, but here in the UK the rail system does not benefit from a predictable weather system and Winter Service Problems can be a constant drain on financial budgets.

I am loving this. The thread has been totally taken over by railway enthusuasts.

That is interesting about sand for sanding boxes. In my time on heritage railways I never really noticed what the motive teams were shoving in there, but it probably wasn't B&Q kiddie play-pit stuff.

Railway locos get all a bit complex these days, even the most modern locos have sand gear.
The new stuff has auto sanding gear.

Been luck to have been on one or two locos.

Cheers Newage

OoooH Maaaate !!!! Just seen this !! Really great night time goodliness especially that sanding tower - i remember passing this when we used to walk from Dagenham Dock to the depot back in the mid eighties ( i'm sure it was disused then !! ) I used to spend hours at Ripple Lane in the late 80's as we (Kings Cross men) used to work an empty car train from Wakefield - Which we picked up at Finsbury Park - trip it to Dagenham Dock then light engine to Ripple lane depot and sit there for three bloody hours before reversing the process !!! How i wish i'd taken some depot pics then !! To say that this depot had it's fair share of East London characters/gangsters is an understatement and as a rather impressionable young man three hours in their company certainly opened my eyes a bit !!! PS Real Londoners come from Norfff Lundun !!! Loved it mate !!!!