http://www.modern-railways.com April 2019 Mo dern Railways 67
FREIGHT AT NEWHAVEN
Just north of Newhaven Town station there
are sidings operated by the Day’s Aggregates
company. They generate considerable tonnages
of freight traffic with a path available to them
for a single train Mondays to Fridays. Although
regular, all trains are on an ‘as required’ basis.
Three times per week, normally Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays, the company receives
trains of limestone from Acton, with the
material originating at Whatley or Merehead
quarries in Somerset. On Tuesday a train can
work from Cliffe in north Kent loaded with
imported granite, although on occasions
this comprises a train of imported sand.
On Friday, recycling products (such as
crushed concrete) arrive from Brentford.
This train is different from the others in
that it returns loaded, with ash from a
nearby incinerator, which is processed
at Brentford for commercial use.
Day’s Aggregates works with DB Cargo/Mendip
Rail and GB Railfreight. Freight traffic will notbe affected by track and signal modernisation,
although the closure of the Brighton main line for
engineering works has required careful planning.
Freight expansion at Newhaven is mooted:
there is a proposal to install a couple of sidings for
dispatch of sea-dredged aggregates alongside the
turnback at Newhaven Marine. John Vaughanprotected structure, this box cannot be demolished
and an alternative community use for it is sought,
with a new walkway from the town proposed.
Both Newhaven Town and Harbour signal
boxes are also Saxby and Farmer boxes, built
in 1879. The Town box will be demolished,
while the Harbour box will pass to the port
authority for conversion into a messing facility.
Newhaven Marine station, a stone’s throw away
from Newhaven Harbour, used to serve boat
trains connecting with cross-Channel ferries and
has not been used for many years. The branch
into the former Marine station becomes an
eight-car turnback siding as part of the project.
One of the main purposes of Newhaven
Harbour level crossing, adjacent to the station,
has been to access the Harbour signal box.
This crossing will close along with the box, with
road vehicles seeking to access the harbour to
be diverted on to Beach Road level crossing.
A 7-10 March blockade on the branch
included some track renewal work,
with a permanent way train from Hither
Green attending over the weekend.
While the early March blockade was originally
intended to see commissioning of the new signals,
a couple of days before the blockade began
Network Rail announced that commissioning
would be deferred until a later date. Paul Harwood,
Network Rail South East’s Director of Investment,
said on 7 March: ‘Following discussions with our
contractors over the past week, we’ve come to the
conclusion that there was no longer confidence
that the final commissioning of the signalling
equipment from Lewes to Seaford could be
completed over the four-day closure of the
railway. We were not prepared to risk the lines not
reopening for passengers on Monday morning
(11 March) and have therefore taken the very
difficult decision to postpone that part of the work.
Once it is complete, the resignalling will be an
operating boon. ‘The work gives us the ability to
divert more trains if necessary, plus it has renewed
a lot of equipment that has been prone to failure’
comments Karl Grewar, Network Rail’s Operations
Manager for the South East Route (Sussex area).
The modernisation of the Seaford branch
will mean an end to absolute block working
on the Coastway east of Brighton, with the
Bognor Regis branch then the only remaining
section with absolute block in South East
Route’s Sussex area. Other parts of the
Coastway retain semaphore signals. aAggregates at Newhaven: on 1 September 2016,
DB Cargo Class 66 No 66002 prepares to leave the
sidings with a Newhaven to Acton train of empty
box wagons. The inbound train had brought in
limestone from Somerset quarries. John VaughanMechnical signalling: Richard, the bobby on duty on 25 February,
pulls the levers in Newhaven Harbour box. John Vaughan066-067_MR_Apr 2019_newhaven.indd 67 12/03/2019 15:07