Night Soil Workings

[Belvoir]

Alright, stop giggling !

A local farmer has just written a short article in our parish magazine explaining the whys and wherefores of spreading treated sewage waste as fertilizer. . .

I showed a copy to my fishing companion, who was prone to mention such things as we occasionally drowned our maggots when local muck-spreading was olefactorially evident.
Ernie is now 92 years old, and was born near Little Barford - which, as all in such erudite newsgroup will be aware was situated quite close to the LNER mainline at about milepost 49½. He has, with expletive adornment, mentioned 'noticing' the passage of night soil workings when he was a lad. The timeframe would be 1927-1934.

Seriously, has anyone any idea of the routes and scale of these workings ?

[52D]

Night soil was worked regulary just off the LNER in certain mining villages in the North East. Ashington, Blyth and Seaton had narrow gauge systems where coal was worked in the daytime and ash and soil were led out at night.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Not quite 'night soil' but horse 'night soil' was moved (excuse pun) regularly by the GN in open wagons to place's like Biggleswade, for use on crops, I assume, it would have been loaded at one of the smaller yards around KX.

manna

[watcheronthebridge]

The section towards the end of this page headed 'Manure' seems to be fairly definitive, in covering all varieties of said material http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/9-loads/9-min.htm

The Forge Valley line was the Northern Eastern route from Pickering to Scarborough.

There is more about night soil here, with some rail references http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/water.htm

[StevieG]

A gentleman of my acquaintance on 'the Relief' who at times covered Welwyn North signal box, once related a tale that it was common for old hands to, when necessary, empty the contents of the Elsan toilet into one of these night trains as it passed by immediately outside, by means of a well-timed bucket throw into an appropriate wagon (I wonder if they slowed the train by signals in order to ensure making a clean job of it?).
But the point of the story was that a newcomer (un-named), after his 'complete' training and being passed out for the box, did well except for his first night-time solo of emptying the Elsan, which unfortunately he mis-timed, causing much of the 'soil' to, rather than land 'cleanly' in/onto the wagon's floor or contents, to instead hit the inside back of the wagon, only therefore to be bounced back out in a widening spray reaching some distance along both platforms of the station and their buildings.
He was said to have then had an exhausting rest-of-night, up and down the box steps between trains and the bell-ringing and lever pulling, armed with broom and many buckets of water, attempting to remove all evidence of his timing error before the station master appeared on the scene next morning.

[Mickey]

Sorry to deviate slightly from the topic but picking up from Stevie's last post reminds me of a true story from the North London line (one of many) of a signalman working Willesden High level back in the mid-1980s. Back at that time at Willesden High level in the 1980s there was an outside 'chemical toilet' situated at the bottom of the box staircase one of those portable plastic workman's toilets that are seen on building sites anyway the unfortunate signalman involved in the following incident decided to take a PNB in the early hours of the morning when it was quiet so he nips out of the box and down the staircase and into the toilet does his business, finishes and pulls the handle and is immediately covered in cess & muck and not only covered in that stuff but the chemical toilet started spraying him with the rest of the contents of the toilet amounting to several bucket fulls of muck & chemical solution all over him!!. I believe i recall hearing that there was some problem with the door to this toilet because he had difficulty in trying to get the door open while this chemical toilet was emptying it's contents all over him!!!.

Come to think of it i believe the poor unfortunate signalman involved in the 'toilet incident' even decided to remain on duty but it is un-recorded what his mates comments were to him next morning??.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

I had an unfortunate incident happen to me only a couple of years ago, I have to check on a pump that has to pump the septic tank out into a common effluent sewer, once a week, just to make sure that it's working, whilst testing it a pipe broke, and I copped the lot right in the face, the pump is strong enough to lift sewage 30', I was covered in it, I made my way back to the nearest wash basin, to have a wash, I then went home, (45 minutes in the car) amazing how hard it is to keep ones mouth totally shut for a couple of minutes

manna

[notascoobie]

Good afternoon,

I wasn't going there, because it's not LNER related, but Manna has opened the flood gates as it were.

Many years ago I served with the RAF helicopter force. On a field deployment in support of a major army exercise, as is normal, chemical loos were provided at the domestic site, which was on a slope. One breezy night, an unfortunate chap popped to the loo after getting back from work. During the course of his visit, the cabin rocked and was helped by the wind and the slope to tip over. As well as a liberal coating the poor chap had to wait inside the cabin for rescue because it had landed laying on its door!

It took a long time for the poor chap to live that down, although that wasn't helped by the nickname he aquired.

At least it wasn't me!

Regards,

Vernon

[R. pike]

Cadwell Siding was used for the transhipment of 'manure' brought out in coal empties from London. To assist the horse and carts getting to the fields a cast iron plateway was laid. This is still visible today. From stories i've heard the content of the manure was not always from the animals rear end but included other material that would degrade in due course including dead rats, cats and dogs, butchers waste and other unmentionables.

Edit to add.. almost as bad as the content that headed for Blackbridge siding.

[Belvoir]

Thank you all for your responses, especially watcheronthebridge.

I grew up in a small town in Essex and remember (in the early fifties) privy contents being collected into a couple of old Shelvoke and Drewey ex-dustcarts. The last few cottages were connected to mains drainage in about 1954 and the S & D carts were just abandoned on some waste ground. Needless to say when they dried out they were used as an unofficial playground !

[Boris]

A soil train used to pass through Rotherham every morning about 1000 in the 50s on its way to Thrybrough tip. It was in open waggons and the smell lingered for ages after it had passed

[52D]

Barclay narrow gauge used on Ashingtons night soil system.

[mr B]

very interesting , some couple years ago (1990's) they was spraying pellets on fields in our locality with ex sewage works 'crap' .... interesting that there was little smell - untill it got damp or wet , i believe it was from treatment farms the Cumbria area /



mr B

[Cuddie Headrigg]

Hi, I was about to post a query on this subject and found this thread. A few years ago I was browsing a 1930s working timetable (or equiv.) at an acquaintances house and spotted a reference to a 'spoil' train working on the Stanhope & Tyne that appeared to end up between Burnhill Junction and Whitehall! Attached is an image from the early 1990s https://ironroad.smugmug.com/ROAMING/i-TZg5h9Q/A showing the trackbed from Whitehall Cutting looking to Burnhill Junction and it looks quite extensive. Does anyone know if any such disposal operations took place here? I do believe there was a box here and sidings originally, judging by the earthworks.

[Bryan]

Spoil may be different from Night Soil.
Spoil may be old track ballast or ash from track renewal operations.
Tips for spoil can be found all over the country.