THE INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY RECORD

No. 21 - p323

© OCTOBER 1968

T  RATCLIFFE  &  CO  LTD

SYDNEY A. LELEUX

This Company owns the "Moderna Mills" in Mytholmroyd, near Halifax, Yorkshire, where blankets are manufactured. Materials used to be carried round the mill by trucks, but in 1960 they were replaced by a 2ft gauge railway. This is about 150 yards long, partly within the mill and continuing outside to serve another building. It is single track throughout, with a very short siding in the mill and branching into two lines outside. Within the building the track is laid on the floor, with planking between the rails and triangular wood laid outside the rails to make a steep ramp either side. Outside, the track is sunk in the ground.

    The first locomotive was a wagon fitted with batteries and a motor; it was somewhat underpowered and in 1963 was superseded by a new locomotive. Both of these machines were of local manufacture, some remains of the first one lying at the works until mid-1967. The second locomotive is a four-wheeled machine with a full length canopy supported by corner pillars, with an entrance at one end only. Heavy duty vehicle type batteries are carried longitudinally in the centre, the driver sitting to one side of them. Wright Electric Motors, of Halifax, supplied the 24 volt 2hp series-wound traction motor, which drives both axles by means of chains. Painted green, the loco has yellow/black dazzle striped ends.

    Rolling stock on the railway consists of three bogie flat cars, each having a 4ft by 10ft timber floor mounted on a frame fabricated from 3in by 1½in channel steel. Inside frame bogies of primitive design are fitted at 7ft 6in centres, and have 8½in diameter wheels on a wheelbase of 11½in. The floor is 1ft 8in above rail level, and wagons are coupled together by means of steel bars 1ft 6in long.

    When not in use the locomotive is kept just inside the factory, where there is a Legg Vehicle Battery Charger.