Some of the longest and heaviest trains on the UK network originate in the Mendip Hills of North Somerset, and provide materials for many of the country’s biggest construction projects. EVAN GREEN-HUGHES takes a look at this traffic, which has grown tremendously over the years.
Above: The size and scope of Torr Works quarry and the adjoining railway facilities at Merehead are clear to see in this aerial view – the yard easily swallows an entire ‘jumbo’ train of 50-odd aggregate hoppers. This has been the headquarters of the former Foster Yeoman company’s operations for decades. Its loaders are capable of moving five million tons of aggregate a year, most of it by rail. Tim Shackleton.
TAKE A TOUR round any major town or city anywhere in the country and look around you at the urban landscape, and even at the surface of the road on which you are walking. What you will see are giant buildings of stone, brick and concrete and miles of pavement or tarmac-coated highways. The next thing to consider is where the materials for all this construction came from and how they got there. For many of those buildings and roads, it was our railway which enabled their construction.
Before the railways, buildings were constructed with whatever w…
