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Oxfordshire Ironstone Company Nene Valley Railway. Barabel and the Oxfordshire Ironstone Company. The Oxfordshire Ironstone Company Ltd. OIC was the second largest ironstone quarry system in the Midlands, surpassed only by Stewarts Lloyds at Corby. Incidentally, the United Steel Companies Exton Park system just up the road from Nene Valley Railway was the third largest with a loop of nine miles and a two mile link to the exchange sidings at what is now Rutland Railway Museums site between Cottesmore and Ashwell. The Oxfordshire system was centred on the small village of Wroxton to the west of Banbury where the headquarters, loco sheds and main works were located. From this hub, railways branched out to the various outlying quarries two or so miles away such Hornton, Alkerton and Balscott, where quarry machines face shovels and draglines dug out the ironstone from the massive reserves which lay, literally, just under the surface and which were, therefore, very easily accessible. The company tended to be steam minded in the matter of equipment, purchasing one of the last steam draglines built in this country in 1. Ransomes Rapier Ltd. No. 5. 11, which was scrapped in 1. Patch Making Company Uk Magazine
No. Sir Thomas at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, similar in appearance the standard Hudswell Clarke PLA type to Thomas at NVR Hudswell Clarke Works No. The decision was taken by OIC to dieselise the locomotive fleet completely by the bulk purchase of eleven more diesels, All built in one series, they were delivered, by rail, at regular intervals from the Rolls Royce Sentinel works at Shrewsbury between September 1. July 1. 96. 5. The OICs steam fleet had consisted of two well defined groups the four wheelers with girls names operated between the quarries and the crushing plant at Wroxton, whilst the six wheelers with boys names hauled the trains of ironstone on the five mile long mainline from Wroxton to the exchange sidings a mile or so north of Banbury on the BR ex GWR Paddington Birmingham main line for onward transit to the iron and steel works of Birmingham, West Midlands and South Wales. The Decameron 1971 here. Exactly the same differentiation between duties was envisaged for the diesel fleet. It was decided to standardise on the 3. Diesel Hydraulic type. The eight quarry locomotives, at 3. For the mainline traffic, instead of the Rolls Royce Sentinel standard 0 6 0 DH design as originally envisaged as per Corby Quarries 2. London Transport DL8. NVR, Thomas Hill Rotherham Ltd. Sentinels steam waggon and then Rolls Royce Sentinels rail locomotive agents since the 1. Eric Tonks, OIC that the standard 0 4 0 DH design of 4. Increasing the gearbox ratio enabled the boys to travel at a higher speed on the OICs main line and, with the 4. The Fine Food Company is an established speciality fine food wholesale supplier to the catering industry, based in Somerset. The five month delay between the deliveries of the last girl Jean and the first boy Alex was due, it is thought, to specification of the main line locos being under some discussion. Possibly, too, Jean the last quarry loco was subjected to some trialling as it, too, had its gearbox ratio changed and certainly had a faster turn of speed when compared with the other girls. Fortuitously, and right on cue, Rolls Royce Sentinels records specifically relating to the Oxfordshire Ironstone Companys diesel locos have surfaced so further light may well be thrown on this particular subject. However, despite these differences, the outwork appearance of all the locos was the same. Even the names were the same. The eight quarry machines and five mainliners received the nameplates from the displaced steamers girls for the quarries, boys for the mainline. They were according to the Rolls Royce Sentinel records refurbished and fitted to the diesels by Rolls Royce Sentinel free of charge. The plates, of course, revealed their origin as each steam locomotive manufacturer had had their own distinctive style of lettering easily recognised by the railway enthusiast During the changeover period, the loss of the nameplates from the steam locos was, according to Eric Tonks felt far beyond the bare patch on the tanks. The driver of Barabel Hudswell Clarke 0 4 0 ST, Works No. G Cohen Sons Co. Cransley near Kettering, in September 1. Alas, the wholesale changeover from steam to diesel belied the real state of the Midlands ironstone industry and, indeed, the British iron and steel industry as a whole. No sooner had the new diesel fleet settled down to a regular operating pattern of moving the ironstone than the accelerating decline of the ironstone industry generally meant that the writing was on the wall for many Midlands ironstone quarries especially those some distance away from the iron and steel works where the transport costs to get the ironstone to the furnaces was high. The Oxfordshire systems output of 4. Consequently, in September 1. Rolls Royce Sentinel fleet was ordered three years before With the reduction in the locomotive requirement, some of the new diesels had already been transferred to other quarries and works within the Stewarts Lloyds empire prior to closure, but by May 1. The locomotives the oldest a mere six years old, the youngest less than three were all found employment within the iron and steel industry, but the subsequent retrenchment has meant that most of them have been shoved from pillar to post and it is not easy to have kept track of them. Apart from those which transferred to other works and to the giant S L Corby Steelworks itself, some continued in ironstone service elsewhere with the initial aim of displacing steam working at Irchester, Storefield, Cranford all in Northamptonshire and Pilton Rutland but here again events outpaced their movements and the last two places never received diesels because closure intervened.