The Flickr Liverpoollimestviasheffieldtonorwich Image Generatr

* Totley East Signalbox
From Dore & Totley Station, the 2nd of the three locations visited was the location of the 1st of the HOpe Valley signalboxes by the looks of things, this will be removed and control passed to the York R.O.C. for this section of line through Totley, Grindleford and Bamford. I am not sure if the signalbox at Grindleford will survive as this is just the other side of the western portal of Totley Tunnel and at the eastern end of the 'Dynamic Loop Line' between Bamford and Hathersage, I imaging this section will also come under control of the York R.O.C. with the other boxes to the west, at Earles Sidings and Edale being left in tact. It wont be long before this is known as mentioned in the last set of pictures, the Hope Valley and Dore Station work is set to be complete by 'Spring 2024'. This 3rd set of 4 pictures, shows the remaining two freight moves in happening within about 10 minutes of each other, in the area next to Totley Box; the 2nd one only being possible due to it running 85 minutes late on departure, but making this up to around 20mins late by the time it got into this area.

In the upper left shot, one that I assumed wouldn't run, but did, a light engine move from Earles Sidings, where Freightliner have a base, and this loco is taking the only option, just about, top get from the Hope Valley Line and through to Barrow Hill, juts north of Chesterfield. In clean-looking condition, unlike Totley Box, this is class 66, 66621, on the around 90 minute jaunt, 0E96, from Hope, Earles Sidings, via Sheffield and Woodhouse then back on the 'Old Road', to the Barrow Hill Up Sdgs, No.2-3, working. Unfortunately Totley East Box is now beginning to look neglected and if the schedule is to be believed, this may well be its last 2-3 months in use; the thick bundle of signalling and control cables running in front of the box, a testament to the changes which are about to take place. There are no semaphores in this area and the signalling is all M.A.S. and connected to the York R.O.C. allowing progress of train moves up to the mouth of Totley Tunnel just around the corner, the last two signals, TE03 to the west and TE11 from the west, one for each line, can be seen in this picture; so this 'aspect' wont change when the new order takes over...

At upper right, as the Freightliner makes its way slowly towards Dore & Totley, with track-workers about the place, visible to the right and presumably, that dun-green cabin and grey cabinet, are the modern replacement for Totley Tunnel East Box which will presumably be removed in a few months, leaving this a less rich place to do any 'train-spotting'. The Dore west to east curve, allowing moves to and from the south, is around the corner in the distance with a cross-over seen here to allow moves off the Hope Valley line from the west, to all points south along the North Midland line through Bradway Tunnel. The signal feather indicating such a move can be seen atop the Totley Tunnel East Box signal, S052 in front of the Freightliner with the main signal at green for move straight to Dore & Totley. Freightliner 66621 is running on the light engine working, 0E96, from Hope Earles Sidings, west of here, via Sheffield & Woodhouse to the Barrow Hill Up Sdgs, No.2-3.

At lower left, running 15mins late, so a bit convenient for my timing getting over from Dore & Totley, a grubby G.B.R.f. class 66, 66770, slowly approaches, on the 4H73, Wellingborough Up Terminal Complex, to Tunstead Sidings(GBRf) hauling a rake of 24, 'Touax HYA Bogie Hoppers'. It appears, that some 'Wag' has written '10F' in the grime on the front of the loco, if this means, possibly, what I think it means, this is the 'Shed Code' for 'Lower Ince/Wigan' but later 'Rose Grove' engine shed over in the west; a nice touch that...! Hopefully the driver, if he sees this, or someone else may confirm or explain what this is... The three countdown markers on the left indicate the distance to the signal controlling moves either straight on to Dore or off to the right and onto the Dore west to south curve at signal S052...

At lower right the freight move rattles passed Totley East box, the signaller having all the blinds down in the box, presumably not interested in freight, as some of us are, and once again, the cabin structure looking in need of some attention, which it will now not get... Its a very clean looking rake of empty 'Touax HYA Bogie Hoppers' being hauled by a grime ridden class 66 GBRf loco, 66770, almost at its destination along the Hope Valley, it will arrive in 45 minutes at Tunstead Sidings in Peak Forest having set off earlier today from Wellingborough at 10:11, 60 minutes late, on the 4H73 working...

* Bamford Station
Finally for today's jaunt, out and now returning via the scenic route through the Hope Valley as far as Bamford. This was really to check what progress was being made at the site where the commencement of the 'Dynamic Loop' is located, seen on the left-hand side of the picture at the top here. Well, there was nothing going on as far as I could see, the place was quite and there were no more freight moves until two light engine moves, 0F54, from Peak Forest to Toton at 14:29 followed by 0G32, at 15:06 from the Masbrough Freight Depot to Earles Sidings in between which was another working, 6H03, from Wellingborough to Peak Forest at 14:43. Hurtling passed and providing a bit of interest in this shot, another of the hourly TPE passenger trains, this one another pair of class 185s, 185135 at the front and behind, 185151 on the 1B77, Cleethorpes via Doncaster & Sheffield to Liverpool Lime St. service. In the far distance under the bridge on the right, is the large N.R. compound mentioned in the last pictures and here, on the left a smaller on at the station. Only the first short segment of the 'Dynamic Loop Line' has been installed, with a railway sleeper acting as a 'STOP' block, the remainder of the loop line still to be installed. There is now another of those dun-green lineside cabins with its attendant grey cabinet just the other side of the Earle's ES04 signal and, in the distance, under the arched bridge, the new, heavy replacement bridge for the age-old accommodation crossing which took walkers directly across the tracks; now they will have a nice ne, tall metal bridge to climb...
The lower two pictures show some of the old railway infra-structure, at left, yet another of those yellow-painted concrete mileposts, this time with the number visible, 162 mils from London and this is the quarter mile post between the mile markers; it was therefore easy for drivers to estimate reasonably accurately, to a quarter mile, where they were along the track; now we have G.P.S.! On the right, so much scrap, piled up from the removal of the old tracks which passed behind the station forming a goods yard, long since gone, but the old rails and points connecting it to the main line remain as so much scrap...

* Dore & Totley Station
This second set of four pictures shows something a bit more of interest and was the main reason for the jaunt out here but in the event two other freight-type workings turned up as well making the whole session, more worthwhile. It was a drive round in a 'circular' path, from well north of Sheffield to the town centre, along Abbeydale Road to Dore station and then back along the Hope Valley via Bamford and Bradfield to home..

In the upper left picture, positioned once again from Twentywell Road, looking north onto the station site, sees Freightliner class 66, 66605, in 'Satsuma Orange' livery come slowly forward along the Hope Valley line on the regular, 6M89, Dewsbury Blue Circle to Hope Earles Sidings working with a long, about 33, rake of empty PCA Cement Tanks. Both the north-end signals are now visible, S0056 at left and S0057 at right, S0056 being the one being replaced once the station work nears completion. Just above 66605 is a rather tall, ugly green pine tree, its dominance in this picture having been cloned out, its total height extends well above the horizon in the background, about two-thirds of it having been 'pruned'!! As may be seen from this panoramic shot, there is clearly still a lot of work to do here before the station can once gain be left to its own peaceful existence though I expect the extra facilities on offer may sell change all that. The Network Rail compound which occupies all of the station 'Park & Ride' can be seen on the left behind the old station building, now the 'Rajdhani', Indian restaurant, the compound extends all the way alongside the main road to beyond the new footbridge. Not many of the station workers are taking a look at the freight passing, complete lack of interest in this sort of thing usually...

In the upper right shot, its back on the station site and on platform 1 looking west along the Hope Valley Line. The regular hourly service to and from the East Coast and Liverpool, comes trundling through the station, this one a pair of Transpennine Express class 185s, 185116 & 185137 on the east-bound, 1B74, Liverpool Lime St. via Sheffield and Doncaster to Cleethorpes service; the second unit is just visible at the back and the majority of these services now run as a pair of coupled units. In the background above the rear unit and on the other side of the bridge, is another Network Rail & VolkerRailStory J.V. Compound, N.R also have additional compounds at Bamford and a large, field-based compound between Hathersage & Bamford at the side of the main road.

At lower left, another picture which makes it look like there are passenger services parked up at the station platform, in fact in both instances the EMR 222, Meridian seen in the 1st set of pictures and here, Northern CAF 195, are being held temporarily at Sheffield's north-end signal, S0057, on the down main line, waiting for clearance to head towards Sheffield. Shame that, as already mentioned, I had maybe naively expected there would be a platform, 3, back on the main line again, as in days of yore, when Dore & Totley had double-track on both the Hope Valley & Main lines and trains stopped, north and south-bound, at all platforms, see for example, this picture from 1914 showing the station in all its glory-
www.flickr.com/photos/59662214@N06/16117830347/
and later, in the mid-20th century-
www.flickr.com/photos/llangollen_signalman/29672478360/
Now some of this infrastructure has been put back, in its modern guise of course, but with no access from the main lines; not forgetting there used to be no less than 4 stations along this line into Sheffield, here at Dore, at Beauchief, at Millhouses & one at Heeley, just outside Sheffield. Anyway, for the present at least, no trains will stop here on the main line and if the services are just going as far as Sheffield, then this isn't surprising, but what about those that go much further north, though to some extent these are handled by the TPE services which provide that on the H.V.L. so ... maybe the extra platform facility is deemed surplus to requirements.. those wishing to go further north then changing at Sheffield for onward services via Doncaster, Leeds and York. Paused at 'platform 3' is a Northern Rail class 195, 195108 on the regular stopping service, this one,1Y14, from Nottingham via Sheffield to Leeds. The station workers have now brought their rail-based trolley forward, this one carrying another supply of red bricks for the platform front fascia...

Finally, at the station site, another look-back along the platform to the north, showing the cement trolley being brought forward for the bricks which were just delivered and on the left, an orange-suited chap looking at what's going on from the NR compound. According to the information here-
www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/construction-milest...
the work is set to be complete by 'Spring 2024' which isn't all that far off now... There's a video at that link showing a bridge replacement between Hathersage and Bamford, to accommodate the extra track being installed for the 'Dynamic Loop Line' between those two stations... well worth watching.

* Dore & Totley Station
Its been 6 months since the last visit was made to the Dore & Totley area, to see what is now progressing on the station site, and the local Hope Valley Line, i.e. Totley East Box and further west at Bamford Station. The scene has changed dramatically of course with the notable presence now of a passenger footbridge and associated lift access between platform's 1 and now, the new platform 2.

In the upper left pictures, platform 2 is being worked on, with all the red-brick pointing being carried out by a small team of men, stood on the ballast with a small cement supply being ferried back-and-forth on a rail-head 'dolly', on the yet to be used new line, see next set of shots. The installation of the new footbridge has changed the feel of the station and it has lost somewhat of the feel of an old wayside station, though that started when the Park-and-Ride car park was built, a few years ago now. The two lift shafts dominate the scene to the north and it looks as if the old 'blanking board', has retained its position on the new site; I assume this board is something to do with signal sighting to the north, the Hope Valley Signal at the far end of platform 1, S0026, being visible from the main line as a driver on the main line comes around the corner from the south, heading through the station northwards, though I would have thought the footbridge now serves to block the view of this signal. I imagine the board also blocks the view of the main-line signal, S0027, from the view of drivers coming along the Hope Valley line, and also heading north to Sheffield.

In the upper right picture, an East Midlands train looks to have stopped alongside what would have been platform 3, over on the right, but in fact it has been slowed by a yellow possibly either by the signal, S0047, at the entrance to Bradway Tunnel or the one just this side of the tunnel, S0049, by the time the train got here the signal at the north end, S0057, was showing green and the class 222, 'Meridian', 222005, powered off to the north on the 1F22, St. Pancras International to Sheffield service, and is here on-time. The 'orange-jackets' are on the ballast at this end of the station, separated from slowly passing trains by a safety fence, the speed limit through the station having been reduced whilst this work proceeds.

In the lower left picture, a wide-angle shot of the station from Twentywell Lane at the south end of the station with where now 2 pairs of lines diverge, on the right, the main lines to the south ands on the left, newly installed, a second line now curves around with the existing one to provide a two-track formation onto the Hope Valley, though at present, this second line only extends as far as the Twentywell Road bridge where the camera is situated. Just at the side of the grey lineside cabin, the bridge abutments are visible for the River Sheaf, its origin not far away to the south-west, there called Oldhay Brook, Totley Brook joins it as well and the River's name forms the basis of the city's name. Passing along south on the up fast line in the background, is and another East Midlands Trains set, this one class 158 units, 158846 & 158866 on the 1L09, Liverpool Lime St. via reversal in Sheffield to Norwich service. Note this picture shows there is no platform edge next to the down main line though there looks to be enough room to install one, should it ever be required...

In the lower right picture, now looking along the original Hope Valley single line, with the newly installed section to its right, well ballasted, the view shows the two signals at the far end of the station, on the left, S0056 on the Hope Valley line, with a new signal post immediately to its right. Over on the right a similar two-head, 3-aspect signal remains in use for, the north-bound main line through to Sheffield. HAving just come off the up main line from Sheffield, via signal S0058 with feather for the divergence on to the Hope Valley, another E.M.R. set of class 158s, this time 158856 & 158863 on the semi-fast, so no stop at this station, 1R68, Norwich via a reversal at Sheffield to Liverpool Lime St. service. To the front and left of the DMU a remnant of earlier days in the form of a lineside one quarter mile marker indicating to the driver how far along the line from origin the train had come, on the top part and the fraction of a mile on the side... the distance, on top, usually being that from London.

And, a half hour wait ensued, thinking it now prudent to 'catch' a couple of other workings which were due through the area, one heading east just after mi-day and the other, heading west about another half hour later. Coming along fully laden from the quarries at Peak Forest, is a complete bright-red set of loco and 16 MMA wagons on the 6M04, Dowlow Briggs Sidings to Toton Up Sidings with what must be around 1200 tonnes of aggregates, the wagons being by no means very full..
Leading the working through the station is a D.B.C. class 66, 66100, named 'Armistice 100 1918-2018', and this type and time of working was also used in last years Xmas card, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50739569246/in/
and its not all that far off to this years effort, once more!

The set of red wagons is stretched out along around half the length of the loop line and the final two shots will show the scene looking from the other end, with the view back towards Bamford Station. The last time I was here was on February 13th this year for a test train move, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52694525834/
a bit more interesting than the R.H.T.T> which has just passed by, and before that, for the engineering work proceeding on the loop line, which meant the Hope Valley line was closed, on Sunday, July 3rd, 2022, and what an event that turned out to be, with me getting the call onto the work-site to take shots from the track formation, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52208643791/

* A 12Mby MP4 phone Video which is 15s long.
* NB: As this is shorter than the fixed 3 minute viewing in the Flickr interface, the Video can be watched here... or downloaded as usual.

Well, rushed out here to catch what I thought would be a different set of traction on the 'all over the world' RHTT, originating at the Wigan L.I.P. and chasing round clearing the rail-head in the Manchester area before heading, briefly, over this way to perform a reversal operation at Grindleford. The RailCam details indicated this set was operated by Freightliner and had 'diesel' traction and knowing that other local areas around were operated with class 66s, eg, the one that clears the tracks to the east and south of here and passes for reversal through Worksop, it seemed obvious this one would be the same. The working number is 3S50, another indicator and not usual for these types of 'On-Track Machine' workings, this one an M.P.V., 'Multi-Purpose Vehicle', usually with a nUxx, a number usually 6, followed by 'U' and 2 letters.. So, you can imagine my surprise when this thing came 'scooting', that's what it looked like, around the bend in the distance, crossed the green River Derwent rail bridge and rattled through the station. This is the Freightliner operated, Network Rail, class 989, M.P.V. with DR98982 leading and DR98932 at the back on the 3S50, Wigan L.I.P. via all over & reversal at Grindleford to Stockport leaf clearing train with 'Clearing Britain's Railways' on the side of the 'J.S.D. Rail', 'Socofer Construction' unit, see-
www.socofer.com/presenting-traction-socofer

With the set having headed off to Grindleford, around 5km away, just before the western portal of Totley Tunnel, it was time for a change of location to be ready for the return which turned out to be 23 minutes later. The set must have used the cross-over in front of Grindleford box, passing along the line towards Sheffield before stopping to reverse back over to the west-bound line and then reversing into the siding line in front of Grindleford box; there being no crossover to allow the movement directly into the siding for east-bound trains.. The set was now ready for the off, back west, but by the time it had completed the reversal, a T.P.E. service, 1B73, with 185131 was in the area, due to pass at 11:27, for which the R.H.T.T. set had to wait to pass by, making it around 15 minutes late when it got back here.. By this time there were a few folk about and 1 or 2 were interested in knowing what I was up to.. had to tell them about the MPV, but as it was a wee bit unusual, it may be worth having a look and taking a shot, before they got on their Sheffield-bound train. By the time the set was well into the station, both the guys on the left and right had taken their shots and were ready to board their trains, due for imminent arrival in both directions. The last time I photographed one of these 'jobs' using an M.P.V. for a different task, weed-killing' in this instance, was at Deepcar station of the Stocksbridge branch line where the set did its reversal on that day, 9th July, 2019, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48251724787/
The units are produced by 'Socofer' for Network Rail, see-
www.socofer.com/presenting-traction-socofer
Today its running on the 'leaf-buster' rail head cleaning duties on the long-days working, 3S50, from the Wigan L.I.P. via all over the western area around Manchester, and returning back to Stockport this evening, the departure from Wigan being 05:33 and arrival into Stockport at the end of the day's work, at 19:08. Though it looks like the set was ran into problems before completion with the following message shown in the time-table-
'This service was cancelled between Longsight Down Goods Loop (at 17:33) and Stockport due to a problem with a railhead treatment train', not a very informative message methinks!!
In the right-hand shot, the set is about to cross the River Derwent over-bridge with the splendours of the Peak National Park in the background, prominently showing is the 462m high, Win Hill peak, making for an equally splendid walk up to the top, around and along the Ladybower Valley, coming back along the waters to the pub, the 'Yorkshire Bridge Inn' though, not on this day...

A quick decamp now, along the line to see what may be seen looking back along the Hope Valley, from the other end of the 'Dynamic Loop', the junction back onto the main line being just this side of the bridge which can be seen in the distance, in the last picture. In addition to the move, it was worth having a look to see what developments have taken place a the foot-crossing just a little further along the line than the distant road-bridge. It turned out that the last time shots were taken from the foot-crossing was in... 2015, I could hardly believe it, 8 years ago, when 'Nenta Railtours' operated the 'Buxton, Matlock & Derbyshire Dales Rover' with West Coast class 47s, 47786, 'Roy Castle O.B.E.' and 47851 in charge, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/20851760751/
Now it transpires, the foot-crossing has been removed and a nice new green, shiny, footbridge has been put in its place. On inspection, before the next interesting move arrived, it turned out to be disappointing, as the access to it has been fenced off; whilst engineering work continues on the 'Dynamic Loop', one assumes.. so no foot-crossing and no usable bridge. In the last of the still photographs, a short video follows showing the passage of the Hope Valley R.H.T.T., on the left an East Midlands service can be seen passing the very fore-shortened picture, along the tracks back to the Bamford Station site. The DMU is approaching the junction of the ~1200m long loop line exit and the hills and terrain of the Peak National Park stand clear in the background. This is a pair of E.M.R., 'East Midlands Rail', class 158s, 158780 & 158770 on the 1L10, Liverpool Lime St. via Sheffield to Norwich service; Autumn is now under way...
At centre, fortunately for me, a lone traction unit comes along running along about 15 minutes late and turns out to be a D.B.C. class 67 in all its finery, running a light engine move, 0Z06, from the Toton Traction Maintenance Depot to to Peak Forest Up Sidings, with 67005, 'Queens Messenger', 'at the front' and has just come under the 'new' footbridge, inaccessible at the present time.
At right, swinging the vie back towards the west. 67005, 'Queens Messenger', which means this is one of the two locos which run on the Royal Train, now with King Charles aboard, not today though, obviously!, there's a stream culvert just ahead, the bank on the right has been reinforced and there were, and still are, some Engineering problems to resolve. Still, from this perspective the new Loop line looks very well indeed and it will be interesting to see it in action, one day, when a freight from the quarries has to be sidelined so that one of the Hope Valley fast passenger services, a T.P.E. or E.M.R. unit, which run at high speed along here, 90m.p.h, can overtake. This will result in a more frequent service, which is what all this is about and to accomplish this, the single track section at the other side of Totley East Box is also in the process of being doubled, along with a new platform for west-bound services.. Great stuff, though its a shame that all this was actually in place until the 1970s/80s when 'rationalisation' took over and this infrastructure was removed now, its all going back in!

Well, rushed out here to catch what I thought would be a different set of traction on the 'all over the world' RHTT, originating at the Wigan L.I.P. and chasing round clearing the rail-head in the Manchester area before heading, briefly, over this way to perform a reversal operation at Grindleford. The RailCam details indicated this set was operated by Freightliner and had 'diesel' traction and knowing that other local areas around were operated with class 66s, eg, the one that clears the tracks to the east and south of here and passes for reversal through Worksop, it seemed obvious this one would be the same. The working number is 3S50, another indicator and not usual for these types of 'On-Track Machine' workings, this one an M.P.V., 'Multi-Purpose Vehicle', usually with a nUxx, a number usually 6, followed by 'U' and 2 letters.. So, you can imagine my surprise when this thing came 'scooting', that's what it looked like, around the bend in the distance, crossed the green River Derwent rail bridge and rattled through the station. This is the Freightliner operated, Network Rail, class 989, M.P.V. with DR98982 leading and DR98932 at the back on the 3S50, Wigan L.I.P. via all over & reversal at Grindleford to Stockport leaf clearing train with 'Clearing Britain's Railways' on the side of the 'J.S.D. Rail', 'Socofer Construction' unit, see-
www.socofer.com/presenting-traction-socofer
As can be seen, there is no-one around, other than me, to photograph this event, and when it had appeared a few moments ago, I understood why! Heading swiftly away towards Hathersage & on to Grindleford where it will use the crossover and sidings line to perform a reversal, the extent of the on-going work on the 'Dynamic Loop' over on the left, can be seen; almost nothing happening on this day. 3 'orange' jackets sauntered along the loop line tapping things, then came back and bug**** off.. and that was that..