The Flickr Millmoorfootballground Image Generatr

* The second in a series of 'look-back' mosaics using pictures recently made available to me from Adrian Wynn's archive.
Regarding Adrian Wynn's picture collection.
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22/2/23
Note: I am currently seeking the higher resolution material from Adrian's photographic collection, both negative and digital. His partner, Annie, has offered to let me use them as I wish, and I hope she is able to find this material in Adrian's extensive collection.
26/2/23
This has now occurred and I have both her permission to use original PSD files and negatives and so I have therefore up-dated the mosaic material here, with the higher resolution originals. Our meeting also resulted in my both getting some of Adrian's collected negatives and his digital camera files, from over the last 40 & 20 years respectively, and agreement to use them with due credit to him, which is what I always do here of course.
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* Preamble
This second in the series of 'A Window on the Past' looks at the area of the Masbrough Station site, in the left two pictures around 50 years ago before the station was finally closed and the building subsequently sold. The infra-structure on the platforms was all demolished which, very fortunately, features in the lower of the two historic pictures shown here and by 1987 Rotherham's only station was changed from Masbrough to Central, the old Central station having also been demolished after its closure in the late 1960s. This meant a new station had to be built, and in doing so, it was moved about half a mile north of the old one, making it more accessible to the town centre and the nearby bus station. To permit access to and from the Sheffield Lines a new, single line, chord was built from Holmes Junction, using the old track-bed of the Masbrough South Curve, the new curve now deviating away from the original path to Masbrough South Junction and instead, the curve joined the G.C.R. lines from Woodburn Junction, near the River Don at New York. And this is how it has remained ever since, Rotherham Central was upgraded twice after its initial construction, the first time to bring it up-to-date after its initial opening in 1987 and latterly in recent years, to accommodate the new Sheffield Tram/Train system, new low-level platforms being installed at the south end of the station; it is now a very much different place, to the old Rotherham Central of G.C.R. days, when it stood at both sides of the Main Street bridge.

This set of 2 pairs of shots shows, as well as I was able to do, contemporary pictures of my own, taken on 18th October, 2012, at upper right and 14th July, 2018, at lower right. I have repeatedly tried to obtain up-to-date comparisons with the 1970/8s shots provided by Adrian's negatives, at left. But, times have changed and what was once a frequent use of the Sheffield passenger lines on the left, is now much reduced with the bulk of freight on the North Midland's Barrow Hill lines, the 'Old Road', over on the right. Scanning back through my archives from the last 12 years, revealed only about 20 suitable candidates, freight & special moves, for the Sheffield lines on the left and of those, only 5 with the same view-point, as shown in the left pictures.

At upper left, at a 'Rotherham Masbrough' station as it was then known, still in tact and operating as normal, just look at the barrows over on platform 4 full of parcel bags awaiting collection to go south on the Barrow Hill line, to Derby and beyond. Whilst over on the far left, at the back of the station, the goods line which took moves north onto the main lines beyond the station. Whilst to the left of that line is the line into the 'Midland Iron Works' with its white painted access gate and exit semaphore, the gate actually still being there, though in need of re-painting! Apart from the loco driver who isn't visible in the cab of the approaching class 40, is the only railwayman in the picture and can be seen walking along the down goods line in the lower left corner of the picture; no hi-vis or other safety gear, just wearing his duffel coat and a cap. The single line into and out of the 'Midland Iron Works' allowed goods trains to move south into the Holmes West Sidings, at the other side of Coronation Bridge. From there these moves could be marshalled/shunted and then head-off to their destination back north along the down goods line at the back of the station and onto the down fast at Masbrough North Junction; there doesn't appear to have been any access from the Holmes West Sidings, south towards Sheffield. The class of loco approaching looks to be of class 40 type with separate 'headcode blinds', this one reading 8E10, and is clearly, well almost, hauling a short rake of old mineral type wooden-bodied wagons from the north. I have no idea what the 8E10 working would be though the '8'(formerly H) signified 'through freight or ballast trains not running under C, D, E or F conditions', the 'E' signified Eastern Region and the '10' would be the exact diagram on which the train was running. There are 6 fire buckets on the central platform between the two pairs of lines, a 'water crane' at this end of the central and a splitting main signal for the south-bound passenger line along platform 2 next to the water crane. This signal shows that the south bound Barrow Hill line has higher priority than the Sheffield line, the respective signal being higher on the post and both signals are also showing the respective lines are 'track-circuited', hence the 'white diamond' panels below the semaphore arms. I suspect that the signal on the white post just beyond the water-crane is a sign of things to come, this looks like the back of a colour light signal with direction 'feather' for the Sheffield line and this signal replaced one on the left which was close to the white replay box on platform 1, the signal similar to the ones on the goods lines on the right; already the future order beckons. A full barrow crossing completes the central area platform view. Towering over the scene at upper right, the very dour looking 'St John's Church' rising above the railway formation and its 'blackness' dominating the scene here for many years, see-
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/c4f4632d-e9f5...
and
www.rotherham-images.co.uk/rotherham%20then.now%20547.jpg
What a wonderful vista this is, much to enjoy and remember pity the quality of the negative wasn't a bit better but I have done my best in the restoration process, thankfully Ade saw this for sale on eBay and bought it, what a find. Unfortunately, the wonderful array of double semaphores at the south end of the station are just out of the photograph at the bottom...
My comparison picture over on the right, matches the scene quite well and the stark changes are obvious though, as will be seen by taking a glance at the lower left shot, these changes started to happen only 10 or 15 years after the upper left photograph was taken. The only shot I had which really matched the aspect of the B/W picture was taken just over 10 years ago on 18th October, 2012, and shows E.W.S. class 66, 66115, on the 6M96, Drax Power Station to Tunstead Sidings empty aggregates working. The station 'goods line is still extant but overgrown but at that time, still connected at both ends, the station platform buildings and over-bridge have long gone, see lower left picture, the station awnings have gone over on the right. All the station semaphore signalling has also gone of course and there are now only 3 colour lights at the north end, S0421, S0423 & S0425, only the latter two now serving their proper function for north bound workings off the Sheffield line and 'Old Road', respectively; S0421 is lit red, but at the end of the goods line it now serves no useful purpose, interestingly, the goods line is now disconnected but the signal is still there, and lit red!

At lower left, the next from the collection, and shows class 37 heading north, the view now taken looking south along the down fast line towards Sheffield. There's a Rotherham Corporation double-decker bus making its way over Coronation Bridge towards the junction of Ferham and Kimberworth Road to the right and one of the lighting stands at the Rotherham United Football Club at Millmoor, stands over in the left background. What draws the attention most of course, apart from the loco and its train, is the state of the station infrastructure, the demolition process having already begun means the station was closed a while ago, 3rd October 1988 in fact, with the demolition starting in the early 1990s, so I suspect this photograph was taken at about that time. What is also evident is the fact that the two pairs of lines, the Sheffield ones to the right and the 'Old Road' goods lines to the left, have now been disconnected so there is no crossing over of trains from one set of lines to the other. The large Midland Masbrough Station South Box was closed in 1980 and the structure demolished at that time, so before this picture was taken. The class 37 is leading a train along the Sheffield lines and this may well be an aggregates working from the Hope Valley or Peak Forest, and these still run today, in fact one from Peak Forest to Selby ran this afternoon but I was unfortunately otherwise engaged so couldn't get out to take a shot of it.. The station now has only a limited time left so this is an excellent capture and the only one I have seen showing the actual demolition in progress. By 1987 Rotherham's passenger station had moved from here, to a newly built structure on the G.C.R.'s line from Woodburn Junction to Mexborough, Rotherham Central Station, the name of the old now demolished one, was re-used but the site was shifted about 500m to the north next to College Road. To enable passenger trains to use that line, a chord was built using the track-bed of the old Masbrough South Curve, connecting the Midland Main Lines passing through Holmes Junction, just west of Masbrough Station, to a junction just outside Rotherham near the R.U.F.C football ground at New York. What a sorry state the once great Masbrough Station looks, there are no workers there on the day this picture was taken so the place looks even more forlorn, maybe it was a Saturday. All the brickwork of the station has been demolished and all that remains is the metalwork and awnings, the pedestrian, covered, footbridge just being a skeleton of its former self; and to think I once crossed that bridge around a dozen times in the late 1960s and early 1970s... The station lighting, once belonging to Sheffield Midland and re-used here I believe, does not appear to have 'Masbrough' displayed on the fittings... The station goods line over on the right appears in good order but by this time, its unlikely that its ever used, and around this time, the land which the Holmes West Sidings occupied, just around the corner, where the goods line commenced, had been sold off for housing, leaving only this single line passing into the area.. it is now disconnected at both ends and very overgrown. In a few years, the existing station red-brick building over on the left will be sold off, in the early 2000s, and will be re-developed into the 'Oriental Express - Asian Cuisine' restaurant, as it still is today.
Once again, my comparison picture over on the right, matches the scene quite well but the stark changes are once again obvious with just the separated double track sections all that is now left. As this is now a July shot, the goods line at the back of the station on the right, is full of vegetation growth though, interestingly, this whole section of line was cleared out recently from the north side of the bridge, all along to the Holmes West Sidings which were also cleared, this is partially visible here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51177097464/
over on the left, this shot taken in October 2020, about a year after it was all cleared, then abandoned. On this bright, warm July morning in 2018, a complete contrast in traction type to that seen in the corresponding 1970s picture over on the left, this time its the Network Rail 'Yellow Banana', H.S.T. Test Train set. Operated by Colas Rail on behalf of N.R., on that day it was class 43s 43062, 'John Armitt' at the front and at the rear, 43013, on the regular running, at that time, 1Q34, Derby RTC to Hull working with coaches, 975984, 977994, 977993, 975814 and 977984, the 'MENTOR', ''Mobile Electrical Network Testing, Observation and Recording' coach set. Since the complete removal of all vegetation took place in 2016 in the piece of land between the two sets of tracks over the other side of Coronation Bridge, a new Birch Tree forest has yet again sprung up, as may be seen, and very shortly after this picture was taken, it was all removed once more.. it hasn't returned with so much vigour this time. The station building over on the left looks remarkably devoid of graffiti artwork, but that didn't last long and the walls are the same as ever; the yellow station milepost, indicating the distance from London is still extant and shows this to be 162 miles...

The final shot shows the set rounding the bend with the ground on which the South Curve lines came in, just to the right, having passed over the massive Masbrough South Curve bridge. The two, green, bridge sides on the right are those for the bridge over the river and canal and the foreground one for the old Westgate Branch line which now terminates in the bowels of Booths scrapyard over on the left; the line of green container boxes marking the path of the line. Freightliner class 66s 66537 at the front and 66506, 'Crewe Regeneration' are heading south along the 'Old Road', on the 4Y05, Doncaster Up Decoy to Kettering North Junction working, for just this one day. In the haul, a longish, heavy rake, of GLW type concrete sleeper bogie Wagons heading for an engineering possession on the Midland line in the Kettering area away to the south of here. Some slight exposure and contrast enhancement, to ta bit of the 'shrubbery' on the right, has resulted in the last standing lamp-standard being visible in what was the ground between the large Masborough South Station signal box and the building, also still extant in the bushes but out-of-shot here, where the Midland had their control centre. This function was transferred to a new 'facility' at Sheffield Midland Station in the 1960s, known as 'Sheaf House' ans was widely regards as one of the worse designed buildings ever erected, quote-
'...The building was situated on the former Pond Street Goods station, closed on 7 October 1961. Land was cleared during 1963 to make way for the new offices. Sheaf House was built with a reinforced concrete frame, finished with modern (at the time) metal and glass cladding. The building was opened in 1965 and housed 500 staff who had been transferred from the Midland Railway old offices in Norfolk House. Line control offices at Rotherham Westgate and Victoria were also closed and transferred to Sheaf House, becoming British Rail's Sheffield Division headquarters. The building was demolished in late 2005 to make way for the redevelopment of Sheaf Square...'
A picture of it is shown here-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheaf_House#/media/File:Sheaf_House...

An odd move this one and it appeared to stop and start quite a bit having come out of Doncaster Up Decoy, 52 minutes early... With not much else happening along here during the hour or so at the old station site, though there were a couple of moves out of and into Tinsley Yard, via the GCR line through Rotherham Central, the best had to be made of what was on offer. Two memorable recent passages though the station were this one on the 27th August, involving two different liveried H.S.T. power cars, 3272 and 43274 on a MENTOR Test Train working, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51606670164/
and just a week before that, on the 21st August, another H.S.T. set, this time in 'Midland Pullman', blue livery, with 43055, 'The Sheffield Star 125 Years' at the font and fellow power car, 43046, 'Geoff Drury 1930-1999' at the back-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51397000136/
and here-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51396241297/

Today the passenger traction is a little more mundane and the 1st two shots show what was on offer, at left a Northern Rail, D.M.U.m class 158, 158861, which had been waiting around the corner a short while at Holmes Junction, on the 1W43, Sheffield via Hull to Scarborough passenger service. The station site looking both to the south-west in this shot and in the next shot, to the north, are now overgrown once more having been cleared in the last year or so, with the hope that the track at left centre, may well be used once more through the back of the station, it connecting to the north-bound line beyond. Alas no, the cleared track at the back of the station looks as 'wild' as it ever did and the connection to the north of the station has now been severed... The 'Red Bull', previously known as the 'Tivoli Inn', public house sign is still prominent, but the shuttered windows and door and lack of any custom now, which has been the same for a good long while; in fact it reportedly closed 10 years ago, in November, 2011. At upper left in this shot, the good ship 'Templeborough Biomass' is getting up steam and the 'Old Road' which passes by just outside the power station, is completely engulfed in it, caused by the cool, damp atmosphere; the power station being almost completely invisible. At right, with the Freightliner which appeared to be halted for a short time once more around the corner at Aldwarke Junction, it is now seen slowly rumbling through the station on a Civil Engineering train heading to the south. This is the 4Y05, Doncaster Up Decoy to Kettering North Junction working with a rake of full, 'GLW Concrete Sleeper Bogie Wagons' with class 66, 66537 leading and 66506, 'Crewe Regeneration', bringing up the rear; a long way around the corner, or so it seemed. Passing north at around the same time, a Cross Country Trains, class 221, 'Voyager' heading north on the 9 hour, 21 station-stop service, 1S39, departing at 06:25 from Plymouth and heading to Edinburgh.

With the Cross Country passenger service quickly out of the way, the full length of the Engineer's train can just be seen, the loco at the other end just beyond the last empty, yellow, bogie wagon. The rake consists of 20 packed GLW-type boggie wagons, 'full to the top' with new concrete sleepers, apparently for the Midland line engineering work (ta Gavin), being undertaken in the Kettering area, three and a half hours away to the south. This looks like a serious amount of track replacement is being undertaken if this is just one of the engineering workings heading into the area for the weekend possession. Freightliner, class 66, 66537 is leading the top-and-tail set with 66506, 'Crewe Regeneration' at the back on the 4Y05, Doncaster Up Decoy to Kettering North Junction Civil Engineers train. Having exited Up Decoy 52 minutes early at 09:30, it being due through here at 11:30, it then took 1 hour 25 minutes to reach Hexthorpe Junction, just a short distance away from Up Decoy, seemingly stopping and starting at several of the Roberts Road signals on the way through to Hexthorpe, just south-west of Doncaster.

With the traffic volume increasing on Coronation Bridge as mid-day approached, it was risky getting over to the other side for the going-away shot so the one on the left here, is the best which could be done, after avoiding speeding cars hareing over the bridge. The good ship 'Templeborough Biomass' is getting up steam, and as can be seen in the 1st shot of the DMU earlier, the 'Old Road' just outside the power station, was completely engulfed in thick steam caused by the cool, damp atmosphere. Now the steam has cleared away, presumably caused by the cooling condensers which are right next to the line, and these two shots show the full length of the Engineering train, stretched out along the up North Midland, 'Old Road' between what used to be the large Midland signalbox to the rear in the middle of the two line formations, and beyond, in the distance, Masbrough South Junction, with its well-known signal gantry across all the tracks. The Masbrough South Curve line formation, from Holmes Junction, joined this line at at point and although the substantial bridge spanning the Tinsley Canal and the River Don, is still in situ, the rails have long been removed. At right, the Midland Main lines come in from the direction of Sheffield and thankfully, the central area between the two line formations is devoid of obscuring vegetation at this time of the year. What a colourful set the GLW bogie wagons make with their brand new consist of concrete sleepers; wonder if its the low-carbon, environmentally-friendly type of material. Bringing up the rear is class 66, 66506, 'Crewe Regeneration' with 66537 at the front on the 4Y05, Doncaster Up Decoy to Kettering North Junction working and, according to the timetable, this is operating on just this day... The old Millmoor football ground is still there and pretty much looking as it has always done, nothing appears to have become of either it, or the land surround the grounds.

This early morning Sunday shot 'fell off the radar' in the ensuing two weeks since it ran and, once more, reviewing recent shots taken over the last few weeks, this set popped up from Sunday October 1st and, as I recall, I almost missed it having left it a bit late to respond to the 'gen'. On arrival, just a few minutes before this turned up, another 'enthusiast' with more idea of what was going on informed that Colas Rail had acquired 2 E.M.R./L.N.E.R. class 43, HST Power Cars, 43272 and 43274 and they were now running on the fairly regular P.L.P.R., Plain Line Pattern Recognition Test Train with the usual rake of Network Rail canary yellow liveried coaches. Its unfortunate that the 'plum and white' liveried unit, 43274, was at the back, but even so, 'satsuma orange and white' will do at the front, unit 43272, with the diamond shaped emblem of 'Colas Rail' on the side; works very well and its good to see some different liveried traction on these workings. Bright clear conditions at around 11:00 but now in early October we have longish shadows, just missing the traction, on the down line through the old Masbrough Station site on the 1Q18, Derby RTC to the Darlington Down Sidings, working. The P.L.P.R. has today, coaches-
* 9523, the Brake Force Runner
* 977997, the Radio Survey Test Coach
* 72631, the P.L.P.R. Track Inspection Coach
* 975091, the Overhead Line Inspection Coach at the back.

On the right, slightly too much traffic for a Sunday morning prevented a rapid dash over to the other side of the Midland Road bridge, to grab the departing shot, after a few minutes halt at Masbrough north signal, S0425, it wasn't actually timed to stop at all though. So once over the road, weaving around a bit of traffic, a view of 43274 at the back, in not the best angled shot, now also somewhat spoiled by the low sun casting shadows across the whole of the Masbrough North cutting. I just noticed, odd the 'ground position light signal' isn't showing a proceed aspect for the train to cross over onto the down line ahead at MAsbrough North Junction. It will travel a short distance, 'wrong line', on the up line at far right, before crossing over onto the down line at far left. Or is this signal a 'shunt signal'??

The set gets away through a station full of part painted-out graffiti but it won't be long before it's all back again, and again... it now seems completely perverse and wrong to keep doing this and although I have mixed views about the use of graffiti, the use of it here is not on; a simple, single statement, made in respect of something is o.k., this isn't; Rant over. 'The Flying Dustman' looks good here with the backdrop of the old station building and its 'long, long, by stock or by stone' since this was a great get-away station to north, south, east and west and carried heavy passenger and freight traffic on the respective pair of lines, passenger to the left, 'goods' to the right; which as can be seen here, is still the case. Its odd that this station had the freight lines close to the booking office in the station buildings, but this is how the Midland laid out the lines in a very practical way, the station buildings being on the east side of the tracks, closest to the centre of Rotherham, but not all that close. The 'Price of Wales Hotel' stands out behind the station, the space of which is now, the 'Oriental Express - Asian Cuisine' establishment with, unfortunately, no access to the station platform; shame, as I expect a protected space outside, with a direct view over the tracks, would be most welcome to some! GBRf, 66783, with 'Biffa Motif' and aptly named, 'The Flying Dustman', I think!, is on the 4L11, Masborough N&W(GBRf) to Felixstowe North(GBRf) working hauling what I counted to be 60, half and full sized containers with only around 3-4 flat-bed spaces; a quite lengthy haul south with a designated timing lad of 1600 tonnes, not 1200.

HAuling 60, half and full-sized containers, G.B.R.f. satsuma livery class 66, 66783, with large 'Biffa Motif', 'The Flying Dustman' heads now rapidly north having got the green straight through and over the up line at Masbrough North Junction, to access the down through to Doncaster. A new N.R. concrete signal trunking duct looks to have been installed along this side of the wall and the 'greenery' in Booths Scrapyard over to the left in the background is mirrored nicely by the burgeoning greenery to the right in what was the location of the old, large, Masbrough Station South Junction Signalbox; its hard to believe, looking at his shot, that some much railway infrastructure once existed here, but.. it did. Today, in a much denuded railway formation here, brightly coloured in 'satsuma orange', GBRf 66783 gets the green for a fast getaway on the regular, daily, 4L11, Masborough N&W(GBRf) to Felixstowe North(GBRf) working... Container traffic here and at Tinsley now appears to be both 'voluminous', and very regular to both of the Terminals ... looking at the traffic, its hard to see how Newell & Wright managed without the extra facilities at Tinsley though of course this was to be a Container 'Port' some years ago but the successful bid fell to Doncaster and we got the iPort; now we seem to have both!

I had wanted to photograph this loco earlier on during one of its passages either north from Ratcliffe Power Station, en-route to Immingham via Doncaster or/and on its journey south, along the South Yorkshire Joint, from Immingham to West Burton Power Station, but unfortunately, this time, was unprepared so no chance of any favour. Not only that, I had thought that this loco had already been photograp0hed somewhere, but on looking through recent archives it transpired that on the few occasions where it was available, the opportunity was also missed; something afoot so time to right the wrongs. With a week long working on the container traffic from the south, this time to the Masbrough Freight Depot and not the new N&W Container Terminal at Tinsley Yard, was time to go have a look and 66783, 'Biffa', 'The Flying Dustman' it has been named and see what has to be seen. The train came out of the old Masbrough Freight Depot at around 11:30 and crossed over into the Canklow Up Goods Loop on the southern side of the tracks, this being part of the reversal move so that the set could set off to the north and Doncaster, only to then head south to Felixstowe. This circuitous route being undertaken due tho their being no southern exit from the Freight Depot, those lines having been removed many years ago; with the busy container traffic being what it is now, there may be some who would think this bit of 'rationalisation' was a bit pre-mature.. Once the reversal had taken place, presumable by using the main lines so that 66783 could take its place at the other end of the lengthy rake of containers, the move, now 4L11, then sets out and crosses the up line and onto the down, which is what is seen in these first 2 shots. At left the container train is just about to cross over the two bridges which take, 1st, the Holmes Chord from Holmes Junction to Rotherham Central and the 2nd, the last remaining bit of line which was the Midland's Westgate Branch line from Sheffield Wicker into Westgate Station, Rotherham's 1st and most 'Central' station. At the back, now standing dominant and active, the Templeborough Biomass Works producing around 1MW of energy from recycled natural material.. G.B.R.f. class 66, 66783, with "Biffa Motif', and called 'The Flying Dustman' is on the return working to Felixstowe, 4L11 from the Newell & Wright Container terminal at the old Masborough Freight Depot; the 1st of their now, 2 depots, the other at Tinsley Yard. The 'colour' version at right, shows the set slowing slightly at the signal, S0425 ahead was showing a red but soon changed and the 66 powered up and rattled straight through the station. The old Midland Signalbox used to stand in the area of greenery to the right and now, the only remnant is the lamp standard with light fitting still in place and looking if it might still work given some 'juice' and a bulb! The Holmes Chord runs just at the other side of the double-height green containers, the formation passing under the Midland line here where the 2nd short fence can be seen on the right. While all this was going on, 4L11 passed over the tracks which had been declared out-of-bounds by N.R. due to an extensive fire which had taken place in the early hours and the result was that the lines through Rotherham Central were closed with the various signalling 'indications', e.g.,- 'FIRE', '-OFF', 'STOP', & '*LB*', the latter meaning, 'Line Blocked'. The scene of the fire was somewhat to the north at Aldwarke but the main north-bound line through Central, passes within a few metres of the fire which was situated on Waddington Way, off Aldwarke Lane and was centred at the the premises of 'Envelope Master' right next to the main line out of Rotherham Central-
www.capitalfm.com/yorkshire/radio/news/local/massive-blaz...
it appears somewhat perverse that this business was also gutted by fire, almost 10 years agon in January, 2012, see-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16501599
Although the fire was situated around 2km away to the north-east, the whole area was put in a 24 hour block whilst the fire was dealt with and, at lower left, a picture of the signalling diagram around Masbrough Junction & Rotherham Central, showing the departing working, 4L11, ready to pass signal S0425 at green and below, the tracks around Central Station with the messages from the York Signaller write 'large'. The situation was in hand by the following day but it caused a lot of disruption to Freight from the south attempting to get into and out of Tinsley, the Sheffield Supertram services and other local DMU passenger stock. 'Envelope Master' has once again been totally destroyed but the businesses either side were saved from destruction by the Fire Services, also in this area, is the South Yorkshire Transport Museum, at Unit 9, also unharmed, see-
www.sytm.co.uk/
for more details about the museum.

Moving on quickly to the following day and a quick hike over to ... Masbrough, doh... but lack of time meant this was, once again, the best place to catch the DBS/DBC Company Train on its way north to Doncaster; and with not much else on offer till around 1pm when both this working and the 0Z73, with 73970 working light engine, returned, a smart departure was made back to the workstation. With barely a few minutes to spare on arrival the shot was set up, facing south of course and fortunately the light wasn't a problem as it so often is here during late morning facing south; though the glumness of the scene is obvious. In the first of the 4 shots taken, the DBS, DB Shenker, I guess they are still called that when the haul isn't 'cargo', when its DBC, DB Cargo, the lead locomotive is DVT, Driving Van Trailer, class 82, 82146 and it looks to be hauling coaches similar to those used on the Royal Train. Arriving a few minutes late here, the top picture shows the set coming around the curve and crossing overt he bridge of the old SYR's line into Rotherham Westgate, now of course the short stub of a line into Booths Scrapyard. At the rear the on-going construction works at the side of the the GC line through Rotherham Central and alongside here, the tall white jibed crane poking out above the line of green containers. On the right, the triangle of land separating the Old Road on the left with the now Midland Main line on the right, the land once being the location of the large Midland Signal box; Masbrough Station South Junction. Immediately behind the Signal box was the Midland's Control Office, its function and personnel moving to the new Sheaf House at Sheffield Midland, when it was built in the 1960s. Behind the stone-built, blackened by pollution Control Office was the flat-roofed concrete building seen to the right of the DVT hauled train seen in the present picture; it never got knocked down. A 1978 view of the scene here, showing the Signalbox, Control Office and concrete building can be seen, taken by Philip Chrome, 'Auchlander', in 1978 on his Flickr site-
www.flickr.com/photos/auchlander/
Wonder what secrets, if any, this building still holds. Network Rail's dramatic clearance of all the vegetation in the space between the two lines has helped a lot with views over the grander scene of the two lines, freight/goods on the left and passenger on the right. And on the right, passing through the scene a few minutes before the DVT turned up, a Cross Country Train passenger service appears, with a class 222, Voyager in charge, heading north on the 9 hour 1S41 run from Plymouth to Edinburgh. The class 82, 82146 DVT is on the 5Z05, DBS Company Train operating from Toton T.M.D. to Doncaster Belmont Down Yard. Shame the single line of birch trees along the eastern side of the main line weren't removed as well...

lthough this trio of locations is titled 'Rotherham', the main views in the last part is taken looking south towards Ickles from the main bridge over the Midland and Old Road lines at Masbrough; this to effect a record of the progress being made in the background on the new construction on the old Firth Rixon site at the side of the Old Road, next to the River Don. Its around 10:30 and the lunchtime moves of Engineers trains from Doncaster starts with the 'Rails Train', here in the form of DBC, DB Cargo, the new name for DB Schenker, class 66, 66130, heading its consist south on the 6X01, to Toton North Yard from Scunthorpe Trent T.C. The structures at the back, which 66 will be passing shortly after it rounds the curve ahead to start heading in a more south-easterly direction, rise now prominently from the derelict site of the eastern section of the old Firth-Rixon site, the building on here being demolished not so long ago in June 2011, where it looked like the buildings were being refurbished after the 2007 floods, but no. Nothing much happening at the old Millmoor football ground on the left, looks the same as it ever did, though there is a 'regeneration project' in hand, though can't see much activity, the lower picture showing the current state of affairs, 'at the front door'.

he DBS Company Train 'had the road' from a few minutes before it appeared around the corner in the south earlier, there being a green on Masbrough Station's north-end signal, S425, allowing it to continue on through without a halt. In the second pair of pictures the 3-coach set, the 1st coach behind the DVT being unidentifiable, the second looks to be 38211 and the final one, in front of the rear loco, is 11039, seen in the detail in the picture on the right. The rear loco is class 67, 67029, 'Royal Diamond', so I guess this loco operates on the Royal Train along with 'The Queens Messenger' and other 67 units. The plate underneath the loco's nameplate reads-
'To Celebrate their Diamond Wedding Anniversary
Her Majesty the Queen
and
His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh
Named this Locomotive at Rugeley Station on
12th October 2007'
Both the front and rear units look in very well turned out condition and add a touch of 'sparkle' tho the glum conditions on the predominantly brown architectural surroundings of the old station buildings and Price-of-Wales hotel; wonder if he ever stops off and pops into the P-o-W for a pint and night's kip.
Some information regarding the front DVT power units-
'...A Driving Van Trailer (DVT) is a purpose-built railway vehicle that allows the driver to operate a locomotive at the opposite end of a train. Trains operating with a DVT therefore do not require the locomotive to be moved around to the other end of the train at terminal stations. Unlike many other control cars, DVTs resemble locomotives (specifically Class 91) and thus when the train is operating in "push" mode it does not appear to be travelling backwards. The vehicles have no passenger accommodation due to rules in place at the time of building that prohibited passengers in the leading vehicles of trains that travel at more than 100 miles per hour (160 km/h)...'
82146 and 67029, having set off at 09:36 from Toton, the set arrived in Doncaster at 11:05 on the 5Z05 ECS, Empty Coaching Stock working, so maybe no-one was aboard; after an hour's stop at Belmont Down Yard, the train set off back to Toton T.M.D. at 12:05 on the 5Z06 working, 18 minutes early, and arrived back at Toton at 13:39, a nice morning out, if nothing else.

Rumour of the two class 58s in the area and probably at Ron Hull's scrapyard/recycling centre at PArkgate, were going about at the beginning of the year and it seemed a good time, before vegetation blocked the view, to try and grab a shot of the pair of them in the yard. Fortunately, just as giving up seemed the best option, a short walk further along the surrounding palisade fence, revealed a view almost perfect and free from foreground distraction. These are the two old BR class 58s, 58012 on the left and 58023 on the right, sat a the back of the yard amid heaps of rusting materials awaiting their fate, as are the 58s. Sone information relating to the 58s from Wikipedia-
'...the British Rail Class 58 is a class of Co-Co diesel locomotive designed for heavy freight. Introduced in 1983, they followed American practice of modularisation. Once a design for the new Class 58 had been approved by the British Railways Board, the contract to build the locomotives was awarded to British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) in Doncaster where work started on a major multi-million pound upgrade of ‘E2’ shop where the locomotives would be manufactured. BREL dropped traditional locomotive construction methods in favour of an entirely new approach – an innovative modular design. This offered savings on construction and maintenance compared to previous locomotive builds. The load-bearing underframe was fitted with exchangeable modules - number 1 cab, radiator, power unit, turbocharger, electrical equipment and number 2 cab. If required, each module could be easily removed from the underframe and replaced. The narrow body with cabs at either end led to them being given the nickname "Bone" by rail enthusiasts, but the design also made an American-style single cab version possible. Bought eventually by EWS, they withdrew them in 2002 after 20 years in service, and 32 were hired abroad – four to the Netherlands, eight to Spain and twenty to France. 58012 was withdrawn by EWS in Sept 1999 and 58023 in July 1999...

At the business end of the new development at the site of the now demolished Firth Rixon Buildings, which looks towards the old Midland line which here crosses the substantial Ickles Viaduct taking the line over the River Don, which the blue girder bridge crosses on the left and further over in the left distance, the GCs line through Rotherham from Mexborough and on through Tinsley to Woodburn Junction. The new development here, which has been on-going for a few months now, is yet another Biomass FAcility and is starting to look like the one at Tinsley. Its a shame that neither of these facilities, so close here to the 'Old Road' and at Tinsley close to the Midland Main line AND the GC line through Rotherham, make no attempt to use the Railway for bringing in the Biomass materials for burning at the generating facilities. IN this picture, the Rotherham Steel Terminal is with its sidings off the main line, is just a few hundred metres behind the camera and was, of course, the old, vast, Masbrough Sorting Sidings. This scene has, in similar fashion to the view at Barnetby in the direction of Wrawby Junction, a rather irksome post right in the picture where its least welcome; here ts a tall lamp standard which went straight across the front of the approaching GBRf loco; so it has been cloned out with a rather better outcome for the picture. Approaching the Ickles road bridge from the north is GBRf class 66, 66764 on the regular lunchtime service, 6X73, Doncaster Up Decoy to Toton North Yard with a 1235 tonne haul of canary yellow, Network Rail, points carriers. The site is under some clearance work so it is to be hoped the pictures here will get better, i.e. those damn birch tress will be removed from the side of the bridge. The access here is where, before redundancy in the mid-80's my father used to walk through, there being a high wall along here with a large arched doorway onto the side to the blue river over-bridge. The river in those days was disgusting to look at and foul to smell, but he plied his daily routing into the works of Steel, Peach and Tozer from just after to the last war to the mid-80s when Thatcher and her cronies, including the charming Ian MacGregor who was responsible for the governments closure of pits in the 1980s, see-
www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/11/04/great-miners-stri...
and subsequently the steel works where ultimately resulted in dad's early exit form a job he had had, in the main on shifts for almost 40 years. I go into this because this turns out to be a long story and now, instead of S.P.& T. and its subsequent nationalise operator, B.S.C., the steel industry may well be in its final death throes as TATA, the Indian owners of the UK's steel industry, attempt to sell of what's left of the business, with, at the present time, no apparent buyers... It comes around and goes around... .

A visit back to the dentist, who, oddly enough is always ready for an amusing chat before drilling down to the problem... just joking, but an opportunity to grab some shots from a trio of locations and 'paint a picture' of the fortunes of the rail system around Rotherham in contrast to the other more unsavoury happenings in a town now trying to recover from child sex abuse, prevalent in the town for over 20 years. En-route to the dentist and this sequence of pictures, spray pointed on hoardings around some derelict land just outside the town centre, piqued my interest and so an about turn at the next junction brought the camera to these pieces with bits of somewhat unusual subject matter. At top, in the left section next to the wasp a chemical bond diagram showing one of the hydrocarbon series with Oxygen, Carbon and Hydrogen atoms and their bonds with an attempt to make the diagram correct. Over on the right, beneath the other wasp, mathematics matrix summation for a solution to 'D', whatever that is, but without matching bracket completion on the right, sorry... Some sum over n by (n-1) to N by (N-1) though what the variable(s) is/are is not depicted; still a worthy piece I thought. Below this, and a right angles to the upper piece, a more 'traditional' rendering with 'Baggy 101'? and the 'Night Stalker' prominent and 'Cantastic Art' as a clue to the method and material used to create the piece ...

Moving swiftly on as they say, from the calamity last week which slowed up image processing and posting, though not taking the photographs and, another return to Masbrough last weekend on a cold, bright Sunday afternoon for the Two Oils, one empty, one full. At around 13:30, the sun was just past zenith, the scene well lit, so processing pictures meant attempting to compensate for the saturated light and keeping away, where possible, from shots due south. The south-bound passage of the full oils, the usual 3200 tonne load, was easy enough, and the 1st picture shows one of the the usual DBS class 60s, 60074, last seen at Barnetby on December the 14th, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/23482539079/
there on the Santon Ore Train, here on the full oils, 6M57, Lindsey Oil Refinery to Kingsbury Oil Sidings, working. It is seen passing along the platform 4 freight line, heading towards Barrow Hill, Tapton Junction and beyond south to the Oil Sidings near Tamworth. A Rotherham Borough Council 'double-decker' bus passes along Midland Road advertising a new film, 'The Revenant' which I saw a trailer for last week before the 3D-Imax showing of 'Star Wars VII', and just after my Multimedia disk head had crashed! 60074 has been seen before in completely different, and better in my view, livery, seen in August 2014, bringing up the rear (66079 was on the front) of a cement train, crossing the River Don at Attercliffe and heading to the Selby Potter group having come back along the Hope Valley from Peak Forest and seen in its sky blue livery as 'Teenage Spirit', see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/14796014840/
and here in October 2012, this time coming along from the Hope Valley quarries, once more in its sky blue livery as 'Teenage Spirit', advertising the Teenage Cancer Trust. At right, heading past the old RUFC Millmoor football ground, still in one piece and looking the same as ever. It is being passed by a regular passenger working, a TPE class 185, 185144 heading north to Doncaster, Barnetby still had a Line Possession in force on this date, the 10th January, the last day, and so services were being stopped at various places and a Bus replacement service used to get to the final destination; today its the 1B76, Manchester Airport to Doncaster service. Boston Castle and Canklow Woods, site of a Bronze Age settlement around a 1000 years ago, mentioned as Kankelawe, meaning steep hill, in 1202 and is now an SSSI, Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Back in time sequence now as the empty oils slows for a 'station stop' at the north-end signal, Sheffield PSB's S425, and with the light now under a bit more control, the long rake of blue VTG tanks slows to a halt with the driver pulling up considerately well in front of the signal, with the loco on full display. As usual with these moves if they have made it up early, to this point, they almost always have to wait, 'right-time' due to priority being given for passenger moves, the Midland line through Sheffield being very busy. And this is certainly the case here, in this and the next non-composite shots, the DRS awaits the northern passage of a Cross Country Trains move, this one, a class 222, Voyager, on the 1E36, Birmingham New Street to Darlington service, running on time and arriving here at 13:56, around 5 minutes after 60092 had slowed to a halt at the north-end signal.

Coming around the corner under the watch-tower in the background, which has been erected on the Firth-Rixon site at the side of the Old Road, further south towards Ickles, the Northern Belle passing Ickles on an ECS move on December 11th. Here, just having crossed over the bridge which took the Old Road over the Sheffield & Rotherham's branch from the Wicker, through Holmes Junction and into Westgate Station in Rotherham, another DRS class 60, this time 60092 on an empty oils move, 6E68, from the Kingsbury Oil Sidings and on its way north and east to the Humber Oil Refinery. Blue TEA tanks this time, the colour of which can just be made out in the strong sunlight above the 'fireman's tower', which is what it looks like. This is another long train, of empties this time, as can be seen from the picture at right, another 32 TEA tanks bound for a refinery refill on the Humber, this time the load is 1000 tonnes and the final click of the shutter just managed to get the whole of the train and loco, before it went under Coronation bridge, passing, in the background, sun shinning on the Millmoor football ground's very green grass and beyond, once again Boston Castle and Kankelawe, the 1206AD term for Canklow Woods...

A long rake of 32 TEA tank wagons heading off into the bright southern sun renders use of colour hopeless so here, possibly reflecting past times at this location, the shot rendered in B/W. The large type 3B Midland box, 'Masboro Station South Junction' as it was termed, would have been just about where the 2nd tank is on the left, it seems impossible, looking at the simple formation which now exists, that a large frame with 72 levers, surrounded by 2 quadruple-track lines, sidings, cross-overs and junctions all had enough space to exist in this small triangle of land, with the large, dark, stone built Midland Control centre just behind it. The lines have, of course, been moved/slewed over and the quadruple nature of the system removed leaving two double track lines, one pair , running diagonally across the centre, 'The Old Road', south to Tapton Junction and the other, in the right foreground, The Midland Main Line through to Sheffield. This change in the formation and the demise of semaphore signalling in the late 70s clearly left a lot of space and none of it in this area was used when MAS finally took over, under control from Sheffield P.S.B., there being no colour lights at the junction, only at Masbrough north-end and further along the Old Road and Midland Main Line towards Holmes Junction & Sheffield. This is the south-bound full-oils, the 3200 tonne, 6M57, Lindsey Oil Refinery to Kingsbury Oil Sidings, working.

And into the day when Hurricane Barney was overhead, so conditions hadn't been all that good overnight with strong winds and heavy rain, easing off in the morning it looked like a quick jaunt out to see what was on this odd move from Etches Park, near Derby, classed as light engine there had been word that the 66 would be hauling a DRS 20, 20308. the working made good time up to the signal at Masbrough north, the camera not arriving in time to catch the passage of 3 freights passing through the station, this being one, the other two, the return scrap train, 6Z38 from Booths and the other, the lunchtime 'rails', 6M73 from Doncaster, see Arfadint's picture of this conjunction-
www.flickr.com/photos/49068127@N06/22677775307/
Shows this DRS, 66432 poking its nose just under Coronation bridge with GBRf 66765 heading south at left and at right, Freightliner 66561 hauling its 3 brake wagons back to York after depositing 3 more HHA, coal wagons fro scrap, at Booths earlier in the day. So just the DRS 66 left waiting passage north at the signal and just about at the limit for a picture at the top end; any further and it would be under the bridge but still easily behind the signal... so thanks to the driver for that. 66432 is working the 0Z20, Etches Park Sidings to York Parcels Sidings light engine move, having left 30208 behind for a forward move to Crewe Works. At right the loco gets away north at 12:34 after the line clears of passenger moves and it can proceed and cross over to the down Midland main line on the left, under the bridge. Hurtling south is the last passenger service for about 10 mins, a Cross Country Trains class 222, Voyager, is on the 1V87 Newcastle to Reading, late running service, 23 minutes here. To add a bit of sparkle to the background on yet another glum day here at the old Masbrough Station, a Hapag-Lloyd, Global Container Liner Shipping service passes north over Wortley bridge heading out of Rotherham..