The Flickr 399201 Image Generatr

Vossloh Class-399 Citylink tram-train on High Street Sheffield city centre South Yorkshire.

Sheffield train tram 399201 departs Meadowhall South/Tinsley station on its way to Rotherham

Moving back along the canal bank, towards the north-east and, at upper left in this mosaic of 4 pictures, is a piece of sculptural artwork I have been meaning to visit since September last year when it was installed, see-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9lxkyydk8o
and
canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/major-new-artw...
'A loop-the-loop canal boat sculpture has been unveiled to celebrate Sheffield's historic waterways and industrial heritage.
The major new public artwork has been designed and created by Alex Chinneck, who is known for his large-scale pieces that warp well-known structures...'
And, it is, somewhat of a strange structure, but not the 1st to have been thought up, see lower right picture which shows a similar conceptual art piece, this time 'located' at the 'Tinsley Park Rolling Mill', from decades ago, which was situated further along the Canal near the Tinsley Viaduct. To the left is lock 4 of the 'Tinsley Flight' and just to the right of the weird boat, Lock 3 right next to the massive Broughton Lane railway bridge, which the Bardon Hill empty aggregates train had just come over. Standing stark in the background between the two canal artifacts, one of the long-standing Supergrid pylons which make any identifications for this area, easy to determine..

At upper right, just down the canal under another massive Railway bridge, that which carried the Sheffield District Railway from Brightside Junction, through what became Tinsley Yard and then the line went on to join the North Midland line at Catcliffe South Junction. The S.D.R. line was removed in the early 1990s and almost all of the infrastructure has gone, though a small section of the line's embankment remains close to the Meadowhall Shopping Centre at Brightside Bridge, the latter, still extant, carried the line, over the River Don and on to Brightside Junction. Proceeding on under the S.D.R., the 3rd of the 3 bridges over the canal carried the north curve from the Lower Don Valley line and up via Shepcote Lane Junction and into Tinsley Yard. ANd, withing minutes of arriving at the location, yet another working, this one twice daily, a container train from the south, usually Felixstowe, but this one is from the London Gateway Terminal and its running as 4E00, to the Newell & Wright Container Terminal at the south-east end of Tinsley Yard. Its another GBRf service as well with, on that day, class 66, 66703, 'Doncaster PSB 1981-2002', and in the upper right picture it is seen crossing the newly palisaded protection fence at the side of the Shepcote Lane canal bridge; palisade rail fencing has now sprung up all over the place in this area now and its impossible, almost, to get to those 'nooks and crannies' of places, which I used to frequent to get the more interesting shots..

At lower left, the long container train slowly came to a halt with the back end of the loco's train parked across the Shepcote LAne bridge, the engine waiting to be signalled in and through Tinsley YArd to the south-east end; the containers slightly backing up as the train took off for the entry to the Yard. I bet this type of move across this British Rail bridge, which needed to have the canal locks re-arranged as its so low, it was constructed in August, 1961, to allow maximum access to the Yard by both the Midland & GCR at each end of the Yard, a cross-over at Aldwarke Junction was also put in to supplement this access., the gradient into the YArd is easy to see...

At lower right an old picture of the 'Tinsley Park Rolling Mills', has been 'doctored' to include and the 'knotted' structure, this time a huge chimney which did not exist at the side of the canal though all the other structures did. I can find hardly any information regarding the structure in this picture, just a reference to one Alex Chinneck,, mentioned above in relation to the canal boat seen at upper left.. see-
uk.pinterest.com/pin/repaving-memory-lane-tinsley-rolling...
Tinsley Park Rolling Mills was close to the Tinsley East Junction signalbox and the 'Halfpenny Bridge' at Templeborough south of the old Blackburn Meadows Power Station..

Had to go back several years before finding pictures from this location as the daily aggregates runs from the south are very regular and there's nothing unusual any more!, the previous visits were October, 2010, just before the Amey Stone Processing plant was built. October 1st, 2012 when D.R.S. operated a couple of their class 20 locos on trial runs the Broughton Lane bank, up into the Yard and then back via the Shepcote Lane connection along the Lower Don Valley Line, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/54419668805/
Subsequent shots were taken in June & July 2013, February, June & December 2014, April, June & August 2016 and then August, 2019, the last visit, nearly 6 years ago!, examples of some of these pictures can be found at the links below-
Broughton Lane Amey Ltd, Bardon return, August 2019-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48451827162/
Freightliner, 66957, on main line and GBRf, 66713, on Broughton Lane bank, June, 2016-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/27319289643/in/
GBRf Route Learner with 4xclass20 locos, 20311, 20314, 20118 & 20312, December, 2014-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/15788813760/
and, coming back down-grade at Shepcote Lane over the Tinsley Canal, December, 2014-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/15790328909/
Freightliner 70011, June 12th, 2014
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/14405965114/

This day, Thursday 27th March, things are a little different as there are other 'things' to see in the immediate area, apart from the GBRf, parked up on the Broughton Lane Bank at left, waiting for what was, the Woodburn Junction Signal, W0209, to change to green and let the empty set back onto the main line. It had been parked up there quite a while, having departed the Yard at 10:17, 34 minutes early, it waited for its allotted path south at 11:14, but first it would move into place to the signal, W0213, at Woodburn Junction awaiting the designated time. Here, in this 1st of 2 shots, the signal had just changed and the set was slowly making it way down-grade, at 10:45, with GBRf class 66, 66755, 'Tony Berkeley OBE, RFG Chairman 1997-2018' 6M01, Tinsley Yard(GBRf) to Bardon Hill(GBRf) with a rake of 21 empty HYA Aggregate Wagons. It had come up from the south that morning, as it has done since around June, 2013, though on the 13th Freightliner was operating the working, this working now in the hands of GBRf since then and heading south on the on the 6E97, Bardon Hill(GBRf) to Tinsley Yard(GBRf). In the background, a Sheffield class 399 EMU Tram/Train service, hurries along the old GCR rail tracks heading towards the Carbrook Tram Stop with 399104 on the 2A30, Sheffield Cathedral via Tinsley Meadowhall to Parkgate service.

At centre, the GBRf is bringing the empty HYA wagon set down to the junction, to join the Lower Don Valley line near 'Centretainment' and the 'Hollywood Bowl' and then on through Woodburn Junction south through Sheffield and back to Bardon Hill for 15:08. This is just about a 5-day working with an additional one on Saturday but that rarely runs anymore. At left, the ubiquitous 'canary yellow, O2 pipeline, still extant in these parts and presumably in use, supplying Oxygen to those heavy industries, eg. Forgemasters not far away over to the right.

At right, and not too far away from Broughton Lane Junction, at the side of the Tinsley Canal, is the long-remaining remnants of the old Tinsley Park Colliery which once stood on the ground now occupied by Amey Ltd, the huge Marks and Spencer Distribution Centre and for the last few years, the London Spoil 'Mud Pad', and beyond that, the Newell & Wright Container Terminal... The part of the line which remains, between the two yellow warning posts, indicating a narrowing of the canal formation, is the lift-bridge which carried the lines over the canal and to a junction with the Lower Don Valley line, behind the camera. The bridge is clearly in the lifted position and the rails are now cut back to this side of the palisade fence in the background; shame there are no photographs of this in use, as far as I could tell from an extensive search.
The operation and other information regarding the 'Tinsley Park Colliery & Coal Staithe' was presented in a large Mosaic produced on 18th February 2016, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/34250354831/
Just out of shot to the left, a Terrapin was sat on a tuft of grass, close to the bank of the Canal, apparently these are pets which have been put in the canal when unwanted and, of course, have bred...I almost missed seeing it..

South Yorkshire Supertram Stadler Citylink 399201 is seen approaching Carbrook on a Tram Train service to Rotherham Parkgate.

* A 115Mby MP4 phone video lasting 7m 22secs.
* NB: As this is longer than the fixed 3 minute viewing in the Flickr interface, the Video must be downloaded to the desktop to see the full length.
* Right-click on the down-arrow option, the last of the three options to the lower right of the video frame. Select 'Save-As' and view..

** It has come to my notice (10/12/23) that the Download option below and to the right of the media _does not_ allow you to download the full version, only the 3 minutes available here. So, this is the link to obtain the full version shown here-
www.flickr.tightfitz.com/Video/TTV-conv.mp4

A day out, as it unfolded, with a trip from one end of the Sheffield Tram Network, to the other, via a change at Sheffield Cathedral from the Yellow route Supertram from Middlewood, to the Tram/Train stop at Parkgate. Its a shame there isn't an hourly service, say, running from the northern end of the network at Middlewood, to Parkgate, I'm sure folk would find this useful as there's a bus service from the Fox Valley retail area at Stocksbridge, to Middlewood; shopping nirvana eh...
The 1st video was taken on October 25th, 2018, almost 6 years ago, during the inaugural run of the very first public service, though sadly, that was only from the Parkgate Tram stop to around the Magna area... see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/43734103310/

Today this run was more in the way of an exploratory run, noting the features and particularly the new signals on the route, all signals now under control of the York R.O.C., though the signal prefixes remain as they were at the beginning with 'S' for the Sheffield P.S.B., even though that mean the 'Sheffield Panel', at York. The 'W' prefix at 5 of the signals, once under control from Woodburn Junction, has now followed suit with control transferring to York on a separate 'Panel' after the Lincoln Line box and infra-structure remodelling a few years ago. The signals are a mix of the old dual back-panel format but now with only a single head, whilst the newer ones are single head with both types being 3-aspect, R, Y & Green, variety. This is a list of the signals passed, outward-
* MS04 Tinsley Meadowhall and theatre indication for line ahead onto the National Rail Network
* W210 Tinsley Meadowhall 'starter'
* W204 At bridge under Blackburn Meadows Way
* W202 West of Magna with O2 pipe along left
* Bessemer Road bridge
* Pass under Midland's 'Old Road, with GBRf 66780 passing over top
* S748 Booths Scrapyard and Ickles signal near canal
Holmes Chord connection
* S746 Rotherham Cental exit
* S744 Parkgate, signal just before Rotherham Road bridge
and return-
* S743 exit signal at Parkgate Tram stop
* S751 signal just bore Magna near River Don bridge
* W203 this signal, not in use, has a 'X' over front, is for the exit from the old Down
Sidings at Magna. The back of it is visible in the video(at 2m28s in). It may well see
action once more when the new Tram/Train stop at Magna is built...
* W201 last signal on double-track section back onto Supertram, metals at Tinsel Meadowhall

Of note on the journey, after exit from the Supertram network at the Tinsley Meadow hall Junction-
* The line makes a tight 'S' curve around so that it can meet up with the old Tinsley South Junction to East Junction single line which now runs to the south side of Blackburn Meadows Way and joins the south to east G.C.R. curve, just before the tracks pass under the new road bridge, with signal W204 just in front of it. The short journey, taking around 15 mins from Cathedral to Tinsley Meadowhall and a further 15 mins to arrive at Parkgate Retail Tram stop. Rotherham Central is the only, request, stop en-route but this will change in the next year as the go-ahead has been given for an additional stop at the 'Magna Science Adventure Centre', though it's fairly clear this ought to have been part of the original plan... The Down Sidings, seen in this video, with the back of the W203 exit signal towards Meadowhall, will presumably provide the space for the addition Tram stop.
* After passing under Blackburn Meadows Way, the set immediately crosses the River Don on a very old G.C.R. substantially built double-track bridge, now long singled, and then runs along through the back of what was once a most heavily industrialised section of line at the side of the River, the Templeborough Steelworks once held sway here, and now, although the space has been taken over by modern industrial buildings, there are still vestiges of the 'Old World' left working in the area. The Tinsley Biomass Works, producing 30MW of power, is also just off to the left of the receding Tram, EMU class 399, 399201, with the Blackburn Meadows Sewage Works still dominating the area, next to the power station.
* Once passed the Magna centre, the line curves gently along, with the remnant of the old Ickles Sidings, just a single line now, running along beside the Magna Science Park. The Tram then passes signal W202 just in front of the bridge which crosses over the River Don with the area's recognisable O2 pipe at left, this supplied Oxygen to all the steelworks along here and is a long-standing feature in these parts.. Once over the river, the river course now to the right and opposite this is the green palisade fence alongside the Blackburn Meadow Nature Reserve.
* Passing the Nature Reserve on the left and the Templeborough 1MW Biomass Works on the right, in the distance is the Bessemer Way road road bridge and beyond that, the distinctive, and 'Old', rail bridge carrying the North Midland's 'Old Road'. Quite by good chance, although it is about the right time of day for this, there is a freight working passing over the Tram/Train lines, a container working in fact, from the 'Newell & Wright Container Depot' at the old Masbrough Freight depot, about 1km off south, to the right. This is a G.B.R.f working with class 66, 66780, 'The Cemex Express', on the 4L11, Masbrough Newell & Wright Depot to Felixstowe North working; Rotherham's Clifton Lane flats, built in the early 1970s, features prominently in the background.
* One passed the 'Old Road', the Tram/Train heads towards Rotherham and the newly installed Ickles signal, S748, a single head, KED unit, in contrast to the older type, used here before the Tram/Tran system was installed, see lower left picture here-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/49587274322/
taken at midday, on 29th October, 2017, during the installation of the Tram/Train system in the Ickles area and in the right-hand picture here-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/49578303931/
taken 21st March of the same year.. a times of changes during this period on the old G.C.R. line from Woodburn Junction to Mexborough...
Passing Booths Scrapyard on the left the Tram/Train speeds along under Centenary Way and then passes the prominent football ground, then the location of the Holmes Chord before slowing for a station stop, by request, no-one got on, at Rotherham Central.
* After a minute or so, 399201, set off for the last bit of the journey to Parkgate, just two minutes away along the line. Sheffield's (York R.O.C.) S746 signal is showing the first 'yellow' signal, a warning for a restricted speed as the next signal will also be at 'yellow' and with the 'feather' lit for the turnout into the Tram stop. The glassworks of 'Beatson Clark Ltd.' is passed on the left and then the line passes under the Greasbrough Road bridge and then heads alongside the Canal 'turning hole' off to the right as it slows for the next signal. As the service comes around the corner, two bridge arches can be seen, the one on the left is the abutment of the old Rotherham Road bridge, which was bypassed a log while ago, in the early 1970s, a new span being constructed just beyond it. The vacant arch carried traffic over the branch line up the side of the Greasbrough Canal to the Stubbin Lane Colliery, the signal box, Rotherham Road was just off to the right controlling the junction, but now, apart from a short stub, around 700m, of the canal, all else has long gone. A video about the Colliery can be seen here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/31163484126/
and some still shots and maps, here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/30377081664/
The next signal then comes into view, S744, also showing a 'yellow' restricted aspect with the feather lit for the turnout into the Tram stop, the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation is just over on the right, 30m away and 50m beyond that, the River Don; in the past it has, of course, been subject to flooding, and here's the reason why! The old G.C.R. lattice footbridge had been 'upgraded' with tall walls to keep folk away from the overhead 750VDC electric overhead and now the Tram/Train slowly, 25mph speed limit on the turnout, comes into the Tram stop for its 1-2minute pause before it returns back to Sheffield Cathedral.

The announcement right at the end, informs passengers about the return service, 2A37, and so it goes on like this all day, every half hour a Tram comes and goes. There are two EMU's on the services today, this one, 399201 and one which will be heading this way now from Sheffield, 399205, to arrive at 12:25 as 2A40, then leave 2 minutes later as the return service, 2A41. Time for a mooch around and take some photographs, sadly the 4 freights through here were all earlier in the morning, the last just a few minutes after I arrived, from Tinsley YArd, back to Felixstowe.. have to try and arrange things better the next time... that's it for today, planned to catch the next run of 399205, leaving Cathedral at 13:00 as 2A46, arriving at 13:27 then returning, with us on it, as 2A47, arriving back in Sheffield at 13:57...

Stagecoach is due to surrender operation of the Supertram network on 21st March 2024, after which it will be run by South Yorkshire Future Trams on behalf of the Mayor of South Yorkshire, bringing it under public control.

Photo: Dave Rowbotham

After several weeks of operation, this week, the Cross Country Route learner is running once more and, unlike last week when I photographed it, with issues, today the set came back along its designated diagram through here, rather than the Midland Main Line out of Sheffield. Since last week when I photographed this pair of HSTs at Woodburn Junction, and the Canon lens failed just before they arrived, I have had to look around for another, there was no reasonable option of repairing this tele lens, a Canon 28-135mm part, Canon could not do it any more. The cheapest alternative price for a repair, matched that on eBay for a 'nearly new' model, and so decided to fork out the cash for the latter; Canon have now discontinued this lens, from 2021 in fact, so this was the only solution; jolly good it arrived so quickly as well.
This location was selected because at almost the same time, as it can be on a single track section, the Network Rail Inspection Coach, 'Caroline' was due to pass through with traction being provide by a class 37, 37418 and operated by 'Loram Rail Operations'. As the timing turned out, the Inspection Coach came through first from the Rotherham direction and was diagrammed to take a short hike up into Tinsley Yard, via Shepcote Lane at this end, a reversal and then back down via the Broughton Lane connection to Woodburn Junction. From there it was due to take the M.S.L.R. line up-grade to the Stocksbridge Works area and from here it was hoped to be able to get up in time to see the set go up and come back down again. Running to time since its departure from York at 09:32, the set had already completed a circuitous trip around the network including Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Mirfield, Dewsbury, Wakefield after which it headed this way, at 12:28, passing along the main line from Moorthorpe, via Swinton and so to Rotherham Central on the G.C.R. line. In the left picture, the 37, 37418 just peeks out of the substantial over-bridge, carrying Blackburn Meadows Way road and still very lightly used.. This is the Network Rail 'Inspection Saloon', 975025, 'Caroline' with class 37, 37418, ex-D6971, 'An Comunn Gaidhealach' with B.R. 'Highland Rail motif & Double-Arrow InterCity Logo', the set operated by Loram Rail Operations, working on the 2Z02, York via all over the network and back to York, for 17:10 that afternoon. The River Don and the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation are just beyond the trees, the two waterways meeting here close to Halfpenny Bridge, the navigation continues for a short way to the north before dividing once again into river and canal, at Jordan Lock. In the right picture, the set is making its way along the last section of track for the Sheffield Tram/Train, its line turning off to the right, just in front of 37418, and heading to the Tinsley Meadowhall tram-stop, just under the Tinsley Viaduct; there's a Tram/Train due in a minute or two and that will precede the arrival of the HST route learner.

Shortly after the Tram/Train had rumbled through from Sheffield Cathedral to Rotherham Parkgate, the HST route learner was in the section along the Lower Don Valley line and Woodburn Junction, today it had come 'the proper way' back, not heading straight back home to Leeds via the Midland Main Line, like last week. As with the previous encounter with the Inspection Saloon, this set looked pretty good in the surrounding greenery and flat light, plus, unlike before, the lens didn't fail at the wrong time! Running on identical diagrams for the last few weeks, with the two H.S.T. power cars back-to-back, this is the return working, 5Z44, back from Derby to Neville Hill, with class 43, H.S.T., 'High Speed Train' units, 43184 ex-43384 in 'Exec Livery' and with '253 051' leading at the front and, at the rear, is 43366, with the red 'HST 40' plate on the side visible. 'HST 40' referred to the anniversary H.S.T. railtour which occured on 27 September 2021, see-
www.pressreader.com/uk/rail-express-9L24/20221018/2815522...
Additionally, Class 43, 43184 also has a Red 'Laira Diesel Depot' plate on the side with a corresponding, blue, 'L.D.D. - 25 Years' plate on the front, it referring to the Laira Diesel Depot in Plymouth, Devon, see-
www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/laira-depot.html
In the right-hand picture, a Rotherham 'double-decker' bus, takes the Blackburn Meadows Way link road, and passes over heading through Templeborough and on into Rotherham Bus Interchange in the centre of town. The River Don can just be made out underneath the bus, the bridge wall along the bank of the river having been graffiti'd ... and further, the single line coming off the main line just the other side of the bridge and into the old Cohen's Scrapyard at the other side of the river, was in the land beyond the now rampant tree growth above 43366, the area now filled, almost every square foot, with new Industrial units, no signs remaining of the once famous scrapyard!

On 14 January 2023, 399201 stops at Rotherham Central on a working to Parkgate,

On 14 January 2023, 399201 leaves Rotherham Central on a working to Parkgate,

On 14 January 2023, 399201 arrives at Rotherham Central.

On 14 January 2023, 399201 approaches Rotherham Central bound for Sheffield city centre.

Sheffield Supertram 399201 , Fitzalan Square Sheffield 29.9.22

Cathedral tram stop, Church Street, Sheffield, 11th June 2022.

IMG_14425

399201, Sheffield tram just left Fitzalan Square, 10 March 2022,

399201, Sheffield tram at Fitzalan Square on a service to Rotherham Parkway, 10 March 2022,