The Flickr Parkgateretailworld Image Generatr

* Eastwood Lock
A dash round to the other end of the lock, the barge taking around 15mins to get through as a large quantity of water from further along the cut is drawn into the lock chamber to permit the barge to rise up to this level. Some information about the 1983 upgrade to the locks along the Don Navigation-
'...the British Waterways Board, who submitted a proposal to the government for a £2.5 million upgrade, covering the stretch from Bramwith to Rotherham. This would have involved the construction of ten new locks, each 225 by 25feet (68.6 by 7.6 m), to replace the existing 12 locks. The new main line would then have been the same size as the Aire and Calder Navigation, although some of the bridges would have had less clearance. In 1972, a further proposal for a £2 million scheme to upgrade the waterway to handle 700-tonne barges up to Mexborough, and 400-tonne barges from there to Rotherham was submitted to the Department of the Environment.
Finally, the navigation was the subject of one of the last major attempts in the UK to attract commercial freight to the waterways. In 1983, it was upgraded to the 700-tonne Eurobarge standard by deepening the channels and enlarging the locks as far as Rotherham. Conisbrough lock was removed altogether, and the two Eastwood locks were combined into one. The new lock was initially named the Sir Frank Price Lock, after the chairman of the British Waterways Board who formally opened it on 1 June 1983. The expected rise in freight traffic did not occur, however. At Kilnhurst and Long Sandall, the new larger locks were built alongside the original locks, and so a comparison of the relative sizes can be made.
The new locks are 198 by 20feet (60.4 by 6.1m), and the navigation accommodates boats with a draught of 8.2feet (2.5m) and needing headroom of 10.5 feet (3.2m). Beyond Rotherham, the locks are 70 by 15.1 feet (21.3 by 4.6m), and so can accommodate a 70 feet (21m) broad boat, but Rotherham lock is smaller, being only 61.5feet (18.7m) long, and so the upper reaches are effectively restricted to 60-foot (18m) boats...'
At my estimate, the figures given here, 60.4x6.1m, would result in about 1.5million litres of water for each passage through the lock where it had to be filled up first. Here Exol Pride entered the lock chamber with the water at the river level, so it would have required less water to get up. If a small cruiser had been coming the other way earlier though, it would have released that amount of water into the Don on its exit at the lower level; a cruiser's water displacement being only several hundred litres, one would expect.. The size of the barge can be seen from this picture and presumably if this didn't bring the thick crude oil to the terminal, the 400 tonne plus cargo would be sent by road tanker, amounting to 25 HGVs plying up and down from Hull twice a week and then attempting to park up at the terminal in Rotherham.. In the background, new industrial units have now sprung up beyond the old Waddingtons Wharf on the left, the land once occupied by the heavy industry of the Park Gate Iron & Steel Works. The small Eastwood Canal basin is left of centre and a fisherman is trying his luck close to the canal outfall, the waters of which run alongside the GC's line to Mexborough, just out of shot to the left.

* Eastwood Lock
On the left the barge is finally rounding the bend and on its the 'turning hole at the end of the last short stretch to the Rotherham Oil Terminal, just a half mile away. The barge is passing the ex-Tram Depot, which became the Waddingtons Wharf and finally, now, a Seel Stockyard belonging to AMA Industrial Storage & Distribution Ltd. Waddingtons moved to here from their Don Street Depot, where Rotherham United now have their football ground, in the centre of Rotherham near Ickles lock in 1985. The old building became a food distribution depot and survived until 2008, it is still visible on Google Earth views for that date, after which it was demolished. It seems a very great shame that the materials stored in the stockyard aren't brought in by canal barge and off-loaded onto a train in a siding off the GC main line... but no, its all road haulage now. The swans have taken over the gulls job following the barge wake, but those in the foreground are more concerned with their appearance it seems. And, on the right, 'They', i.e. Network Rail, have modified 'my' old 'stepping bridge'. With the prospect of an electrified tram/train passing underneath, with 750VDC overheads and knowing the sort of shenanigans which go on around here, I guess the new, high sided panels are a must. I had thought this bridge would be taken out and a new structure installed which spanned both the rail and canal, but no, to their credit they have kept the old cast iron bridge, its support pillars now encased in solid concrete caissons but with the view along the top footway now cut off. One of us though is peeking out the side of the new footway wall and taking a picture along the track as two services pass under the refurbished bridge; heading south towards Rotherham is a Northern class 142, 142067, on the 2N25, Leeds to Sheffield stopper. On the right, 'We Are Artists', advertises another Northern unit, this time class 158, 158815, heading north, on the 2R71, Sheffield to Scunthorpe service. The sharp top of one of those nice palisade fences completes the scene... think I have been photo'd !

* Parkgate
Bit of a liberty taken once more here, time-wise, as the canal barge hasn't moved much before an approaching DMU can be seen on the right. The NOrthern passenger service is in fact the returning trio of units which were seen heading to Sheffield around an hour ago on the Leeds to Sheffield, 2N25 service. The set has now had a change of end for the driver and set off back, now on the return 2N28, Sheffield to Leeds service with the 153332 leading and 142036 at rear. Exol Pride is heading a short distance along the canal to the only point these types of barges can now reach the locks this side of the last large, Eastwood Lock, not being big enough to take this size of craft, and it will moor alongside the Terminal about a half mile away. Disgorging it thick oil takes a few hours after which the barge reverses back to the turning hole where it comes about and sets off back along here to either Goole or the King George Dock in Hull. Looks like the raft of swans is being pushed along to the turning hole alongside of which is a canal side cafe full of generous folk who feed them and hence the flock has grown to rather large proportions. The tuning hole was built in the 1980s lock refurbishment program which saw all the locks as far as and including Eastwood Lock , rebuilt to handle these larger boats, the turning hole was used for exactly that reason for the larger craft but now, with only 'Exol Pride' coming this way, it only sees use when oil has to be delivered. The down-turn in canal traffic in the 1980s appears to have gone hand in had with the large amount of money spent on revamping all the locks; by the time the work was finished the potential canal traffic of 2,000,000 tons a year had been whittled down to only one tenth of that. Now, it is essentially zero, though of course the canals have seen a huge increase in the number of pleasure craft using them, though they hardly need large locks and turning holes to enable them to ply there way along the quiet, now non-industrial waterways, still floating past, as they do, what was the heart of the largest iron, steel and coal industries in the land, in South Yorkshire.

* Parkgate
At another location for the passage of the DRS route learner and as a prelude, as usual at this place, time to look round and see what progress is being made on the Parkgate Tram/Train terminus. As a prelude to the 66 coming by, this 1st quartet of 4 pictures shows the 'bits-n-bobs' of stuff happening in the area surrounding the location of the now non-existent swing bridge, across the Rotherham cut of the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation. At top left, the Swinton Lock Activity Centre's barge, aptly named, 'Swinton', has just come past the constriction in the waterway where the canal swing bridge used to be, I once having walked across it before climbing the steps of the GCR's stepping bridge, to have my shorts and nostrils filled with the steam, oil and smoke of a passing 4F or some such, on a mineral working, in about 1954; a long time ago and the bridge is still there, for the time being only... maybe. To the right of the passing 'Swinton' cruiser/barge, on the GC's line to Mexborough, a Northern Rail DMU comes along from the canal turning hole just under Rotherham Road bridge, the DMU approaching the lineside paraphernalia which now resides about the place to do with the Tram/Train work and the new terminus along the line about a half mile away. Northern class 142, 142017, passes the slower moving barge heading towards the turning hole, and will be back soon, the DMU on the 2R15, Lincoln to Adwick service. At top right, a short time later, another Northern Rail DMU, what else, approaches the 'stepping bridge' with TkMaX over on the right at the southern end of the shopping centre. The bridge has had a concrete caisson cast about the two, right-hand, cast-iron supporting pillars; lending to the possibility that the bridge may be renovated and retained, I hope so, though this may just be a convenience and the bridge will get renewed with the arrival, eventually, of the terminus building further along the track. Another class 142, 142094, passes by under the bridge, on the 2R71, Sheffield to Scunthorpe interval stopping service; though, it won't stop here one assumes. At lower left, a bit of an oddity I haven't seen before and at 1st I thought it was a pair of similar class DMUs in tandem, bit no, at the front with its 'green brim' is another Northern class 142, 142036 but behind a single unit of the class 153 variety, 153332, so.. two 'nodding donkeys', Pacers and a Sprinter at the back. This is the 2N25, Leeds to Sheffield service and one assumes it is well patronised, hence the extra coach, possibly!! At lower right, 'Poundland' or 'Poundworld' or 'Basement Bargains or BignMassive', whatever, stock up with new quality gear from the 'discountUK' HGV offering 'Big Brands-Big Discounts-Big Savings'; all big then, everything a pound... can't wait.. Passing by in this quartet of interesting Pacer stock is yet another class 142, 142093 and heading south towards Rotherham Central, this time on the 2R82, Adwick to Sheffield service. The concrete caisson surrounding the bridge cast iron support pillars looks large so just maybe this is one of the footings for the new bridge, to span canal and railway; although a classic GR bridge, I have seen folk struggle with bikes, pushchairs and its non too easy for the disabled, attempting to cross this bridge, and its is rather narrow; could it be found a home if unwanted here????

* Parkgate
Finally, with the shot planned out as the DMU headed slowly northwards and with the 'Swinton Lock Activity Centre' boat coming slowly along from its mooring along the canal towards Eastwood Lock, an attempt was made to get the boat in the shot with the DMU service which was ambling along northwards. With only a minute or so to spare before 'Swinton' came under the footbridge, and at the other end of it, with 'Exol Pride' now having been in the shot facing southwards, time leg it over to the other side, to get another panorama, looking north; made it.. just. The 3-coach DMU set with 153332 leads the set away with class 142, 142036 at the back and it doesn't look anywhere near full for that number of units, on the 2N28, Sheffield to Leeds service. Whizzing along south on the Parkgate to Rotherham 'Albino' bus service, is the local double-decker shopper with relatively more folk on-board having accomplished all their desires at the soon to be served by Tram/Train, Parkgate Retail World; well soon, August 2017. Beyond the front of the DMU set is the location of the new Parkgate Terminus and I was informed that the station will be at the north end, not half way down in front of where the bus is, this means shoppers will have a short walk into the northern end of the shopping area from the station, and not a half a mile as looked to be the case earlier in the year! Rails have been stacked and laid to the left of the DMU, in the formation and curving on the correct path around to the station. The electricians were on site attending to cabling work near the footbridge, it does still seem a long way from showing signs of being finished in .. 10 months, but you never know. As 'the Swinton' boat passed underneath the camera, I thanked the folk on-board for the tip off regarding the Oil Barge, as they motored underneath me and off back towards the turning hole; though I guess now they may have been headed further south-west towards Sheffield, though, I thought, probably not. With the rain now easing up but the sky still looking daunting, time to head off back for some lunch...

Another run of the DRS Route Learner alongside the S&SYN at Parkgate - 9169/181
* Parkgate
The barge comes very smoothly under the new footbridge where, a few weeks ago, a boy was tragically killed, 'Tombstoning' off the bridge. The Oil Barge, 'Exol Pride', seems apparently to glide along noiselessly and without a whiff of pollution though I guess its engines produce some diesel fumes; having said that it IS carrying 4-500 tonnes of oil, what's that, the equivalent of 20-25 oil lorries off the main roads from the Humber to here; a no-brainer really and more of it please. A flock of very slowly moving swans and a 'bridge-hole' underneath Rotherham Road lies just ahead and the barge will soon pass the old building of Waddingtons whose canal side premises were here after moving back from Don St in Rotherham in the 1980s; the premises are now used as a steel stockyard but without any canal usage as far as I can see. On the right, DRS class 66, 66301 passes TkMaX and the new McDonalds eatery, recently built on Rotherham Road at just about the site of the short stretch of the Earl Fitzwilliam Canal which used to have coal staithes situated at the top end, about half a mile away, to transfer coal from the New Stubbin Colliery about 2 miles further north near Greasbrough. The Colliery initially had an incline and subsequently a tramway to take coal to the staithes for onward shipment along the canal, there was another swing bridge, this time across the railway line, the allow barges to connect to the Rotherham Cut. Eventually when the Midland line arrived in the 1840's and the GC's line towards the end of that century, a railway line was built up the side of the canal formation connecting to both the Midland and GC main lines and subsequently, the canal fell into disuse; it is now a quiet, elongated fishing pond. The area is changing a bit again, with the exit of the large BnQ DIY store from the large site in the background, next to the Midland line, their old premises can just be seen above and to the left of Mcdonalds, its hard to see what will take its place; though that could be said of much of the large tracts of land left when large business evacuate previous large, traditional, industrial spaces.. 66301 is heading towards Rotherham and then a reversal at Sheffield Midland before heading of east to Worksop and Lincolnshire and terminating at Barnetby. This is the DRS, 0Z01, route learner from the Parcels Sidings at York Station and this may well be in aid of the Autumn leaf fall RHTT workings, which are operated by DRS using class 20 locomotives and originate in York.

Waiting for the Dewsbury. A subtitle for this series of 3 2-part mosaics showing the changing scene at Parkgate and in the process of waiting for a freight train to pas through, to form the central feature in these pictures, 3 freights also went by on the Midland line a short distance away and were shown in the 1st picture in this series yesterday. Today some of the other pictures taken whilst waiting for the Dewsbury, which in the event didn't turn off onto the GC line at Aldwarke Junction but proceeded south on the Midland line from Swinton and went through Masbrough. Today, Saturday 10th, however, as I didn't go out, the same working DID turn off at Aldwarke and ran on the designated path, through Rotherham Road, Rotherham Central, Tinsley and Woodburn Junction and into Sheffield and the Hope Valley that way! This 1st pair of pictures shows the now quite activity, goods-wise, on the Rotherham Cut Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, at left, a small barge tied up at the ex-Tram Depot which became the Waddingtons Wharf and finally, now, a Seel Stockyard belonging to AMA Industrial Storage & Distribution Ltd. Waddingtons moved to here from their Don Street Depot, where Rotherham United now have their football ground, in the centre of Rotherham near Ickles lock in 1985. The old building became a food distribution depot and survived until 2008, it is still visible on Google Earth views for that date, after which it was demolished. It seems a very great shame that the materials stored in the stockyard aren't brought in by canal barge and off-loaded onto a train in a siding off the GC main line... but no, its all road haulage now. Over the bridge, carrying Rotherham Road, and at the side of what used to be the location of Rotherham Road Railway station which was on the opposite side of the canal from the blue tanks in the left-hand picture, the canal formation turns and heads for the centre of Rotherham, passing the Rotherham Oil Terminal, operated by eXoL Lubricants, on the right in the distance; sadly the oil barge 'eXoL Pride' wasn't about today. The barge 'turning hole' can be seen in the right background, installed in the last large scale work undertaken on the canal, in the early 80's, when some of the locks had a large amount of money (UKP 17 million!) spent on them to increase their size due to the perceived potential of 2million tonnes of cargo a year; this never materialised, of course, and we are now left wondering what it was all for... Passing along the GC line in front of the 'turning hole' is a twin-set of Northern Rail DMUs being left by class 142, 142021 on the 2R79, Sheffield to Scunthorpe service. In the background, passing upstream and just about to go under the Rotherham Road bridge, is the type of craft which frequents the canal these days, the small barge/cabin cruiser, 'Mascot', heading for an out-of-town mooring perhaps at Eastwood or Aldwarke. A railway line which left the GC main line here, and headed alongside the Earl Fitzwilliam Canal, see next set of pictures, came off the GC's main line on the right towards the back of the DMU set which also marks the spot, on the left, of where the old Rotherham Road signal box used to be. The colliery line ran for about 3 miles, alongside the canal in part, passing the South Yorkshire Chemical Works on the left of the canal just behind the camera and up to the New Stubbin Colliery, close to Greasbrough. Towering above the front of 142021, in the background is the spire of the All Saints Parish Church in the centre of Rotherham; the indigenous 'herd of swans' which live here can be seen .. well.. 'swanning about the water in the 'turning hole' ...

Final pair of pictures, as compensation for the Dewsbury sneaking past on the Midland line, but with another bit of hanging around, this time for 45 minutes, to grab a shot of a DBS, possibly class 60, which was coming out of Tinsley en-route for Immingham. I suppose in some sense these may well be a part of the start of the response I mentioned in the comment section in Adrian Wynn's critique on what 'we' are doing with 'Railway Photography'. The pictures here are as good an example of any I've done which try to 'add to the scene' and make it more interesting than it actually is at any one instant, usually, that is. I have regard myself, as I used to be, an artist, and I take out my equipment to create an image, as truthfully as I can with regard to signalling and other important rail aspects, as a painter may take out sketch pad and pencils and only when back in the 'studio, does the real image appear. So, I make digital sketches with the camera, hoping to have made enough of the scene so that once sat at the work-station, there will be enough information, content, related artifacts, history and the like to create the image I had in mind; some pictures are just plain portraits of interesting traction, hard to set that aside, but for me not the tour-de-force of the scene. If I had gotten all this 'out of my system' when I should have in the 60s/70s and 80s, maybe doing this now wouldn't be all that interesting any more, and to be frank, most of it isn't; as the railway scene in front of our eyes continues to diminish, which Adrian also refers too. What's remain in this context is an attempt to make the best of, well I wont say a 'bad job', but what's left and trying to make some reasonable statement about now, past history, the changes and where it may all go...

This last pair of pictures represent a link, illustrated by the oil tanker on Rotherham Road bridge in the background of the right image, with what the local industry is up to here and reflects somewhat of its past history as a centre of the triumvirate 'heavies' of Iron, Steel and Coal. The road tanker looks to be heading for the Rotherham Oil Terminal, which brings in around 800-1000 tonnes of crude oil every week, by canal barge in two runs from the Humber. EXoL Pride, the blue barge responsible for this showing EXoL Pride heading to the terminal in June; this barge used to be the 'Humber Princess', but that is now up for sale and ExoL Pride appears to have taken over for the present time. Although not specifically on an 'oil' move in this picture, the DBS class 60's are well known for their regular oil moves consisting of 3200 tonne trains moving from the Lindsey Oil refinery on the Humber to the Kingsbury Oil sidings down south, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/19523388325/
Here DBS class 60, the 1st of the set of class 60s, 60001, is heading back to Immingham from Tinsley Yard, having worked a 2500 tonne steel train inwards to the Outokumpu Steel works at Tinsley, at six am this morning, from the Immingham port, 6J03. It is now on its way back light engine as 0D03 and having come out of the Yard 20 minutes early, making me think I would be early off back home, it sat at the Ickles signal west of Rotherham Centra, waiting for its correctly timed path northwards. The lineside 'features' in the left-hand image at this side of the 60 are the bases for the new OHL stanchions and a new cableway with a concrete plinth, possibly for the OHL electrical equipment; the system is now just under a year away, by 'all' accounts. Some graffiti artists have been track-side and used a favourite type of location to make a colourful adornment to the bland concrete walls of the bridge; unlike their for more rustic and now blended-in counterparts to the left and right of the 60 in the right-hand picture. Enough for now... enjoy...

With the Dewsbury cement tanks having continued along the main line instead of coming along the line through here, this is mainly a 'DMU' set and this three-part set shows two more services along with an early 1960s OS map of the area where the colliery line left the GC line, heading for the 'New Stubbin Colliery' near Greasbrough. In the left-most picture, another Norther DMU heads south past a profusion of lineside Buddleia and birth tree growth with Network Rail present at the GC's old 'Stepping Bridge' and they are working on the new Parkgate Tram/Train stop, its station beyond the 'Stepping Bridge' on the right a few hundred metres away. The DMU class 144, 144005 is just about to cross the bridge over the Earl Fitzwilliam Canal which, before the railways came and 'spoiled things', used to go up as far as the colliery at New Stubbin. With the arrival of the railways, most of the canal was taken over and line built on the canal formation up to the colliery, the only part which was left, and which is still extant, is the section up to just beyond the Midland Main line under-bridge; new industrial concerns having now taken over all of the land around the canal, east, west and north of it. 144005 is on the 2N25 Leeds to Sheffield service and will rattle over the 'silvan' like, a very low and small, bridge over the canal which joins the main waterway, the Rotherham Cut, just over to the right; a little further along the line from the DMU, was where the GC's Rotherham Road station was located. In the background, the 5, now redundant, chimneys at the ex-TATA special steels works site, at Aldwarke U.E.S. and over on the left, hiding beyond the shrubbery, the large Parkgate Shopping area build on the large area of land once occupied by Parkgate Iron & Steel Works and the Aldwarke Main Colliery. The early 1960s map at centre, shows the GC line formation and what the area looked like at that time, the camera being located at a point on the other side of the road bridge where Rotherham Road Station, marked 'Sta' is located and just about the works 'Wks'. Its easy to see how much different the scene looked here 55 years ago with almost all the available space given over to Iron, Steel , coal and railways; the latter's tracks going absolutely everywhere. The South Yorkshire Chemical Works can be seen to the north-east of the camera's location and this area, left and right of the canal is taken over by a large industrial estate as is the land north of the Chemical Works, where the Mangham QUarry once used to be. The connections of both the Midland and GC lines to the line up to the New Stubbin Colliery, passing between the canal and chemical works, can also be seen as can the connection of the canal with the main navigation above the word. 'Rescue Station', between there and the canal junction was the old Rotherham Tram Depot, across the canal from the Rotherham Road railway station. The colliery site was quite large and the land on which it was built belongs to the Earl Fitzwilliam state, they had the canal built to capitalise on the coal seam and must have made a lot of money from the black gold residing up the colliery branch. An article about this branch line, which I found only recently, was published in the November 1995 edition of 'British Railways Illustrated' written by 'Railway Cognoscente', Adrian Booth and who am I to argue with that, as its true, and a very fine article it is too, written by him and illustrated with his excellent photographs. On the right, passing along the 'new' Rotherham Road bridge, when I used this road in the late 1960s, the old formation came across where the front of the DMU is located, I guess the local council realised that this narrow road was a bit of a bottleneck when the new order of Industrial Estates arrived with the demise of the large Park Gate Iron & steelworks in the 1980s and the shrinkage of other heavy industry, including coal of course. So a new bridge deck was installed and the road either side diverted to it and today, an ASDA HGV is using it, to 'Save us money every day', I can't imagine anything of that size being able to get across the old narrow bridge span; one of the abutments of this bridge can be seen in the lower right corner in front of the DMU. Under the bridge on the right was the location of the Rotherham Road railway station and a Northern Rail class 142 DMU, 142087 has just passed the station site, without stopping of course, on the 2N27, Leeds to Sheffield service; these services of course will also not stop at the new Tram/Train stop a half mile down the line. So, to get to 'Parkgate Retail World' from the north, one presumably has to travel to Rotherham Central, 5 minute away south, get off the train there and then board the next Tram/Train service heading this way, get on that and come back down here to get off to do the shopping at the new station; all this having to be reversed when the shopper needs to return north...

I guess the operator of this charter, WCRC, the West Coast Railway Company, planned this outing from the East coast to Stratford using as much in the way of local lineside interest as possible. This this working came off the Midland Main Line at Aldwarke Junction and took the GC's line coming past here and on through Rotherham Central only to rejoin the main line at Holmes Junction; just a small detour to see the once glorious industrialised area just north of Rotherham! The five, now redundant, chimney stacks standing tall in the background are located on the site of the TATA, formerly Corus, owned Aldwarke Steelworks, where there was a serious fire in early June. TATA have been trying to sell the plant for a few months, from Wikipedia-
'...In early July 2016 Tata paused the sale procedure in part to assess the effect of the vote to leave the EU (Brexit) in the UK EU membership referendum of 2016; on 8 July it announced it was in discussion with other steelmakers, specifically ThyssenKrupp on the formation of a joint venture between their respective European steel businesses.[61] JSW Steel and Hebei Iron & Steel were also reported as potential joint venture partners. In addition to the talks on a joint venture the company was also stated to be in talks to sell the pipe (Hartlepool) and EAF/specialty steel (South Yorkshire) businesses separately...'
It still remains to be seen how this turns out... Coming along the curve from Aldwarke Junction to the closes the line comes to the canal cut, is a WCRC private charter service being hauled by class 57, 57313 with six, smart looking Pullman Coached in tow and at the rear, fellow class 57, 57316.
The leading loco is passing the site of what is to become the new Tram/Train terminating station on a siding off the down line, some of the sleepers and a few rails having already been laid. The station site isn't near the only access way into the Retail area, the only one currently available being some 500m ahead of the approaching train; so shoppers will have a bit of a walk either to that access or heading off left behind the train to approach the shops along the road.. wonder if anybody has thought of this...WCRC's class 57313 is hauling the 1Z13, Scarborough to Stratford-on-Avon charter and is here running right-time and is here 3 hours away from its destination.

Another session back at rear of 'Parkgate Retail World' where things have been and are happening. The first is a sad report of the death of a youngster, apparently engaged in 'Tombstoning', I had never heard of this till informed by two local cyclists crossing over the old GC footbridge over the railway. It appears the 'pastime' revolves around jumping off a bridge into a river or canal without knowing anything about 'what lies beneath', in this case, it turned out to be not all that much water, as the 11 year old jumped off the newly installed pedestrian footbridge over the local cut of the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation, into the canal below; this happened about 3 weeks ago, on July 22nd. As far as I can make out there hasn't been any report of the outcome of the inquiry into what happened, i.e. the exact cause of death, the local and national press all had a piece in their papers about the incident; What a tragic waste of a young life in this stupid way... The pictures here reflect the scene on the 16th August whilst waiting for the passage of a rail charter, unusually coming this way through the area. At top left, under the shadow the metal bridge with a Swan investigating the scene as it quietly glides by, a floral tribute to the boy at the side of the water where he plunged to his death. Top right, looking towards Rother along the canal to the old Waddingtons canal-side depot in the centre background, a local passes by with head bowed possibly upset by the site of something which happened only 3 weeks earlier at 7pm on a very warm Summer's evening; maybe the enticement for the 11 year old to jump in the water was just too great. At lower left, a view of the bridge from further along the canal towards the Eastwood lock showing the height of the bridge deck above the water; can't help but think this may well have contributed to the result as the height of this and the depth of water here, possibly only 4-6 feet, would have been insufficient to guarantee a safe landing; that and the potential presence of anything, not visible, submerged in the water. The GC's lattice footbridge over the railway can just be seen to the right in this picture. And on that bridge, at lower right, a local passenger DMU, consisting of just one coach, ageing Northern Rail class 153, 153324 comes by, tooting to the 3 lineside NR workers, busy with the foundations of the new tram-stop work; the DMU on the 2P61, Scunthorpe to Sheffield service.
R.I.P.

The corner of the pedestrian footbridge, from which the 11-year old jumped into the canal to his death, is visible in the lower left corner, the proximity of the canal, and its old towpath, to the railway line is also clear and there is a small difference in level between the two formations; the unnavigable River Don, for which this cut was made, isn't that far away over to the left of the picture. With six smart Pullman Coaches in the set, 'Derwent Water', 'Windermere', 'Sapphire' and 'Emerald', with two unidentifiable coaches, particularly the one next to 57316, on the jaunt down to Stratford on the 1Z13 outing from Scarborough. The return service set off back at 16:09, just 3 hours after arrival on the 1Z14 service back to Scarborough and arrived at destination, right-time, at 22:23, so 10 hours on the train for 3 hours sight-seeing in Stratford. A lot of folk appeared to be tucking into '2nd breakfast' or 'elevenses' as the Pullman 1st class set passed by, illuminated on this side by bright over-head sun. Local businesses are spreading around, here 'TkMaXX' and ... Macdonalds but behind this is the now the large vacant building, with coloured strip livery, of B&Q hardware/DIT retail... odd they should move from here as they only arrived at this new location, 2 or 3 years ago from a site closer to the centre Rotherham.

This next pair of pictures was prompted by an image I have seen in the late Peter Bartle's beautiful fine art book on all things related to the local landscape, much to do with his days working for the railways, on the footplate as a fireman and latterly as a signalman. He moved to Filey from Rotherham in the 1970s and began painting the scenes he remembered during his working life from the 1950s and before Sadly he died in 2006 and subsequent to this, his brother discovered a large collection of material he had painted during his life, the painting forming the contents of a beautiful book 'Discovering the Art of Peter Bartle', published by ASAP Digital; his work was also available on-line at-
www.peterbartle.co.uk/
but the site has now seemingly expired.
On the left, another local passenger DMU comes under the old lattice footbridge and crossing are the pair of cyclists with whom I had a good long natter and from which I learned about some of the details about the 11-year old's tragic death. A Northern Rail class 142, 142060 passes northwards heading to York from Sheffield on the 2Y80 service; I wonder if the bridge will survive the new work being undertaken here by Network Rail, to install a siding into what will be the Tram/Train terminus just a few hundred meters along the line, see next picture.
The picture on the right is taken from Peter Bartle's book but the elevation of the image suggests some artistic licence as at this time the canal cut was crossed by a swing bridge at its narrowest section, not the high foot-bridge seen in the earlier picture, where the 11-year old plunged to his death. The picture does however show an accurate scene in what looks to be around the 1950s and to the left and behind the approaching L.N.E.R class 04, the scene is remarkably different to the present time where shops now rule the roost. In the 1950s, this area was awash with the works of Parkgate Gate Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. with their rail sidings and slag heaps as can be seen here; though in this picture, the view has a sylvan quality about it!
As was mentioned in one of the handful of pictures I have taken here over recent years, the East Europeans were photographed 1st, up on their way to the the 'car-washing facility' over the bridge, now gone. Maybe the loco which is approaching the lattice footbridge in Peter Bartle's picture is the type of working which passed underneath as I walked over it, so many years ago.. though I have it in my mind's eye that it was travelling north with a full load of coal; this one appears to be partially empty.

No barges available at the present time, including seemingly, the blue Oil BArge carrying its cargo of heavy oil to the Rotherham Oil Terminal, so a lone cyclist will have to do instead! With the weather hot and bright, even at 10am, the scene is awash with too much stark light, the canal looks calm and inviting and the temperature is high, alluring for an 11 year-old I guess unfamiliar with this type of 'water feature'. The access way mentioned in the last picture is to the left of 57313 and to the left of the 'Superdrug' shop at far left; the rear of the train, with 57316 tailing the working, is just passing the site of the new 'Tram/Train' passenger stop where the service will reverse to go back to Sheffield. The signalling and control of all this is apparently being handled by a panel in Woodburn Junction signal cabin, the panel having been removed from the Sheffield P.S.B. when its function was transferred to the York R.O.C. 57313 is hauling the WCRC private charter on the 1Z13, Scarborough to Stratford-on-Avon jaunt, taking five hours all in from the east coast to the home of the 'Bard'. There has been much tidying up of rubbish and vegetation control here since the arrival of the NR engineers to install the infra-structure for the Tram/Train network; the rubbish is however beginning to re-appear again along the canal side around the bridge and is not visible in these pictures.

The title for these pieces of work comes mainly from this picture, the 'Ice Breaker' being on the left, the little barge, 'Mascot' appeared to be doing this job, though I expect it was just moving from A to B. On the right on the GC line to Mexborough through Kilnhurst is a class 220, Voyager, on an unusual ECS, Empty Coaching Stock move, all the way from the River Tyne area, and along south to Barton-Under-Needwood, the 5Z23 working. 'Mascot' has just come under the newly installed footbridge over the 'Rotherham Cut', the earlier one having been moderately deconstructed by 'local metal recovery personnel', i.e thieves, which had left parts of the bridge in a dangerous condition; ideal for falling through into the canal. The bridge also marks the spot, still shown on my 2004 OS map, where the old swing bridge used to be, its removal having taken place a longer time ago than that I suspect. To its right just poking out of the tree is the GC's old lattice bridge over the railway and which looks to have had some work done of the deck support brackets. Voyager, class 220, 220023 rounds the curve and approaches the area where the terminus for the new Sheffield Tram/Train will be located; the area immediately to the left of the front power car being an obvious place as there is a largish piece of track-side land. However, the terminus will have to be next to the access way through to the retail site which is somewhat further along the line than indicated in this picture; see next one... The 'Ice Barge' can be seen over to the right in this composite of events, the barge just passing through a few minute too early otherwise it would have passed the front of the train in 'proper fashion'. It is heading around to the locks seen earlier and then onto the River Don, breaking up a clear channel in the surface ice of the canal as it does so with a lot of associated cracking and crunching as it motored along.

A walk along the South Yorkshire Navigation in company of Man on A Mission', which he surely is this time, in preparation for a new piece of work; the conditions are evident from the pictures and even these have had a modicum of 'Ooomph' added, to make the scene more 'lively'. This section of the canal through Rotherham passed through some of the heaviest industry along the Don Valley, now almost all gone but there are the odd remnants reflecting a more active involvement of the water over other forms of transport. The canal's position was usurped, firstly by the railway companies and then subsequently, both by the developing road network. Now the canals are used for pleasure purposes and this has by-and-large helped to keep them in existence and rescue many from past derelictions. This set of 5 pairs of mosaic images show the 'Rotherham Cut' - the South Yorkshire Navigation, Tinsley Canal towards Sheffield and in the past, the Dun Navigation further east. In the left picture is one of the locks close to the site of Park Gate Iron & Steel, now the site of TATA steel's Aldwarke UES, United Engineering Steels; the canal & River Don are off to the left, the canal where the lock house is situated, the canal at that point being connected into the River and there are other locks further along where the river becomes impassable for short stretches. The warm weather has resulted in some vegetation starting to bloom and in the left picture, a composite to merge in foreground and background, separately in focus so giving the maximum depth of field, shows some heather in bloom, in 'electric-blue', not sure whether this has been dyed or is a natural colouration... the yellow varieties certainly are natural. The the old Waddington Wharf is over to the right in the backgou8nd, now occupied by modern industrial concerns which appear to have several large barges 'grounded' outside the premises. In the right picture, taken further along the river towards Aldwarke, the photographers have piqued the interest of one of the swans, of which there are a few dozens up and down the stretches of water here, and has is obligingly swimming along to get into the shot just in the right place underneath what looks like a barge loading crane overhanging the water and, just beyond that at the far left, an old coal drop to facilitate the loading of 'The Number Ones'; the family owned barges which used to work up and down the canals carrying minerals, coal, ore and any other products which required quick and efficient transport in the days before good roads and the rail network took its grip on transport of these materials.

Last week and in fine weather on both occasions, two shots along the northern section of the Stocksbridge branch line, the ex-Woodhead route stub, which now essentially terminates just north of Deepcar station but wit a curve to carry steel freight into the exchange sidings at Ellen Cliff. Here, material brought up by the 1500 tonne evening steel train from Aldwarke U.E.S., which now belongs to 'Liberty House', is rolled at the old Samuel Fox Steel mill at Stocksbridge and then sent back down to Aldwarke, the following night; this 'service' now being pretty much assured for the foreseeable future... The first shot on the left shows the situation just north of the Ellen Cliff Wood sidings where the local diesel shunter from the steelworks has placed empty billet wagons back on the single track section across the River Don bridge, waiting collection that evening one assumes; the wagons can be seen to the right of the orange excavator, just to left of centre. A new cycle, horse and and walking track is being installed here, taking pedestrian traffic from the new Fox Valley Shopping area in the valley once occupied by vast stretches of Fox's steelworks, through her and over to the pathway at Deepcar and thence through Wharncliffe Wood. Information about this work, being undertaken by Sheffield Corporation, can be found here-
www.cyclesheffield.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/17_0...
and as will be appreciated in this picture, this isn't just a narrow walking path using the existing route, but is a complete 'upgrade' including, in the centre of the picture an new 3.5m wide access bridge over the upper Don river. We were told this wider bridge, the one which can be seen in the picture, is being installed to ensure that any horses crossing the river, if startled by anything, have enough space to turn around and go back; now whoever would have thought of that! The track is being laid with a solid surface and it has to be admitted, though this will destroy the essentially 'silvan feel' to the area, it will be a welcome non-car access to the Fox Vally and into Wharncliffe Wood. It also seems clear that with the extension of the housing at Fox Valley and a new prestige housing estate planned for the area to the west of the lonely Deepcar Station, between it and the River, that this sort of facility will be most useful and, as one sage put it, in twenty years this are will be totally unrecognisable to the state it was in when we wandered through here just in the last few years, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/8656869743/
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/8703890021/
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/9160766428/
all from 2013, and from 2015, during the development of the new Fox Valley Shopping area-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/19785112330/
The new concrete bridge supports are up and the deck will be installed soon, the pathway is equally as wide but, unfortunately, all this new work will result in the installation of new palisade fence along the Ellen Cliff Wood exchange sidings, something local rail photographers, including me, will be much less enthusiastic about. On the right, a few miles further south in the Beeley Wood area and presumably a result of recent heavy down-pours, Network Rail contractors are installing what looks like a new drainage pipe, a couple of feet in diameter, underneath the line, close to the old works of the Union Carbide Electrode Works, with its remaining 4 tall chimney stacks, just off to the right down the hill. The excavation is quite deep and the grade of the land can be seen at the other side and in fact a rather vigorous pair of streams run together up there, and pour their waters into the field beyond the palisade fence; this has obviously resulted in an issue for the line and one on wonders if this was detected most recently by the test train service which came along here, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/27556690018/in/photostream
on April 13th, a month ago. The palisade fence, running along the other side of the track, all the way up from Wadsley Bridge to the Rocher Bridge foot crossing, was installed in 2016, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/25299936855/
where 1.5km had been installed between the old Wadsley Station site and the Rocher Bridge, presumably costing several 10s of thousands of pounds to protect a line which sees, at most, regularly, 1 train a day in the early evening. It is encouraging to note that money is being spent on the line, in somewhat better ways, to ensure its longevity. It seems to me, and others, that with the impending trial of the Tram/Train system from Meadowhall to Rotherham Central, 2 of the units being tested for clearance/gauge, this last week along the route into Parkgate, that a similar system ought to be implemented along here, the upper Don Valley, from the old Sheffield Victoria site, to Stocksbridge. What could be better than to see either a Tram/Train systems or even light DMU services, plying the route up here along the old Woodhead line, twice an hour and taking folks from the city to the Peak District at Stocksbridge or the other way, if they really must and want too, the Meadowhall Shopping area and on... to Parkga6te Retail World, bliss for some I guess... Next service up here, Monday night's steel train the DBC hauled 6J57 and return around 2 hours later, 6J58 class 66, Aldwarke UES to Stocksbridge Works and back again...

Running just 6 minutes late, so arriving here at 10:21, the 'ScotRail livery' Northern Rail 'Turbostar' set, hurtles along to the south-west, passing the site of the Tram/Train stop, construction still on-going and just visible towards the back of the 3-car set. Class 170, 170475 appears to be the only unit being run on this E.C.S. driver training working consisting of 4 moves throughout the day starting out at 09:09, this one 5Z01, Leeds Holbeck Loco Sidings via Rotherham Central to Nottingham, 5Z02, Nottingham to Sheffield, 5Z03, Sheffield to Nottingham and finally, back north, the 5Z04, Nottingham via Sheffield and Masbrough to the Leeds Holbeck Loco Sidings, arriving around 16:30. Must be feted when I come here as more often-than-not, a boat of one sort or another, usually glides by, sometimes the Exol Pride Oil Barge, which does run on Thursdays, but today its a small cabin cruiser, in no particular hurry, a bit like the smoothly 'gliding swans'. The now redundant chimney stacks at Aldwarke are in the background and the view in this direction hasn't changed much over the years, the nightly steel billet train sets off from the area over on the left behind the T.P.E. and comes along here around 18:30 heading for the Stocksbridge steelworks, or rather the exchange sidings where a resident diesel shunter takes the haul the last bit of the way into the steelworks themselves, for subsequent rolling and return to Aldwarke; this working and the steelworks now appear secure for the foreseeable future.

* Video length is 2m 50s, so its all visible in the Flickr interface...

The progress with the work on the Tram/Train system is gathering apace now and on the bank-holiday weekend of the 27th May when Network Rail implemented a Line Possession at Rotherham Central Station to remove the Bridge Street road bridge over the lines and replace it with a new road deck, 450-500mm higher than the old one. Whilst this was going on, there was also work progressing at Woodburn Junction, to replace the old, time-expired signal panel and install a brand new one, its design now including the proper control of the Tram/Train line from Meadowhall to Rotherham and the Parkgate Shopping area north of the town. In addition to those two operations, work has also been progressing at Rotherham Central, to install a new, lower platform at street-level height, therefore being able to accommodate Tram/Train services stopping at Central Station. The new platforms are being squeezed in at the southern end of the existing ones which will undoubtedly bring them close to where the old Rotherham Central's northbound platform once existed, before the whole lot was moved further north to this, its more convenient location for the town centre, in 1987.
Following on from that weekend of change, and with an absolute paucity of freight movements through the station, there just having been one day-time move, the Dewsbury Cement en-route to the Hope Valley, last Saturday around 11am. Apart from that and the nightly Steel train to Stocksbridge, which has actually been running up to 2 or more hours early on occasion, I gave in yesterday and went over to take some pictures of developments, in intermittent rain as it turned out. The deck over the road is now finished, the video shows the 1st section being lowered diagonally into place on the bank-holiday weekend, and there now follows around 2 months of 'making good' and restoring the road over the rails, now around a half metre higher than it used to be. All this has been undertaken due to the height restriction under the bridge for the new Tram/Train 750VDC overhead cables, which would have been too low for the units to pass underneath. I was informed that there are 2 other structures which need attention, the bridge at Ickles carrying the Midland's 'Old Road' over the GC formation is also too close to the Tram/Train rails but in this, and the other case, the increase required in height clearance is only around 200-250mm and so in these cases the rails themselves will be lowered by that amount; must be a first for the GC's old line through Rotherham and Tinsley.
There is also to be a National Grid substation to feed in the AC current which will then need to be transformed down from 30kVAC(?) and then rectified for use on the Tram/Train system which requires 750VDC. As all this information was being conveyed by one of the very obliging and informative Carillion personnel on the site, I was reminded instantly of the system which ran the Woodhead overhead electrics where in that instance there was a 30kVAC feed, with wrist thick cable running along all the 40-odd miles of the system, to supply the substations on the route. There, after stepping down the voltage to 1500VAC, large Mercury Arc rectifiers converted the AC to the 1500VDC at a peak current of almost 2000A, for the Woodhead 76, EM1 and 77, EM2 class, locomotives. Here the requirements are much less than in the days when 1000 tonne coal trains used to run every 10 or 15 minutes, banked up the Worsborough Incline with 2 at the front and two at the rear, carrying coal to the power stations at Fiddlers Ferry, now its people shopping who like the coal, want to get from one resource centre to another; Meadowhall and Parkgate! The new feed will arrive at another building which is to go up alongside the existing one on the site at Ickles, photographed recently, see this shot from March this year during construction of the first building-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/32763234374/
and this-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/33856508780/
after completion of the first building. The other two which are going up next to this one, will be the Grid's AC feed and rectifier building and another, the D.N.O. which I understand will be the Dynamic Network Operations building and will, amongst other things, be responsible for controlling isolation between Network Rail's AC signalling system, which uses AC track circuitry and the DC return current, from the overhead catenary, also flowing along the same rails! Have to say, this was quite an involved 'chat', with yours truly being as nosey as possible!
The scene opens in the video with shots of the now demolished, old, 'Tesco Superstore' which was constructed on Forge Island, as the name suggests this is exactly what used to be here before the shop arrived and it served Rotherham well before moving to a new site at the other side of town a year or so ago. Now the site is to be taken over by the Rotherham Council and it will be a ... car park, for the next 3 years. The river with its cascading weir runs along one side and passes under the dreadful footbridge which connected the town centre with the Forge Island site. At the other side of the large plot is the canal cut which takes the waters along and rejoins the river, briefly at Eastwood Lock. At the other side of the canal, and built on its old formation, see the large Mosaic pice on the Westgate Branch here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/16251217440/
is the GC's line through Rotherham and Central Station, the area having been cleaned up when the new Central Station was finished in 2012, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/6831482597/
and
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/6831462577/
On leaving the area on that 1st visit during the deck replacement, the old one had been removed the previous day, Saturday 27th, and this was the day after, so very quiet and a quick grab-shot of one of the old streets in the area, Domine Lane which, as can be seen from the last shot in this section of the video, has had varying fortunes over the years. This lane used to run alongside the indoor market which, with the outdoor market, occupied the whole of this area on Saturdays, the indoor market functioned until the early 1970s but was demolished during the tows refurbishment program in the 1980s and there is now a new market centre on Effingham St. at the other side of town. The site of the Indoor Market is now given over to shops and offices.
The second part, 'Woodburn Junction Panel Replacement' shows the scene on the same day with changes taking place there as well, a new panel being installed in the cabin, though not even sure the cabin has survived, as this may have been replaced as well. The green and white cabin contains the old panel from after the days when the MSLR's signalbox was replaced by the current one, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/111945283@N04/34664064772/
on Chris Brown's Flickr site who also works for Network Rail; he also has a picture of the new panel, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/111945283@N04/33984031504/
unfortunately the two engineering trains which came through here later in the day, and would have added some traction interest to these shots, both ran 1 hour early and escaped the camera just as I arrived in the afternoon.
Subsequent to the old deck being removed on the bank-holiday weekend and with no sign of daytime traction, a return was made by the pair of us, with Adrian Wynn being complicit in the trudge around in the rain, to get an idea of progress at the station. So the next part, No.3, shows what the scene looks like now that all the sections of the bridge deck are in place; in fact it has made it hard to photograph anything as there is too much clutter around and the scene onto the tracks is once again blocked. So what was recorded, just north of the station on George St., where once the old Phoenix Hotel stood, was the passage south into the station of a Northern Rail DMU, class 142, 142088 on the regular Scunthorpe, via Sheffield Midland, to Lincoln Central service, this one 2P65. The Tram/Train OHL stanchions are now blocking the view along almost all of the track between Parkgate and Tinsley and once the wires are up, the availability of clear shots along the line will be very much ruined... The DMU is seen passing under the new bridge deck and entering the somewhat squeezed in station, due to land being sold off by B.R. when the old Central station closed, the local canal cut is just at the other side of the building poking into the picture at top left; once the retail outlet 'Pinewood Studios', antique and new pine furniture, now standing empty. The old BR double-arrow logo stands out well atop Rotherham Central's lift tower.
Moving further along both the line and canal in this section, this is the area north of the station just under the Centenary Way flyover and it looked to us as if there may well be yet another problem getting the wires underneath this much larger dual-carriageway structure; unless the rails are to be lowered here. There looked to be at least a metre difference between where the cables will be and the underside of the bridge...? Walking along the canal bank, looking towards the Rotherham Oil Terminal, big place Rotherham eh, 'Oil Terminal', football ground at 'New York', 'Central Station' and 'Pinewood Studios', is Adrian W. looking over to the scene showing Beetson Clark, leading glass packaging manufacturers, on the left and the greenish oil tanks at the Oil Terminal on the right with rail and canal in between. Passing along north, a few minutes after the other service went south, is another Northern class 142, this time 142068 on the return, 2R67, Sheffield to Scunthorpe service.
In the final section, No.4, some shots of the new signalling, terminus station at Parkgate and the track layout to accommodate the Tram/Trains moves into and out of the station and access to the correct lines. The new signal at the Greasbrough Rod bridge, the left-hand portal of the bridge carried the line up to the New Stubbin Colliery which has also been featured on these pages, see the video relating to this here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/31163484126/
and a 'Then & Now' picture taken around the same time as the video, in November last year, here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/31235445146/
The signal, with its junction feather for the station access off to the left, see next shot, is covered over and marked with two 'X's, not in use, one for the feather and the other one lower down, the Tram/Train signal; the signal post number plate is also blank. Presumably this signal post does not carry a signal for the main, N.R., line, there being one, S0740, just further along the line behind the camera. The final two shots in this last part show, facing north first, the view over to the Parkgate Tram/Train station over on the left with its line of protective palisade fence running between the Tram/Train track and the down main line. Another signal can just be seen at this end of the platform and presumably this is the signal to allow the return service out of the station and to then come forwards a short-distance 'wrong-line', before crossing over to the up-line, the one nearest the canal, to head towards Meadowhall. The cross-over is shown in the last shot of the video, looking south back towards Rotherham, Tinsley and Meadowhall where the Tram/Train can then rejoin the main tram line into Sheffield. It will be noted that in the final two shots, one of the rails has been left unconnected in each case; a safety feature for the present, I have been told. This also applies to the junction near Tinsley East where the Tram/Train track leaves the main GC line, to curve around northwards to Meadowhall. With the weather deteriorating again, as may be gleaned from the last shot, though it doesn't appear to have affected the abundance of Elderflowers out along the bank side, time to set off back and get the wine making into gear for this year...
Finally, I am indebted to Gavin B, for the tip-off regarding the weekend bridge removal and for other odd snippets of information about the T/T system.

(BTW: The CrossRail 'thingy' was inspired by seeing two recent updates on progress with the Cross City rail being built in London and what an impressive feat of engineering I thought it all was.. my very small tribute to Rotherham, and its new, going across the rails road, for the sake of the Tram/Train..)

* Parkgate
The next three pictures are all two-part panoramas to fully give justice to the scene of rail and canal with, as can be seen here, the Rotherham Oil Terminal barge, 'Exol Pride' coming along from the dock at Hull with 4-500 tonnes of heavy oil for the Terminal. I have the crew of the 'Swinton' barge, seen in the top left photograph in the 1st image, to thank for the information about this pending arrival. After motoring along to the turning hole, they came back just as I was walking back from Eastwood Lock and I took the opportunity to ask if they were going back towards the turning hole later; the intention being that their passage would form the right-hand side of this picture. The reply was they they would be coming back later as they were... waiting for the Oil BArge to pass before making the trip back, they had no idea how long this would be though and there was some uncertainty as to which way it would be travelling, full of oil to the terminal or back empty to Goole. With a half hour between the arrival of the DRS route learner, seen here on the left, and the 'Exol Pride' on the right, the weather deteriorated and although these images may look slightly out-of-focus in parts, they aren't, its just the rain. Looking to the distant Eastwood Lock, I could see that the downstream colour light signal, in railway parlance, was at a single yellow, this meant the lock was free fro boats to enter from this direction, so this made me think that just maybe the barge was returning empty from the oil terminal and had free access to the lock. However, what was encouraging, after about 20 minutes or so, the distant yellow changed to a red, an indication that there must be traffic heading upstream and the way was blocked for moves downstream; so time to wait it out but, as it turned out, it was only 10 more minutes. On the left the 'daily' route learner operated by Direct Rail Services has run sporadically, it failed two weeks ago when it got to Sheffield after it was photographed at Holmes Junction, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/29540626172/
and it has only run on one other day, Monday 19th Sept. Today, Monday Sept 26th, looking like a weekly, not daily run, it managed to complete the trip after the Sept 12th failure, and got to its destination, Barnetby, 1 minute late at 15:51 having set off from York at 11:53. This is DRS class 66, 66301, once more on the 0Z01, York Parcels Sidings via Sheffield & Worksop to Barnetby, working and having arrive at the Moorthorpe Loop further north 25 minutes early, I was hoping for an early arrival, but its actually a good job it waited time else I may just have missed the Oil Barge! The loco passed here on time at 13:54 and the Oil Barge was about 30 minutes later, though it took 10 minutes from 1st sighting at the lock in the background, to come towards the location of the old swing bridge, the site indicated by both the canal constriction and some remnant on the right-hand bank of the bridge support structure.