The Flickr Signals0748 Image Generatr

* This pair of pictures were up-loaded on the 7th November, 2018, during the Autumn/Winter season of the R.H.T.T. Unfortunately in the purge which took place in early 2020, this was one of the pieces which got deleted. During this last week, I was back in this location after an almost 2 year break and took some pictures of the passing GBRf,66708, in Yellow/Blue livery and sporting the 'Glory to Ukraine' nameplate. In the narrative, I discussed briefly what the place looked in the 1950s & 1960s and remembered I had already done a 'Then & Now' piece to show what the scene looked like, compared to the view in 2018, to what it looked like all those years ago. So here, once more, is that pair of pictures showing the scene to the south of Rotherham Central Station at left, decades ago, to what it looked like during the passage of the R.H.T.T. This is the contemporary pair of shots which were taken of the liner train on the 7th June, last week, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52964552808/

Here is the original narrative, for this picture..
---------------------------

This pair of shots compare the scene over-looking the railway formation, from the Main Street bridge in the mid-1950s on the left and last week on the right. The angle of view has had to be changed in the recent view as on the left-hand side there is now a large tree blocking the view in the direction from which the older shot was taken. The mid-1950s shot shows the Westgate Branch bridge abutment over just one line of the GCR's formation, the line coming into the cattle dock area in the foreground and also passing behind that and on towards Main Street at its junction with Don Street where there were more sidings and access for an Iron & Steel Scrapyard. The land occupied the latter and much more, has now been taken by the large Rotherham Council offices and it and the R.U.F.C New York Stadium now dominate this area on the left. On Rotherham Central's down line platform, at the very end, is a water crane and beyond that, just to the right of the water crane right next to other bridge abutment, is Central Station's signal box with a class 08 shunter having been given the signal to proceed onto the up line. The signalbox was still in use at th8is time and survived for a few more years, being demolished by the early 1970s and the whole site cleared not long after in the signalling updates in the early 1980s. The character of the site as it was speaks for itself of course, there is a Hillman Imp, I think, over on the left just beyond the cattle docks behind the down line platform, Central had staggered platforms and the up line one was at the other side of Main Street, behind the camera. In the background, testament to the heavy industrial scene in the area with steel works and other concerns all over the place and on the right, just in front of the diesel shunter, the small artificial channel carrying water, otherwise known as the 'Holmes Tail Goit, which carried water from the River Don further upstream near the Holmes Rolling Mill just this side of Holmes Lock, the water then being carried through the Alma Works at Holmes and on into the London Works, the Brinsworth Iron & Wheel Works and the Oxygen Works, in this locality, all on the site of of which is now 'C.F. Booth Metal Recyclers Ltd.' and finally under the lines here, to outflow back into the River Don, not far from Main Street Bridge. 'Goit' appears to be a language peculiarity associated with the two counties of the Roses; Red & White, for Lancashire and Yorkshire. In the right-hand corner, a set of 7 chimney stacks in a row which I recall used to be known as 'The Seven Sisters', the lens of the camera which took this shot clearly showing some geometric aberration.. In the right-hand picture, the much changed scene today as a pair of D.R.S., Electro-Diesel Locomotives, class 20s pass through the same site with 20303, ex-D8127, 'Max Joule 1958-1999' in the lead and at the rear, 20305, ex-D8095, 'Gresty Bridge' on the 3S14, Woodburn Junction to Hull RHTT working. The 'Holmes Tail Goit' culvert looks to be being dug-out as its possibly blocked and causing an issue with the temporary car parking area which have sprung up on the right since the Rotherham Bowling Alley was demolished a few years ago. The RHTT has 20305 bringing up the rear and it is passing the right-hand bridge abutment, only just visible in the left-hand picture, behind the signalbox. The Sheffield & Rotherham Railway's Westgate Branch line passed over the GCR lines here to traffic into Westgate Station on Main Street, this bridge abutment has several horizontal rope marks on one corner from the time when the bridge went across the S&S.Y.N., 'Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation' canal. This 'cut' was filled in by the M.S.L.R. the canal diverted and the bed of the old canal used for their rail formation, much detail related to all this, as well as pictures of the bridge abutment, can be seen here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/26425061234/
The up line platform, behind the camera on the other side of Main Street bridge, of the GCRs line though Rotherham Central Station had, mounted in the bank above the platform, a fish tank with a mirror set above it at 45 degrees, so that folk on the platform could see the fish swimming round in the tank... this must be a first... and, probably, last use made of this type of 'station feature'!!

Blue/Yellow liveried GBRf class 66, 66708, 'Glory to Ukraine' now picks up speed as it heads towards Rotherham Central, with green signals all the way through to Aldwarke Junction and beyond. It ran to time almost all the way and arrived on time, at the seaport terminal of Felixstowe, that evening at 23:09. This was a bit of a surprise as I haven't seen this loco before, even in its original GBRf livery and it marked a poignant reminder of events going on between Russia and Ukraine, it this latter day when wars should be no more; hasn't the world had enough of this and learned bitter lessons, seems not. A long rake of container traffic followed the loco, timing load, 1600 tonnes with only 1 or 2 vacant bogie carriers. The loco is just about to pass the bridge abutment of the old Sheffield & Rotherham Railway's Westgate Branch line which ran from Sheffield Wicker to the most central of the 3 Rotherham stations at Westgate. The last train ran in 1953 and the line was lifted though the embankments which brought the line through to here and then over the River Don and into the station, remained for almost 20 years and there were still remnants until quite recently. Now all the ground from Holmes JUnction to here is all flattened and the rails finish within the bowels of the Scrapyard, a useful latter day facility for disposal of old rail wagons and traction ...So, the stone wall carried the line over and ran between what is now the RUFC's New York Stadium and Rotherham Council offices; it then wan over the River Don on a wooden bridge and into the station. G.B.R.f. 66708, 'Glory to Ukraine' in 'Ukrainian National Flag Livery' is on one of the regular container workings, this one, 4L53 from the Tinsley Intermodal Terminal(GBRf), south to Felixstowe North(GBRf).

With the last GBRf working passing through Masbrough at around 16:24, the next one through the area, on the old GCR line through Rotherham from Tinsley, was timed at 16:33, so not much time to get from A to B, as it were, the closest place being the football stadium at New York, Rotherham that is!! The view here has gotten worse over the years, since the arrival of the OHL equipment for the Tram/Train system, which uses 750VDC overhead catenary, the spaces one could obtain the best views from have, regrettably, been fenced off. Partly as a result of this and with other matters to deal with its a full 2.5 years since I last took photographs here, and that was for passage of the winter R.H.T.T. taken on December 17th, 2020!, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50728949758/
Since then there have been startling changes to the canal side area at Forge Island with new flood defences for the canal, a new development of housing and shops and promise of yet another, Rotherham revitalisation in the town centre. Housing is also going up along the banks of the River Don, all the way along to its confluence with the River Rother at Bow Bridge in Templeborough... welcome to the 21st Century in Rotherham. A still video taken of this development can be seen here, taken in August last year, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/52276745763/
however, much has happened since then and there's another stills video in preparation, the shots taken on the 18th May, it should be on here quite soon...
Today, the liner train got held up a little due to the impending passage of a local Northern DMU service, 2N23, with 150001, running 5 minutes late on the Sheffield to Leeds service, it had just gone through to the station when the Sheffield Tram/Train, seen here at left, scuttled along the Mexborough-Woodburn Junction section of the GCR line, close to the nice new green obscuring fence. Centenary Way is in the background and the RUFC, New York Stadium just p;oke into view at top left. Class 399 EMU, Electric Multiple Unit, 399205 is on the frequent service to and from Sheffield City Centre, Cathedral, this one the 2A65, Parkgate Retail via Tinsley Meadowhall to Sheffield Cathedral. One minute later, making its way slowly from a signal check at Sheffield's, now the York R.O.C's, signal, S0748 at Ickles, not far off around the corner under Centenary Way. In the right-picture heading this way passed the RUFC stadium is liner train, GBRf, class 66, 66708, with 'Glory to Ukraine', in unique Ukrainian National Flag Livery of Blue & Yellow on the side on the 4L53, Tinsley Intermodal Terminal(GBRf) to Felixstowe North(GBRf). The OHL equipment wreaks havoc with the pictures here, as does the inconvenient green mesh fence, but needs must at such short notice and, frankly, the whole view of any freight moves along this line from Tinsley to beyond PArkgate is ruined by the same structures.. Over on the right, Booth's Scrapyard continues to use old railway land for scrap skip storage and nature is taking over all else...

Finally, GBRf heads under the long standing Main Street railway bridge and in the right shot, the loco is passing over the junction of lines which take local passenger services to and from Sheffield by the Holmes Chord, installed in 1987 when a relocated Rotherham Central Station came into being again and Rotherham Masbrough was finally closed. The old Central Station had staggered platforms and the down line one on the right came partially under Main Street bridge and there were cattle docks and other station facilities on the ground now occupied by the elevated, caisson edged ground of the RUFC the Rotherham Central signalbox used to be right next to the Westgate line bridge abutment, just about where the front of GBRf 66708 can be seen in the left-hand shot, the station water crane being on the opposite side of the tracks to the box, oh how times have changed. Apart from the long-standing, and unmolested bridge abutment, there is nothing left of the the old Westgate line formation, apart from the short length of single track from Holmes Junction into Booth's scrapyard. The back line which went passed the cattle dock area and came off the main line just about where the 1st brown container can be seen also in the left picture, ran along what is now the cream-coloured bed at the foot of the caissons in the left of this picture.. G.B.R.f. 66708, 'Glory to Ukraine' in 'Ukrainian National Flag Livery' is on one of the regular container workings, this one, 4L53 from the Tinsley Intermodal Terminal(GBRf), south to Felixstowe North(GBRf).

* Epilogue
Subsequent to the comments made above about the scene at the south end of the old Rotherham Central Station, looking from the Main Street bridge, I have (re-)uploaded a pair of pictures, in a 'Then & Now' piece, I did in November 2018, showing the old station site looking south and the shot taken there in November, 2018, showing the D.R.S. class 20s on the Autumn/Winter R.H.T.T. in somewhat glum conditions.. I hope the details in the pictures fill in the gaps in the comments made about the site, in the narrative above, and its worth having this piece back on-line and available once more, its on my Image Archive site no.2, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/52965254622/
Older pictures than this are on the other, Image Archive no.1, site, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/
The original site, which was 'cleared out' in January, 2020, is here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku

* A 5minute 16sec 81Mby MP4 video, showing the scene around Rotherham, Don Street and the GCR's Swing Bridge base on to the old industrial site at Forge Island. The latter has now been uncovered due to the recent re-development of the area which have also seen additional flood defences constructed.
* 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 just 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, I am going to try and 'fix' this for all videos lasting more than 3 minutes, this is the link to obtain the full version shown here-
www.flickr.tightfitz.com/Video/Rotherham,_G&C_&_C...

This has 'been in the making' for a few weeks but other distractions, like the 2-week long engineering work on the Lincoln Line, the latest scrap move into Booths, and the last parts of 'This Time Last Year', have all meant this has had to wait. The pictures were taken on 3 separate dates, 2 at the end of last year and the last a few weeks ago, whilst having a follow-up wonder around again in the New York, Canal area and finally Masbrough area of Rotherham Town Centre. There are some traction shots included, albeit of passenger stock, Northern and Cross Country, the latter, an E.C.S. stock move, passing through Rotherham Central followed by the 'exit shot' at Masbrough. The shots in the town centre show how the new development, right next to both the Rotherham Cut of the Tinsley Canal and Central Station, has proceeded since the video which was made here last year, on March 6th, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/49627149422/
so, I suppose this could have been part of the 'This Time Last Year' pieces...

There are 61 pictures in all split into 3 sections by date, 2nd September and 15 December, 2020 and 5th March, 2021.
1. 02/09/2020. The Guest & Chrimes building being demolished,
2. 15/12/2020. New York Stadium area, Guest & Chrimes, demolition now stalled?
3. 05/03/2021. Rotherham Canal, Guest & Chrimes, demolition stopped, Masbrough north.

2/9/2020.
I have a fascination with the Guest & Chrimes building as its the building I used to look out on from my grandparents property perched atop the hill on Moorgate over-looking the Rother Valley. Once dark, easy in Winter, you could follow the lights of passenger train carriages coming along the GCR line from the direction of Tinsley and heading towards the old location of Rotherham Central. At one point, they went behind this building and the lights disappeared briefly before reappearing, the train having slowed down ready for a station stop at Rotherham Central. This must have been around the early years of the 1960s, say 1961 or 1962, as by that stage I was more interested in what was going on outside my grandparent's back kitchen window, over the fields and down the hill, towards Central Station. What made the scene so prominent, and identified the Guest & Chrimes Building, was light reflected off the white parts of the red-brick stonework on the front facade of the main entrance to the building on Don Street; it can be seen in the above video, at the 3m47s point and sadly that part of the building has now been removed. So the first 6 shots show the view along Don Street looking at the action on both sides of the River Don, the River Rother has just joined it in the third picture, with graffiti'd information board in the front, followed by what is called the 'Holmes Tail Goit', bridge, more on this later. Not much seems to be happening on the site now and several of the pictures have had circular/elliptical gradient filtering applied to being out the darkness of the inside of the ends of the buildings and one of the later shots shows the relatively new red -brick edifice which is the Rotherham 'Town Hall'/Council Offices. The 'Holmes Tail Goit' is a water-outflow, which was built to take spent water from the mills further west towards Holmes, they having taken it from the canal at that point and this was the drain back into the canal. The mills have gone of course but the water course is still there and now causing problems... see later.

15/12/2020.
Moving just a little to the west, at the other side of the Rotherham United Football Stadium at New York, erm.. not _in_ New York, the G.C.R. line between Mexborough and Woodburn Junction, passing through Rotherham can be seen in these shots. Looking towards the Centenary Way over-bridge and Booths Scrapyard in the background a Northern Rail class 158, 158791, and named, 'County of Nottinghamshire' passes along on the 2N10 from Leeds and is heading along the Holmes Chord to Homes Junction, Meadowhall and then Sheffield. The bulkiness of the Tram/Train overhead structures are evident once more and photography along the this stretch of line from the Parkgate Tram/Train stop, all the way to Tinsley Meadowhall, are fraught with difficult positioning to avoid the OHL equipment. From here, there are more views of the state of the Guest & Crimes demolition progress, which looks to have stalled? From Don Street, the camera shows scenes back at the town centre development on Forge Island alongside the canal show the state of the swing bridge base which was where a railway bridge connected G.C.R. metals, from the nearby station, over onto Forge Island. It looks pretty much as it did a year ago full of brickwork which I was told at that time had been deposited there by the then recent heavy flooding. One of the shots shows, in the background, one of Rotherham's oldest pubs, 'The Bridge Inn' on the station side of Chantry Bridge withy the Chapel also visible and the town centre Bus Station and its car park under refurbishment. Rotherham Lock, at the down-stream end of which was the swing bridge, the base for this on the left and the mating support in the stone clearly visible, has attracted a 'herd' of swans in the very blue-looking water, it was a very cold, splendid day though. The canal-side reinforcements against flooding are taking on serious proportions as, the last video showed, this area is now to be developed for housing and business use and its 12:20 on the clock of All Saints Parish Church! and it _looks_ like it might just be a very pleasant place to live and work.

5/3/2021.
Moving on to the last date, now just a few weeks ago, on March 5th. NO changes canal-side with the swing bridge which, I had pointed out last year to the relevant authorities, should be taken care of and form part of the historic context of this part of the town.. doesn't appear to have started yet though, the light conditions however, is a little easier to deal with than it was last December. More concrete canal-side structures have appeared over-looking the G.C.R. swing bridge area and there's a lot of fences and locked gates.. One of the shots looks back up-stream towards the lock gates and the Swing Bridge base can be seen above centre and, to the right side of the picture, what looks like a drain, is in fact the old course of the canal! It used to come along here by what is now the G.C.R.'s trackbed from the Ickles Lock, but to get the line into the town, the G.C.R. had to use the canal formation for the line to get under the North Midland's line at Templeborough. They filled in the canal and diverted it at Ickles Lock taking the canal into the River Don at Don Island. The canal exit was blocked off here and they built Brown's Lock to take traffic off the Don, beyond Brown's Lock, and back onto its original route just here! Amazing. Rotherham Central is denuded of traffic, both rail and road and a sign has been erected warning of 'Bridge Base', some some attention has clearly been shown regarding a most historic aspect of the area in its Forge Island, forging days. The shots of the excavations at 'Holmes Tail Goit' were a bit of a surprise as I had thought this was a long forgotten water culvert which would be ignores, not so. The three pictures show the extent of the work which is going on and its not to unblock anything, but to provide a new defence and pumping facility for when the River Don floods, like it did last year and shown in the video above, the excess water flowing along the river, backs-up along the 'Goit', causing problems with water ingress to the west of this site! The whole of the west side of Don Street, in the region where the 'Goit' water flows under the road has been excavated and some pretty hefty strengthening installed while the work goes on. This excavation is right next to the Rotherham Council office building, between the offices and the excavation site, was the course of the Westgate Branch Railway line of the Sheffield & Rotherham Railway which ran from the Wicker in Sheffield, to Westgate Station in Rotherham, the line passing over the Don here right next to the 'Goit' bridge, the latter can be seen in a shot a little later. Talking with the contractors revealed they knew all about the function of the 'Holmes Tail Goit' and it was causing a problem during flooding with the Don water backing up along its course, a pumping station was being installed to remove the excess water and put it back in the River Don... The second and third shots show the flexible hosing installed to transfer the waters coming along the 'Goit' into the Don whilst the course was blocked at this end. The following shots show the scene looking over the Guest & Chrimes building from the site of the football club and how, in the past the once Grade II listed structure must have looked very impressive. Back to the traction as Sheffield Tram/Train unit class 399 EMU, 'Electric Multiple Unit', 399201, comes along and crosses of the mainline onto the Holmes Chord on on the 2A35, Parkgate Via Tinsley Meadowhall to Sheffield Cathedral service. To the left of the cab of the unit, is the bridge abutment of the Westgate Branch line which crossed GC metals at this point, the Station signalbox was located just about where the upright of the OHL equipment is situated beyond the loco cab, a picture of this was posted in a 'Then & Now' piece in November, 2019, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/49028201691/
Following the Tram/Train unit, just 2 minutes later and already in the section behind, a Cross Country E.C.S., Empty Coaching Stock, move, 5Z02, from Leeds, Neville Hill presumably, to Sheffield Midland via Woodburn Junction, to form a passenger service a little later with class 220, 'Voyager', 220023 at the front. The shots after this show how the new Rotherham council offices look like one section of the Guest & Chrimes buildings in what appears to be part of the 'fan of 3' original buildings, come towards the camera from Don Street. The scene looking over the River Don directly eastwards towards Westgate and beyond to the Moorgate area of Rotherham show changes being made and the 'de-riguer' wording used for these new area, now called... 'The Westgate Quarter'... hell beyond the river-side development the land rises in the background towards Boston Castle and Canklow Woods over to the right; someone has cleared all the sloping ground of vegetation below the new-build house, and some folk aren't very happy about this, it's green-belt land. Some final close-up shots of G&C building as the walk takes me back to the car and at the end, just before arriving at the Main St. junction with Don St., the 'Holmes Tail Goit' bridge, with cerise jacketed cyclist passing over the old black-and-white panels on the bridge side; they are the originals and have been kept in good order. Just ahead of where the cyclist is passing is the bridge abutment for the Westgate Branch and it passed over the Don here and into its terminal station at Westgate just over the river on the right in front of the Main St. road bridge. Looking up-stream from the side of the bridge reveals how low the bridge is over the 'Goit', a sand island having formed where the 'Goit' water flows into the Don, another type of duck is making the best of it, and an older, worn look to this side of the bridge panels is evident. The final shots here before heading off to Masbrough show the canal along Brown's Cut, as its called, the section now looking open once again but there was no traffic to be seen at this time of the year in early March. The area immediately next to Forge Island, on Domine Lane was once the location of the old Rotherham Market but that was demolished in the early 1970s and a new location found at the other side of the town. Now it appears more demolishing is going on with the back section of buildings which front Westgate, being taken down. On the right, the blue art-work on the wall next to the old Post Office building is that of female artist, Jo Peel, see-
www.jopeel.com/
and she also has other material on view in Sheffield, at the Love Square projects, see-
lovesquare.group.shef.ac.uk/
Domine Lane has changed out of all recognition since the early 70s and there is now a large block of flats occupying the old market area, to the left and yet another block, next to the Main St. bridge over the river, on the right, the site of the awful Rotherham 'Old Swimming Baths'! The 'gents' toilets in the building hung over the River Don and the urinals outlet was straight into the river, I know, I remember using them. Time to leave as I head northwards and pass through the Masbrough area and stop to see what's to be seen; no freight passing for a while so make the best of it. Sadly, the first shot shows the now disconnected 'goods line', at Masbrough North Junction which means I guess this line _will _ never be used again, contrary to the speculations which were going about a year or two ago when almost all the line was cleared of vegetation, but not this end. The line may have been disconnected but, to the left of the down, main line signal, S0423, showing green here, is the exit signal, S0421, and is still lit and showing red of course.. it has never been shown on the track diagram for.. a coupe of decades or more I would guess. Looking south over the station site, with very good, flat light, and a 'herd' of that look like light-bodied goods vehicles lines the road on Coronation Bridge, for what reason I know not, road or path repairs I guess but why a line of 5 of them... Passing by underneath the 'rake of vans', another rake in the form of a Cross Country trains class 221, 'Voyager', this time 221122 hurtling along on the 1S41, Plymouth to Newcastle service and with the Templeborough Biomass facility, blowing off steam in the left background; altogether a rather calming, tidied, unhurried scene...

Flickr - Your Best Shot, 2020. Old Abattoir building next to River Don Weir.

Up next after seeing the RHTT depart, possibly for the final time this year, on this Thursday afternoon, 17th, nothing has run since these shots were taken on Tuesday, the set heads under Main Street bridge and Rotherham Central lies just ahead. I think, without the green fence and the OHL paraphernalia, this would make a good view-point to take a shot as there is enough interest in the surrounding spaces to warrant this, but rail-related shots are now ruined and its not likely I'll be back here any time soon. Finally, leading the set north on the 3rd of the workings today, 3S14, on the standard run north after 3Z11 from York to Woodburn then 3S13 from Woodburn to Gainsborough and back to Woodburn, is 37716, ex-D6794, once named 'British Steel Corby' on the run up to the River Humber for a final reversal at Hull and back to York Thrall Europa, this afternoon. A partially cleaned, in all the important areas, 37402 is at the back and the set looks like it will be in for an overall clean before the wagons are moth-balled for another years and carted back to their respective storage locations away south, for another year. The class 37s will undoubtedly be on other workings so we may see the whole set, 5 this year, 37402, 37407, 37419, 37423 & 37716 plus a couple of DRS class 66s, 66304 & 66427 and occasionally Harry Needle's class 20s, 20118 & 20132; so not a bad season for traction types, if always somewhat filthy but at least the performance this year has been a lot more reliable.
Finally, now onto my continued walk around this area to inspect developments at the Don Street, 'Guest & Chrimes' building; its in much the same state as was shown in the video mentioned in the earlier picture, nothing appears to be happening on the site at the moment and then onto the new centre-of-town housing development on Forge Island. A large mosaic piece was uploaded here on 15th May, 2016 detailing much of the information briefly mentioned in this last set of pictures regarding the Westgate Branch and the GCR's fortunes in this area when building its line through here, it is still available to see and read here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/26425061234/
and, although I say so myself, its well worth a read to see how this all came to be and then over the last decades, was all swept away...

And, here it is on a standard part of today's RHTT diagrams. As the last set indicated from Saturday, the RHTT has been running, occasionally not around here though, and on an 'as required' basis, today there is, yet again, no 3S12, the working which takes the set north to the Wakefield area from Sheffield, after it has arrived from York in the early morning. So, today's workings are similar to last Saturdays except Selby has been replaced by Hull-
3Z11, 37402 37716 York Thrall Europa to Woodburn Junction
3S13, 37716 37402 Woodburn Junction to Gainsborough Central
3S13, 37402 37716 Gainsborough Central to Woodburn Junction
3S14, 37716 37402 Woodburn Junction t Hull and
3S15, 37402 37716 Hull to York Thrall Europa.
The 'Z' indicating that a non-timetable diagram has been undertaken, the only 'abnormal' one, 3Z11, being the one which ran straight to Woodburn Junction. Still looking clean as it rounds the bend from the direction of Templeborough on old G.C.R. metals, is DRS with 'Compass Logo' class 37, 37716, ex-D6794, once named 'British Steel Corby' with the usual rake of FEA-B RHTT A Tank Wagons and 37402, ex-D974, 'Stephen Middlemore 23.12.1954 - 8.6.2013' on the back on the 3S14, Woodburn Junction to Hull working. 37716 is seen passing the bridge abutment of the Westgate Branch, the Midland's line which ran from their station at the Wicker to Rotherham Westgate a short distance away and across the River Don. The line ran on an embankment across the area here, from a junction at Holmes Junction, crossing through what is now Booths Scrapyard. The line then passed over the car park on the right on the embankment, once the site of the Rotherham Bowling Alley but demolished a couple of years ago, then the line ran across a bridge here over the GCR line, across and past what is now the Rotherham Council offices and so into Westgate. It was at the time the most central of all the Rotherham Stations until recent times when the new Rotherham Central was moved closer to the centre of town close to Chantry Bridge. C.F. Booth's buildings can be seen in the background along with the still-extant and still undeveloped, Millmoor Football ground, with its easily recognisable floodlights still standing. This time last year, around 6 weeks earlier on the November 5th, the scene from the Main Street bridge, which 37716 is about to pass under on its way though Rotherham Central, then with the blue DRS class 20s on the RHTT, looked like this-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/49028201691/
In the left picture at the link above, a section of the old Westgate Branch line bridge still remained at the time this was taken in the mid-1950s; the passenger service however had been curtailed ... 'trains to Westgate still passed over the 1830s vintage wooden bridge to call at the supposedly temporary wooden station buildings at Westgate. It was the need to replace the by now decrepit bridge that prompted BR to close the station on 4 October 1952...'. My mother used to use this service during the war to get to her job at Firth-Vickers in Sheffield after training to be a Comptometer Operator on leaving school in 1941, unfortunately there was never any pictures or other memorabilia relating to this and I spectacularly never asked her much about it, not realising the importance of it all until it was too late, she died in October, 2015.

* Slight Preamble
Was in two minds about the location of this final set of RHTT pictures for the 2020 season, marking the end, in some important ways, of a very difficult year for millions of people. We now have a few options for an anti-viral, something I was very sceptical about arriving very quickly, based on past efforts to produce these sorts of agents for other, more severe infections. The pharmaceutical companies who have pulled out all the stops to get this material to the world's population have to be commended; we now have a seasonal festivity in the offing and it is to be hoped that this doesn't bring a continuation of 'the second wave', presently with us, or another 'third wave in January'.. we have to hold on just a little longer...

So, as I am interested in certain developments happening in Rotherham at present, the centre of town redevelopment on the site of the old 'Rotherham Forge & Rolling Mills', latterly, a Tesco Supermarket and, sadly, though not unexpected, the demolishing of the Grade II listed building on Don Street, what used to be the home of 'Guest & Chrimes', see one of this years, 'Lock-down' videos, devoted to just this subject-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/49627149422/
As these 1st two pictures show, the railway formation at the either side of Rotherham Central is now affected badly for picture taking, by the OHL equipment of the Sheffield Tram/Train system, itself a worthy addition to the local transport infrastructure. Having thought the view from the edge of the R.U.F.C.'s 'New York Stadium' site might be relatively clear, on arrival the fencing which was put up along the edge of the site and the green mesh fencing along the railway formation below both hindered the taking of clear shots along the line, though the wooden fence helped in getting an elevated view! With, unfortunately, bright sun off to the left in the photographs, this being just before mid-day, so the low sun is off to the south-east, behind the RUFC building, the pictures were a bit challenging to take.. so, should have gone somewhere else! The OHL equipment problem is adequately shown in the picture on the left as a Sheffield Tram/train unit, class 399 EMU, 399201, heads quickly to the south-west and the direction of the sun, on the 2A35, Parkgate Via Tinsley Meadowhall to Sheffield Cathedral passenger service. A change of viewpoint is clearly required. On the site of the R.U.F.C. and over-looking the formation from the south-east to the north, the second picture, though with a burnt out sky due to the sun appearing at the wrong time, a Northern Rail class 158, 158791, and a named unit, 'County of Nottinghamshire', heads south to Sheffield on the 2N10, service from Leeds. It has just come along and crossed over onto the 'wrong line' to allow it to take the turn-out onto the Holmes Chord, installed in 1987, and so access the Midland Main into Sheffield. All this being part of the 1987 rationalisation program which saw Rotherham Central Station relocated slightly further north of its old location, making the station more accessible from the town centre. The station has since been re-furbished, twice, the last time for the benefit of the Sheffield Tram/Train system. To the right of the DMU, Booths Scrapyard has a container/skip storage yard and Centenary Way is on the background behind which, the scene is now dominated in the background by the Templeborough Biomass works. On the curve, in front of the receding DMU, there is one of the few 'banner-repeater' signals in the area, there being another in Rotherham Central on the exit to the north. These subsidiary signals are used for the purpose of indicating an early warning to the driver, of the signal aspect which is out-of-view further along the line; the banner-repeater, is in the 'off', upward pointing black bar, line clear position. If the signal ahead is at red/danger, then black-bar on the banner-repeater would be horizontal indicating so.

Looking the other way towards the Main Street bridge, under which, a short distance away, is Rotherham Central Station. The section of line between Main Street ahead, and the Westgate Bridge abutment, seen in the last picture, was part of the station with a passenger platform here with water crane at the end and opposite the Rotherham Central signalbox, nestling under the Westgate Branch over-bridge; all this may be seen in the left-hand picture, in the link provided in the last picture. At the back of the passenger platform here a goods line ran where the stone caissons have now been placed, and where the fence and grass verge are in this picture, were the cattle docks and goods yard; the earlier, 1950s scene, resplendent with history and interest. Some of the old formation was visible when this site was being redeveloped for the R.U.F.C's New York Stadium, but all that got buried when the materials were laid to stabilise the site, the River Don is not very far away at the other side of the site and and the River Rother which joins it in this area, are prone to flooding.. hence the elevated aspect of the site. Someone has had a cleaning cloth out and has given the side of the trailing loco, 37402, ex-D974, 'Stephen Middlemore 23.12.1954 - 8.6.2013' with 'B.R. Large Intercity Logo', the nameplate and the 'Scottie Dog' emblem, all now visible; it could have been done for just such a location as this! I managed to get just about the best shot here, with enough of the important RHTT 'bits' showing between the stanchion posts and other paraphernalia along the now cluttered line. Leading the set north on the 3rd of the workings today, 3S14, on the standard run north after 3Z11 from York to Woodburn then 3S13 from Woodburn to Gainsborough and back to Woodburn, is 37716, ex-D6794, once named 'British Steel Corby' on the run up to the River Humber for a final reversal at Hull and back to York Thrall Europa, this afternoon. At least the green fencing can be seen through, unlike the ugly and awful grey palisade fencing...

* A 4.5 minute, 70Mby MP4 video, showing the scene around Rotherham, Don Street and the GCR's Swing Bridge base on to the old industrial site at Forge Island. The latter has now been uncovered due to the recent re-development of the area which have also seen additional flood defences constructed.

** 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.

** It has just 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, I am going to try and 'fix' this for all videos lasting more than 3 minutes, this is the link to obtain the full version shown here-
www.flickr.tightfitz.com/Video/Rotherham_Central_&_Fo...

The video commences, on 17th February, after yet another week of rain and wind with the waters beginning to recede a little, but a lot more was in store over the ensuing 2 weeks and things got much worse again, but away south and west of the country in Wales and England's border counties with it. The Severn there and the River Ouse in York have been a particular problem. Although Rotherham Central was closed again for a short while, this time, towards the end of February, things weren't as bad as earlier and more so at the end of last year when the Station and Tram/Train were affected for more than a week. There are 52 items in this stills video, mainly taken on February 17th with a few from this last week when I re-visited to get more shots of the GCR's Swing Bridge base, at the canal side and shown 1min 10sec into the video, more on this later.

1-4. These show the view down and up-stream looking along the course of the River Don at Rotherham Weir. Some remedial work looks to be being undertake at the concrete ramp, just this side of where the course of the canal diverges, to pass through Rotherham Lock, over on the right. The site of the old Rotherham Market place is over on the left in the space between the 2 blocks of new flats, the 'underground caves' marked by the series of bricked-up semi-circular apertures, can also be seen, the old Abattoir site, right next to the river. The new Council buildings are over on the right, in the first shot, and occupy space along Don Street. Looking down-stream towards Chantry Bridge and, just as I arrived, someone had tried to commit suicide by attempting a jump from the only now unfenced section of River Walk, next to the bridge. Fortunately, alert folk were on-hand, and by the time the camera was out, it was all over; with the rate of floodwater flow in the River Don, I expect he/she would have been in Doncaster by this time. The old footbridge across the Don and onto Forge Island is still there, now without its enclosing sides and top, an improvement I feel..

5-8. The River-side buildings showing detail of the old Abattoir Arches, now tastefully graffiti'd and a view looking up and down Corporation Street showing 'Club Envy', 'Tealby's Takeaway' & 'Just Great Food', all of which have been derelict, after fire gutted the buildings, over 10 years ago now... The graffiti design looks well executed and very pleasant to see, 'Love is Louder' is the quote.

9-13. A view north over the Don in full spate, from Chantry Bridge with the Chapel on the right-
'... A document of 1385 refers to Bridgegate in the town, which implies that a previous bridge existed on the same site. The road it carries was originally the main route from London to Richmond. The current bridge was erected by 1483, when the Chapel of Our Lady of Rotherham Bridge was added. It is of ashlar sandstone and is built on three piers, each with a cutwater...', see-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_Bridge
for more details. Looking then up-stream from alongside the Rotherham Central side of the canal the re-development works is clear to see, with on-going flood defence reinforcement in evidence. The first two of the three shots show the scene on February 17th and the last one, in full sun and looking north, on the 2nd March showing an old section along the wall having been replaced. The last in this sequence of shots shows the down-stream end of the Rotherham Lock with the court house on the right and one of the new-build, 2008, blocks of flats right on the River bank, on the left; the extent of the Forge Island re-development is clear from all these shots and is a major town-centre undertaking.

14-20. The view now looks across Rotherham Lock, with much of the old stone infra-structure at the canal-side now demolished during the re-development process and some of this material has, accidentally maybe, been thrown over onto the space which forms the subject of the matter for this section. I am assuming that once the development is complete, the old stone-work will be restored over the lock chamber as it did all look very good.. The extent of the steel reinforcing structure being pile-driven into the canal side is obvious and it will presumably guarantee protection for the new-build development of shops, housing and a cinema being readied for the Forge Island site; see next section of the video for the advertising hoardings showing what is being planned. The spire of all Saints Church in the Rotherham Town centre stands prominent in the background. The Swing Bridge base is off to the left in the first shot and the subsequent 4 show the state of this on 17th February, then 3 shots from the 2nd March, last week. As will be seen, the area of the base has had red-bricks scattered all over it and there's other detritus about which has been cast into the Swing Bridge 'pit', the semi-circular nature of the space is evident in these shots. The 3 shots from last week, when on a second visit to inspect the scene again for this video, shows more detail, in the first of the three, the support brackets for the end of the bridge can be seen embedded in the wall at right, with a circular shaped recess to take the end of the bridge carrying the single line. Rotherham Central Station can be seen in the background and the extent of the Swing Bridge base and the mess placed there is clear to see. The second of the 3 shows the view over the Lock chamber and a close-up of the well made, of course, its the GCR!, bridge base and its matching support on the other side. The set of flat stones carrying the single line are still in place but there is no sign of the rails, I could see, all this having been taken up in the early 1970s when the whole site underwent the 1st of its re-0development phases and eventually a Tescos Supermarket ended up here, though this too has now completely gone to make way for this latest re-development phase. The last of the MArch 2nd shots shows the view up-stream along the Lock chamber, with the curved metal brackets which supported the bridge and the curved recess taking what must have been the curved end of the matching Swing Bridge; I'm not sure for what purpose the 4 rectangular apertures would have been... The next in this sequence shows a 1900s map, overlaid on a Google Earth view and shows how the area looked in the early 1900s with the Swing Bridge structure clearly shown. It carried the GCR's Good's Line over from the GCR's main line from a junction just south of the station footbridge, the line passing over the canal and onto Forge Island and into what used to be the large, 'Rotherham Forge & Rolling Mill' site. As will be noticed, the Station site used to be about 200m to the south of where it is now, but was moved to its present location in 1987 and make it a far more 'Central' Station; the old station closed in 1966. The last shot after the map (there's a little longer to view the map in the video than that for the other shots) shows the view directly towards the end of the Rotherham Lock and on the right, what may surprise some, the old exit of the bed of the canal which came from Ickles Lock further south and passed along what is now the Railway trackbed from there and through their station site. In other words, Rotherham Central Station trackbed is built on the old formation of the canal. The Canal course was changed by the GCR to allow it to build its Rotherham Central Station and the line, the latter then being able to pass under the North Midland line at Ickles, something it was impossible to get around due to the similar height of the two lines in that area. A large piece of work was posted on Flickr in 2016, and explains all this in much more detail, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/26425061234/
This aspect of a historical railway artifact appeared, to me at least, to be not being given the appropriate care and attention and was something I thought ought to be brought to the attention of the local authority. I therefore put together an email describing the facts given here with a shot of the are and the map and sent it off to the representative responsible for the development of the site. Fortunately this was met with some interest and enthusiasm and I am hoping that what was said is upheld and the GCR's old Swing Bridge base can form part of the historical content and context of the new site...

21-31. The next sequence of 11 shots, 'mauve-boarded' are the Advertising Hoardings along the canal side showing what the plans are for the extensive piece of ground which has now emerged from the removal of Tescos, to another site on the north side of the town, a reduction in the large car-parking area and other clearances which has plainly left a large plot which to make the best of and, I hope they do. More information about all this can be found here-
www.newforgeisland.co.uk
and this is indeed where I obtained the email contact address, though the '.' is missing between the two parts of his name in the mailto: link, to send my email to, mentioned above... The Hoardings carry all the information one needs to know in a very agreeable way..

32-45. From there, it was a walk around to see what's happening at the north side of the MAin Street River bridge where the large Don Street business premises of 'Guest & Chrimes', stood, but not for much longer. The 14 shots in this section look first along the main road into the town at Main Street's junction with Westgate. Just over the bridge, on the right, where the Postal Sorting office now stands, stood, the 'Rabbit Hutch' as the locals affectionately? called Rotherham's most central station at the time, this was Rotherham Westgate Station and occupied the whole of the right-hand side, beyond the river bridge. The Sheffield & Rotherham Railway ran trains along their branch line from the Midland's Wicker Station to here for 114 years and must have been a very convenient means for working folk to travel between there and Sheffield. My mother used the line regularly in the mid-1940s and paid sixpence, 2.5p, for the single journey into Sheffield where she worked at Firth-Vickers, as a Comptometer Operator, see-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer
Some information about this important station development in the 1830s-
'...From Wicker Station in Sheffield the line proceeded to the first stopping place at Grimesthorpe Bridge. It then followed the River Don to the next stop at Holmes then a short lived station called Blackburn Forge (closed 1839), then passing close to Masbrough where the North Midland Railway would later cross it. The line then crossed the River Don arriving at Westgate Station in Rotherham. The whole line was just over 5 miles more or less straight, with gentle gradients apart from a one in 68 section just before Rotherham. There were 13 bridges, six level crossings and five footpath crossings...'
The bridge over the river, carrying the Westgate Branch, was just over to the right along Don Street and the parlous nature of the wooden structure, was the reason given for closing the line and the whole lot finally closed on 4th October, 1952. The next shot shows the view along the side of the old Rotherham Central site with the old station site at upper left where the lines of cars are parked, including 2 police vehicles; the new station site is out of the short at the right. The large red-brick building poking into the picture at the right is the South Yorkshire Police Headquarters and some in there may well have had a rough shift recently, judging by the burnt out police car at lower centre! Next up, the GCR's line past the R.U.F.C. at their 'New York Stadium' site and a bit too prominent for my liking. The scene shows the place where the Westgate Branch line used to cross the area from left to right and the bridge abutment, still extant but hardly visible, can be seen in the following shot, as indicated. Its course, miraculously is still visible as the path of its formation has not been built on, it runs right alongside the new Council offices and comes out close to what is still recognisable as the 'Holmes Tail Goit', the flow back into the river of water taken up-stream, by the Mills which once existed here. The scene in this area of the GCR's rail formation is now cluttered with the infra-structure of the Sheffield Tram/Train system, the very substantial uprights and OHL equipment now dominating the scene from Tinsley Meadowhall, through here and on to Parkgate Retail. A real surprise was to find, at long last I guess, that the impressive, though contaminated with asbestos, 'Guest & Chrimes' building is now being demolished and the next view shows the still extant 'Guest & Chrimes' tower at the end of their building near the R.U.F.C. ground with the Rotherham Council offices on the far left. There then follows 7 shots taken on 17th February along Don Street showing the progress with the demolition. These shots are followed by 2 from 12 years ago, taken on 7th September, 2008 when the Grade II listed building was being offered Fore Sale by 'G.V.A. Grimley' and I bet that was a hard thing to sale in the year of the great financial down-turn; it never did sell. The second of the shots shows the distinctive front with white stone features which in around 1959/1960, I could see from my grandparent's house which was situated on an elevated position on Moorgate over-looking the Rother Valley, in Rotherham. At night, when visiting them, I used to watch steam hauled passenger services slowly making their way up from Tinsley & Templeborough to vanish behind this lit building, on the still extant line of course, and on into the old Rotherham Central Station; the white stonework making the building easy to pick out in the dark...

46-52. On the way back now and something attracted me to this 1st of the last 7 shots of this video. The River flooding along Don St. has brought much material up from the River but what struck me was that vegetation growth, unchecked for a number of years has now covered half the left-hand bench in this shot. The proximity of the River Don, now with flood waters from both its course and the River Rother, the confluence being a few hundred metres away off to the right at Bow Bridge, behind the camera, makes it clear why it floods so easily here. The River bank on the other, town side, has already been reinforced with flood defences which extend on this side through the town to the right and all the way back left to Tinsley. The last 6 shots show the scene from the elevated position at the eastern side of Forge Island and overlooking the extensive site. The first is a shot showing the work of female artist, Jo Peel, see-
www.jopeel.com/
and she also has other material on view in Sheffield, at the Love Square projects, see-
lovesquare.group.shef.ac.uk/
from there, the views are down-stream past the old Tescos footbridge which, I would assume, may well be replaced for a more up-market version during the sire re-development; it was latterly a very grotty, and I'm being kind, footbridge to walk over! The gushing flowing and brown waters of the River Don cascade over Rotherham Weir with the crane looking to have been used to place steel reinforcing barriers along a short section of the river to prevent erosion of the slipway; there's an awful lot of water cascading over that weir. These shots were taken atop the old Rotherham Abattoir seen in the earlier pictures from the other side and the last shot, accompanied by 'Dreamstate Logic - Etheric Echoes (downtempo ambient electronic)', looks across the road bridge which takes traffic onto Forge Island behind the camera and then left to the town centre ahead or right to Main Street; its all going to look a lot smarter than it did and with the retention of historic artifacts and heritage, this should be a nice place to be, close to the new bus interchange and the Tram/Train system at Rotherham Central Station; 'bring em back into town from the awful shopping malls'!

***********************************************************
NOTE: Whilst writing this, I have just heard back from two of the representatives involved with the Forge Island Re-development and, its good news. The materials washed into the Swing Bridge area by the recent flooding will be cleared out and all this space taken care of with a view to retaining it as part of the heritage and historical features of the location's industrial past. So, many thanks to them for taking time-out to reply and having such a considered view about the area's past history...

Finally, Serendipity in operation once more as, peeking through the now burgeoning growth which appears to be rampant all over the Centenary Park area on the other side of the GC lines, this solitary fisherman, sat on the bank of the local cut, the S&SYN, Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation. This could almost be described as a shot devoid of any reference to the present except for the new Tram/Train stanchion, stood at left, carrying the OHL equipment in front of Booths old overhead crane gantry. The rest is of an age-old scene which could well have looked like this for decades, the stanchion of course giving the game away as it resides along the Holmes Chord. This single line connection was constructed and in use by 1897 to facilitate a new passenger station in Rotherham, the rails are just visible above the now re-painted, originally yellow, Oxygen pipeline which runs around this area supplying the gas to those industrial concerns which still use it. Apparently just before I arrived, a Kingfisher had flown across the scene, low over the water, from left to right, and there are reports of others in this area. My father used to tell me the same story when he first started worked at Steel, Peach & Tozer, just after the Second World War, but with the advent of continued gross pollution in the River Don, the bird-life, and much else in the river, didn't last very long. It wasn't until, with the demise of heavy industry and the closure of S.P.&T., latterly, the British Steel Corporation, that the river finally started to recover in the late 1980s and now of course is resplendent with wildlife of all sorts, but, all that pollution had to go somewhere; its understood now that much of it has found its way into even the deepest trenches of the World's oceans... however, all this is far away from the peaceful and unexpected scene found here with a very communicative chap beneath a vastly changing scene, right above his head...

Attempting to keep away from the direction of the sun but its low angle and clear weather are making things difficult... At top left one of the 'Quattro Road/Rail' units is parked across the S&SYN, Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation, canal bridge and the view looks to the west and the Midland line in the distance, Centenary Park, with its Megalithic Cast Iron Sculpture, partially vandalised, is over to the left and one of the concrete sleeper carrier wagons can be seen on the adjacent line. The ancient lineside, bridges and paraphernalia look now more than ever, in stark contrast to the 'new arrivals' and certainly compared to the OHL tracery, hanging above it all, what a juxtaposition of old and new, particularly as the MSLR built this line originally and they, in years past, also built the Woodhead route with its out-dated OHL system which, if it had been based on the AC version of what we see here, the 'older generation' may well still have been in existence. At right, the quiet waters of the local canal cut pass underneath the substantially built bridge with a t least, for a change, some interesting traction, possibly, on the GC's old line over the waters. Moving off a short distance towards the west and, at lower right, the road bridge over the line, the shot looking east towards the other side of the Midland Railway viaduct now almost complete obscured by the OHL support masts. Another 'Quattro' unit is parked up along the down line and the height difference between the two tracks appears more starkly obvious here as 3 NR personnel, though probably from Carillion Ltd., walk back to the main work-site under the bridge. Firth-Rixon is still operating over on the right but the Templeborough Biomass plant now looms large over it, dwarfing its operation between the GC line formation and alongside the River Don. In the left foreground, another ballast train, with possibly Freightliner 66515 at the head and another rake of 'lobster-ed' MXA wagons full of ballast, presumably to go in the hole which is being walked by the NR folk near the bridge. And looking the other way, west towards the almost noon-day sun and a reminder to me that I have limited time as I'm in charge of Sunday lunch today and 6 will be disappointed if I don't get my ar** in gear! This used to be a fairly classic shot with the old single-track rail bridge on the left over the Rover Don taking GC goods traffic into the bowels of Steel, Peech & Tozer Ltd., the vast iron & steel industry which existed here, further over on the left, for decades. A flood defence barrier was built along here after the destructive July 2007 heavy rain and severe flooding, a section of it is visible at the side of the track on the left of the wagons and in the distance, what's now left of the Iron and Steel making facility, the Magna Science Adventure Centre, once the Electric-Arc Melting Shop; Tempus Fugit....

Network Rail appear to be proceeding apace now with more heavy engineering work, for the Tram/Train system, on the the Lower Don Valley line from Tinsley East Junction through to Rotherham Central, with the lines completely shut all day Sunday. Four engineering trains were in the possession from very early on but by the time I arrived around 11am, the EXIF picture data below shows the time incorrectly as the camera hadn't bee set for GMT rather than BST, one of the locos, a class 60, 60054, and its spent material were hiding well west of here and another, possibly 66522, had left the site on the 6Y31, Holmes Junction to Toton North Yard, working, having deposited new ballast and track panels. The three locos remaining were Freightliners class 66, 66515, at Magna and 66547 seen in this quartet of 4 pictures, stood in front of the New York (Rotherham) football stadium, engine off and completely dormant; the last Freightliner was further along the same track at Brinsworth St. near Booth Scrapyard. As can be seen here, some of the wires are up and the whole place is continuing to look much more cluttered; the feel of the 'old GC railway' has now all but vanished as modern technology has descended on this scant used connection along the Lower Don Valley from Woodburn Junction, Tinsley and to Rotherham Central. The large box-like signal to the right of the picture is a modern, LED, 'banner repeater' signal to indicate to drivers the state of the Holmes Junction signal around the bend ahead along the Holmes Chord. New palisade fencing has gone up here of late and now the line and the old Sheffield & Rotherham Railway's bridge abutments, the bridge once taking the line into Westgate Station, is now the other side of the fence, unlike that shown in this picture of the Westgate area and part of a large mosaic presented here in May last year, see central pictures here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/26425061234/
At top right the Freightliner with its 'lobster red' MXA wagons, full of new ballast, awaits reversal further into the possession to deposit the ballast when required, Centenary Way, relatively quiet as its Sunday morning, is in the background, Booths 'Skip Yard' is over on the right and there are no prizes for guessing where the sun is! At lower left, the other Freightliner, 66544, is sat further west along the line with its consist of YWA wagons carrying concrete sleepers, most of which appear to have been unloaded. The back of the other train, with its 'lobster-red' wagons, can be seen just in front of the Freightliner in the distance behind Sheffield P.S.B's three-aspect down line signal, S0748 and the state of the lineside and the surrounding area is clear to see, particularly in the last of the 4 pictures at right. Looking now towards the west with the 'Old Road' bridge in the background spanning the GC lines formation and behind that is the Templeborough Biomass plant now completely dominating the scene both from this direction and along Sheffield Road running alongside the River Don. A clutch of Road/Rail vehicles is snaking its way along the up line with a handful of 'orange-jackets' accompanying the slow moving plant which is in 'rail mode' in this shot. The newly laid ballast and some of the new rail can be seen on the right and already the difference in height between the old formation on the left and the new on the right, 600mm difference apparently, is easy to see. Unlike the road bridge just the other side of Rotherham Central, where its road deck had to be raised by something line the same amount, see the video here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/34768911490/
here, the two lines are being lowered to allow the Tram/Train OHL equipment to be installed under the North Midland Railway's 'Old Road' line formation, passing overhead on the Ickles Viaduct. Presumably there was no possibility of trying to raise the height of the North Midland over George Stephenson's 'Old Bridge' to allow the 75 million pound Tram/Train system easier access under its rail deck!!

Wasn't sure whether to try this composite or not as there was a slight shift in position between the two views of colourful GBRf's crossing the Midland bridge, but in the event the picture came out reasonably enough. On the left, GBRf class 66, 66705, 'Golden Jubilee' is approaching having just come out of the Canklow up goods loop, just outside the so called 'Rotherham Steel Terminal', and in fact was stuck in the loop for a while waiting for the earlier Freightliner to clear the tracks at Masbrough, the Freightliner ending up being 20 minutes late setting off north. On the right, remarkably, another named GBRf class 66, this time its 66778, 'Darius Cheskin', odd name and this is the reason why-

'... During a charity tour run by GB Railfreight on 15 July 2017, 66778 was named 'Darius Cheskin' at Cleethorpes station. GB Railfreight about the story behind 66778's new name:
A few months ago we auctioned off the opportunity to choose a name for one of our locomotives, with the proceeds being donated to our nominated charities. The auction winner was Mike Cheskin, a life long rail enthusiast from Charfield, Gloucestershire. Mike sadly lost one of his sons Darius in 2004 to a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing's Sarcoma. Mikes other son has since named his 7 year old grandson after him and Darius Junior is also an avid rail fan.
So when our staff charter train arrived in Cleethorpes on Saturday with Mike and his grandson on board, Darius was asked to uncover the nameplates on 66778, and was somewhat surprised at what he found underneath! Mike and Darius Cheskin are pictured here shortly after the unveiling and we're very grateful to Mike for a very generous donation to our charity fund..'

Tragic loss, as they all are. On the left, 66705 has just crossed over the main lines out of the up loop and onto the down and is the regular lunchtime liner working from the N&W Depot, Newell and Wright Container Services, from withing the old Freightliner terminal which was of course once, Masbrough South Sorting Siding. Today, the working, 4Z81, is 12 minutes late out of the loop and isn't hurrying too much as its got signal reds along the line to Masbrough with its 1475 tonne timing load, a long train as well, on the Masbrough N&W Depot to Felixstowe North container service. Approaching from the north, another regular lunchtime working, this time a 'Civil Engineers', 6M73, train with 66778 in charge heading south to Toton North Yard with another lengthy rake, this time of full and empty ballast wagons. The access way to and from the Biomass site can be seen under the last brick arch of the Ickles viaduct and new CCTV cameras have been installed surveying the site of the old Firth-Rixon building and over-looking the site of the N.R. workings; though they have their own suite of cameras keeping an eye on everything.

Some views at the 'busy intersection' of the two sets of lines, the Midland to the right in the top left shot with the camera pointing directly at the sun from shadows cast at the side of the Midland bridge with the GC line formation passing straight in front; the light was ... problematic! Just in front of the large blue building on the other side of the tracks, was the GC's old Rotherham Main signalbox controlling the layout here including, but now long gone, a level crossing, taking traffic over the lines and along to Sheffield Road by the side of the still extant Firth-Rixon building. The level crossing was at the exact location of the palisade gates but now there is, unfortunately, no public access across here; there ought to be as it would have been very convenient to have a pathway from Sheffield Road over to here... At top right the view looks back eastwards towards Rotherham Central and on the left are the new buildings which have been erected to house the OHL equipment transformers and power control centre, sounds a bit like the installation at Penistone which controlled the 40-odd miles of the electrified Woodhead line; that 30's style building still extant and in industrial use. The change in line formation level is also once again clear to see, being of the order of 600mm lower on the left-hand line. At lower left, a close-up of the activity under the Midland Line bridge, looking somewhat the worse for wear and if it could do with a lick of paint and some TLC. At lower right, just before moving further west a little to Bessemer Way, a shot at the Brinsworth St. level crossing showing the class 66 Freightliner, 66544, parked up on the main GC line not far from where it and the Holmes Chord meet before the line passes through Rotherham Central Station around the corner. The rear of the other train with 66547 at the head can also be seen and the Tram/Train OHL equipment is dominating the scene a bit here as well...

En-route back from Bessemer Way and on the way over, noticed that there were some shots to be had by risking life-and-limb from an elevated position on Centenary Way. Normally on a week-day this would be true but on Sunday morning not too bad the risk wasn't too bad to get shots looking both east to Rotherham Central at top in a to-part panorama and below, waiting 10 minutes to cross the road, two views looking west to the Midland bridge past the old site of Booths Scrapyard once more. Palisade fence has been erected where once there was just a lowish concrete panel fence along Brinsworth Street and although much has been replaced we still have that bloody lamp-standard leaning over; be interesting to know exactly what angle it would have to go to before it was deemed unsafe! The area here is now of course dominated by the 'Mr Pukka Pies' building, namely the RUFC, 'New York Stadium', wonder what incredulity dawns on folk around the world when they do on-line searches for this place; must surely be expecting something else... with matching 'lobster-red' wagons, Freightliner 66547 stands on the GC line with its rake of ballast awaiting the call to duty along the track to the right and in front, the Holmes Chord, devoid of traction this day as all passenger services have been cancelled and Bus replacement services substituted. The lower two pictures look west over the scene towards the main action in the distance, Booths on the right, a lone vehicle parked up waiting to take the photographer back to the promised cooking extravaganza and the scene generally showing a marked contrast in old and new 'stuff'; not until the erection of the OHL posts did this scene appear to come into the 21st century and I for one wish all concerned good fortune, I think this is a great project, its being monitored by other cities to attempt to provide a new public transport system based on existing and little used railway lines and this just has to be a good idea; its no-brainer, as they say, and although the cost has escalated on this project to prove the viability, its money well spent, as this has to be the future.. and re-using old railway lines this way provides an excellent way in which passengers may see once again, the hidden 'nooks and crannies' of their local area, which hitherto were forgotten or inaccessible...

Back again in much better lighting conditions after last weekend's successful, effort by N.R. to raise, by around 600mm, the first of the 2 GC tracks through Ickles/Templeborough. Most of the heavy plant is stored away and now a track-gang is busy with finishing off the work on the lowered line. This view looks along George Stephenson's massive Ickles Viaduct bridge, carrying his Midland Line over the GC metals here, then the River Don, the latter flowing through a couple of the arches in the right background alongside what used to be Firth-Rixon's old 'blue' building but now looks to have been taken over by the Templeborough Biomass plant, which in fact, is huge and now dominates the scene both here and along Sheffield Road. Carillion are one of the contractors at the site and there are a few guys about working on various aspects of the re-laid line; the sign sticking out above the white van on the left is a warning sign about Japanese Knotweed and just about marks the site of the old Rotherham Main signalbox, though I'm sure the two will be unrelated! A bit of TLC on the Midland Line over-bridge wouldn't go amiss and both sets of lines need a right good strim! As explained in the pictures from last weekend, Network Rail and contractors are in the area en-masse lowering the up and down GC lines under the Midland Bridge so that the OHL equipment for the UK's prototype 'Tram/Train' system, can accommodated. Another bridge, further east, near Rotherham Central has had to have its road bridge deck raised by a comparable amount to also accommodate the wires and that work would have been much more costly, one assumes.

From a shot from 'up top', or almost, in the last picture, to this alongside the works looking into the bridge arches of the Midland bridge with the Biomass plant looming very large in the background as Freightliner class 66, 66519 comes rattling through on an odd working from the Birmingham area. The working number, 0Z55, at first tantalisingly suggested a 'Deltic' was on its way, class 55, but as the operator was Freightliner and the origin was the Lawley St. Freightliner Terminal, that notion was soon discarded! The loco also being en-route to the traction area of Leeds Balm Road was also a good indication this wasn't a 'Deltic'. An access under the Midland Bridge arch on the right, into the Blackburn Meadows Nature Reserve, would be very welcome, as would an accommodation crossing allowing access to the main Sheffield Road; though there would now have to be an additional pedestrian access over the River Don as the old route across the River Bridge is now all 'stitched up' by the Biomass plant as indeed it was by Firth-Rixon when they owned this section of the site.

* Templeborough
Another set of diversions was in place last weekend as Network Rail re-appeared on the scene at Masbrough Station to undertake track renewal on the up line, south to Derby, having last week dealt with the down line ballast and drains; this time there were new concrete sleepers and rails at the site. Logistically this looks to have been a load of hard work with many workings coming and going into and out of the Line Possession with new materials coming in and taking away the spent stuff for recycling. As far as I can make out there were 14 moves in all, 3 from Woodburn Junction(Saturday), 10 through Aldwarke Junction(Saturday & Sunday), 1 to Masbrough Junction(Sunday) and 2 through Beighton Junction(Monday). The 4 items in this first picture are from the Sunday, and attending the Water Park at Magna with the younger set, this train rattled past at the other side of the shrubbery at around 13:40 and inspection of the time-table showed that this train was supposed to have gone around the possession by taking the Midland line to Holmes Junction and then the Holmes Chord to Rotherham Central. So not being in the correct place, I had over-looked the fact that it had set off along the GC's line through CArbrook instead to come along the GC's old line into Rotherham, ducking the spraying water and explaining to the younger contingent that a long possession train was passing the other side of the shrubbery, elicited some excitement as I whizzed off, leaving the boys in the care of another, and these are the best shots I got under the circumstances. At top left, Freightliner class 66, 66617 is at the tail end of a long train of spoil wagons, the train having stopped at this point at the signal, S0748, at Centenary Park, to allow diverted passenger stock on the Holmes Chord to pass by to and form the main line. The rear loco is sat both underneath the new Tram/Train gantries and the the 'Old Road', multi-arch bridge at Ickles with Firth-Rixon and the Templeborough Biomass works, off to the right. The Tram/Train gantries are now clearly making a complete arse of picture taking here and along with the fact that by the time I had whizzed over here, the train was to far away to get a decent enough shot. It also looks as if the burgeoning greenery may well be using the OHL structures as a means of creeping across the tracks to cause even more nuisance. At top right, one of the reasons for the delay in the Freightliner working, an 'Arriva' liveried class 185, 185120 rumbles westwards on the Holmes Chord on the 1B79, Doncaster to Manchester Airport service. The railway bridge of the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation is in the foreground and the scene looks towards the RUFC's new ground at the 'New York Stadium' with Booths Scrapyard behind the TPE. At lower left, shortly after the TPE had cleared off the Holmes Chord junction at the Rotherham end, the Freightliner got the 'green' on S0748 and slowly re-started its 1600 tonne haul off the GC's Tinsley line towards Rotherham Central. This train's preceding working inwards late on Saturday, was from Belmont Down Yard to here, after having done its stuff over-night, it then waited until its timing out today, 32 mins early from Woodburn on the same working, 6Y31, back to Belmont Down Yard. Here, 66601, 'The Hope Valley' gets the train under way and at the back, as with all these possession trains, it is 'tailed' by another Freightliner class 66, 66617. Finally, at lower right, the set rattles of at a fair lick towards the curve in front of the football ground and heads towards Rotherham and then Aldwarke Junction, to rejoin the Midland main line back to Doncaster. Booths Scrapyard is at centre, with the RUFC 'New York Stadium above the loco and a pleasant, silvan type scene is to be had along the banks of the canal on the far right; the palisade fence once more ruining things photographically... maybe.. Time to return to the Water Park at the Magna Science Adventure Centre..