The Flickr Yorkthralleuropatowoodburnjunction Image Generatr

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...

**********************
PLEASE SEE NOTE BELOW
**********************
The accompanying image was taken on the 17th October, 2019, and was amongst a set taken but not up-loaded to Flickr.

Both Archive Sites are now complete and all the material, 995 pictures in the first, from 10/5/2011 to 1/6/2016, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1
Archive 2 is also now complete containing 721 pictures, from 3/6/2016 to 9/4/2018, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2

The last most recent pictures are on the old 'Views in Camera' site, containing 995 selected images from 8/10/2011 to 21st February, 2020, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku
containing 'all the important stuff', and that will now remain in tact, with the 'best' pictures and videos from 2011 until the end of December, 2019 with all the attendant comments, albums, groups and view numbers.
This new site here, 'Views in Camera 2020', will now be home to pictures and videos, taken from January 1st this year and, to that end, I have uploaded this years 27 images/videos, from the old site, 'Views in Camera', to this new one, to get things going. A link has been placed on the 'Views in Camera' site, in the description of what's going on, beneath the most recent image, indicating these changes... I hope this isn't all too much of an imposition, but I have taken this opportunity of change, to sort out what was a hugely burgeoning set of material and try and bring some order to it all.

As mentioned elsewhere, see links above, the solution to the image limit here will be addressed by posting one or two pictures here, from what I consider a set when I go out shooting stuff, the main picture(s) will appear here and the support images will be available on my own website,
www.Flickr.tightfitz.com
just the supporting images will be there, with their respective titles, the links for them will be here in the text for the most appropriate main image.

The link to the new site is-
www.flickr.com/photos/VinC2020
and this will be the Flickr presence I will now use to upload pictures, for a while this will not contain too many links to the
www.Flickr.tightfitz.com
site. Since 2011, I have taken just under 50,000 shots and only 5,450 of those have found their way onto the 'Views in Camera' site and it was this number of pieces which mainly precipitated a 'tidying up'. I had expected this process to take 5 or 6 hours per Archive but it the end it actually took 22 hours for the 1st one and15 hours for the second, that's about 1m 30s per picture! which each required rebuilding with the titles, text narrative, tags, the album(s) to which they belonged and any obvious corrections or additions required... all comments and numbers of views have, sadly, been lost.

Here...
The piece used in this Header shot for the Image Archive #2 completion was part of the sequence photographed at Parkgate on 17th October last year, Image No. 4482 was in that set, but not posted on Flickr, rather this one made it-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48923295158/
taken just a few 10s of seconds later. Some text from that shot-
'...Bringing up the rear in 'full dull', DRS class 20, 20302 which appears to be operating well so far this season after the delay in operational duties for a week, whilst the HNRC units, 20313 and 20311, operated the South Yorkshire rail-head cleaning work. At the front, 20314 is passing the Sheffield Tram/Train stop at Parkgate Retail Shopping Centre and in the background, the Parkgate & Aldwarke Steelworks. It appears the set now does not spray this section of passenger/freight track and this may well be due to the introduction of the electrified over-head wires for the Tram/Train, can't imaging the lineside 750VDC electrical equipment would take too well to the spraying of a mixture of high pressure water and 'Sandite'; it would get in everywhere one expects...'

NOTE ******************************************************
One final thing, I have just posted this picture-
www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/49592050453/
to the new, 'Views in CAmera 2020' Flickr presence-
www.flickr.com/photos/VinC2020
Its a shot taken in around 1971/72 of a class 40, passing south, light engine, on the West Coast Main Line, close to Jodrell Bank, the shot taken just north of Goostrey Station... it may well be worth your while taking a look and making any comments as I have almost no recollection of taking this rather startling shot...
***********************************************************

The accompanying image was taken on the 17th October, 2019, and was amongst a et taken but not up-loaded to Flickr.

Both Archive Sites are now complete and all the material, 995 pictures in the first, from 10/5/2011 to 1/6/2016, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1
Archive 2 is also now complete containing 721 pictures, from 3/6/2016 to 9/4/2018, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2

The last most recent pictures are on the old 'Views in Camera' site, containing 995 selected images from 8/10/2011 to 21st February, 2020, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku
containing 'all the important stuff', and that will now remain in tact, with the 'best' pictures and videos from 2011 until the end of December, 2019 with all the attendant comments, albums, groups and view numbers.
This new site here, 'Views in Camera 2020', will now be home to pictures and videos, taken from January 1st this year and, to that end, I have uploaded this years 27 images/videos, from the old site, 'Views in Camera', to this new one, to get things going. A link has been placed on the 'Views in Camera' site, in the description of what's going on, beneath the most recent image, indicating these changes... I hope this isn't all too much of an imposition, but I have taken this opportunity of change, to sort out what was a hugely burgeoning set of material and try and bring some order to it all.

As mentioned elsewhere, see links above, the solution to the image limit here will be addressed by posting one or two pictures here, from what I consider a set when I go out shooting stuff, the main picture(s) will appear here and the support images will be available on my own website,
www.Flickr.tightfitz.com
just the supporting images will be there, with their respective titles, the links for them will be here in the text for the most appropriate main image.

The link to the new site is-
www.flickr.com/photos/VinC2020
and this will be the Flickr presence I will now use to upload pictures, for a while this will not contain too many links to the
www.Flickr.tightfitz.com
site. Since 2011, I have taken just under 50,000 shots and only 5,450 of those have found their way onto the 'Views in Camera' site and it was this number of pieces which mainly precipitated a 'tidying up'. I had expected this process to take 5 or 6 hours per Archive but it the end it actually took 22 hours for the 1st one and15 hours for the second, that's about 1m 30s per picture! which each required rebuilding with the titles, text narrative, tags, the album(s) to which they belonged and any obvious corrections or additions required... all comments and numbers of views have, sadly, been lost.

Here...
The piece used in this Header shot for the Image Archive #2 completion was part of the sequence photographed at Parkgate on 17th October last year, Image No. 4482 was in that set, but not posted on Flickr, rather this one made it-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48923295158/
taken just a few 10s of seconds later. Some text from that shot-
'...Bringing up the rear in 'full dull', DRS class 20, 20302 which appears to be operating well so far this season after the delay in operational duties for a week, whilst the HNRC units, 20313 and 20311, operated the South Yorkshire rail-head cleaning work. At the front, 20314 is passing the Sheffield Tram/Train stop at Parkgate Retail Shopping Centre and in the background, the Parkgate & Aldwarke Steelworks. It appears the set now does not spray this section of passenger/freight track and this may well be due to the introduction of the electrified over-head wires for the Tram/Train, can't imaging the lineside 750VDC electrical equipment would take too well to the spraying of a mixture of high pressure water and 'Sandite'; it would get in everywhere one expects...'

The accompanying image was taken on the 17th October, 2019, and was amongst a set taken but not up-loaded to Flickr.

Both Archive Sites are now complete and all the material, 995 pictures in the first, from 10/5/2011 to 1/6/2016, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1
Archive 2 is also now complete containing 721 pictures, from 3/6/2016 to 9/4/2018, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2

The last most recent pictures are on the old 'Views in Camera' site, containing 995 selected images from 8/10/2011 to 21st February, 2020, is at-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku
containing 'all the important stuff', and that will now remain in tact, with the 'best' pictures and videos from 2011 until the end of December, 2019 with all the attendant comments, albums, groups and view numbers.
This new site here, 'Views in Camera 2020', will now be home to pictures and videos, taken from January 1st this year and, to that end, I have uploaded this years 27 images/videos, from the old site, 'Views in Camera', to this new one, to get things going. A link has been placed on the 'Views in Camera' site, in the description of what's going on, beneath the most recent image, indicating these changes... I hope this isn't all too much of an imposition, but I have taken this opportunity of change, to sort out what was a hugely burgeoning set of material and try and bring some order to it all.

As mentioned elsewhere, see links above, the solution to the image limit here will be addressed by posting one or two pictures here, from what I consider a set when I go out shooting stuff, the main picture(s) will appear here and the support images will be available on my own website,
www.Flickr.tightfitz.com
just the supporting images will be there, with their respective titles, the links for them will be here in the text for the most appropriate main image.

The link to the new site is-
www.flickr.com/photos/VinC2020
and this will be the Flickr presence I will now use to upload pictures, for a while this will not contain too many links to the
www.Flickr.tightfitz.com
site. Since 2011, I have taken just under 50,000 shots and only 5,450 of those have found their way onto the 'Views in Camera' site and it was this number of pieces which mainly precipitated a 'tidying up'. I had expected this process to take 5 or 6 hours per Archive but it the end it actually took 22 hours for the 1st one and15 hours for the second, that's about 1m 30s per picture! which each required rebuilding with the titles, text narrative, tags, the album(s) to which they belonged and any obvious corrections or additions required... all comments and numbers of views have, sadly, been lost.

Here...
The piece used in this Header shot for the Image Archive #2 completion was part of the sequence photographed at Parkgate on 17th October last year, Image No. 4482 was in that set, but not posted on Flickr, rather this one made it-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48923295158/
taken just a few 10s of seconds later. Some text from that shot-
'...Bringing up the rear in 'full dull', DRS class 20, 20302 which appears to be operating well so far this season after the delay in operational duties for a week, whilst the HNRC units, 20313 and 20311, operated the South Yorkshire rail-head cleaning work. At the front, 20314 is passing the Sheffield Tram/Train stop at Parkgate Retail Shopping Centre and in the background, the Parkgate & Aldwarke Steelworks. It appears the set now does not spray this section of passenger/freight track and this may well be due to the introduction of the electrified over-head wires for the Tram/Train, can't imaging the lineside 750VDC electrical equipment would take too well to the spraying of a mixture of high pressure water and 'Sandite'; it would get in everywhere one expects...'

Plenty of opportunity here today for using the camera as a means of 'painting a picture', given enough 'where-with-all' to realise the potential when its available and usually, here, this is the case. In this three part panorama/composite, a few folk are about crossing the old 'stepping bridge', some historic detail was given about this here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/29082080745/in/
and two of the bridge personnel are at least interested in what's going on and who had waited for the arrival of the RHTT with fortunately, one of the H.N.R.C.'s 'Satsuma' liveried stock, 20314, on the front, whilst the other two crossing back over the bridge, are oblivious. Its a real shame, in these conditions, that the set had been to the 'car wash' and turned up looking pristine but that never happens once the season gets under way, this is only the middle of the third week and so almost another 6 weeks to go! Although DRS had run their own pair of class 20s, 20302 and 20303 for a short while, starting out on October 11th, a poor shot in the dark was taken of them at Carnaby, near the east coast resort of Bridlington, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/48907858018/in/
things went down-hill from there and 20303 was removed to have work undertaken on it and the set then ran with these two, today Harry Needle's 20314, ex-D8117, on the front, with the DRS blue-job, 20302 on the back. The two 'enthusiasts' appear momentarily distracted by what's going happening on the canal bridge, though its just three of us looking and talking enthusiastically about the RHTT passage in its less than pristine state. Behind the 'orange' are the 'blues', the usual set of'"Sandite Units', FEA-B RHTT A Tank Wagons and at the back, a grimy DRS blue 20, 20302, the latter barely recognisable from this view as it appears out of the lineside shrubbery. This is the 3rd section of the RHTT run today and earlier, the working, 3S11 which should have come out of York Thrall at 04:15, arriving in Sheffield at 06:36, was cancelled due to- 'This service was cancelled due to a request by the train operator (FL)...' and hence the following working back north, 3S12, also had to be cancelled, both of these being replaced by a V.S.T.P., 3J12, at 07:45 which left York Thrall at 07:45 but now bound for Woodburn Junction; missing out Sheffield completely on this day. The VSTP service at the later time to Woodburn, then ran on its usual eastern jaunt, 3S13, to Gainsborough Central, arriving back at Woodburn at 11:18, in preparation for this working, 3S14, at 11:29 to Hull and from the re, on the 3S15, back to York Thrall Europa, arriving at 19:03. ONe assumes that the 1st working of the day, 3S11, from York to Sheffield, didn't run due to problems with the other DRS blue class 20, 20303 and this had to be substituted for the HNRC unit, 20314.. What a day!

Bringing up the rear in 'full dull', DRS class 20, 20302 which appears to be operating well so far this season after the delay in operational duties for a week, whilst the HNRC units, 20313 and 20311, operated the South Yorkshire rail-head cleaning work. Some information about 20302-
Number: 20302
Class: 20/3
Depot: KM - Kingmoor Yard SP (Carlisle)
Pool: XHNC - Direct Rail Services - Nuclear Traffic
Livery: DZ - Direct Rail Services - Two Tone Compass Blue
Builder: Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn Ltd,Darlington
Built ;12/09/1961
Works Number: E2990/8242
20302 Renumbered: from 20084 on 15/12/1995
20084 Notes:: Sold to RFS Locomotives 13/9/91
Resold to Direct Rail Services - 20302 15/12/95
20084 Renumbered: from 20303 on 04/12/1986
20303 Renumbered: from 20084 on 15/04/1986
Sold to RFS Locomotives 13/9/91
Resold to Direct Rail Services - 20302 15/12/95
20084 Renumbered: from D8084 on 31/12/1973

At the front, 20314 is passing the Sheffield Tram/Train stop at Parkgate Retail Shopping Centre and in the background, the Parkgate & Aldwarke Steelworks. It appears the set now does not spray this section of passenger/freight track and this may well be due to the introduction of the electrified over-head wires for the Tram/Train, can't imaging the lineside 750VDC electrical equipment would take too well to the spraying of a mixture of high pressure water and 'Sandite'; it would get in everywhere one expects.

News of the other two DRS units- 20303, 'Max Joule 1958-1999 which had been on for a few days this last week has been at Doncaster Decoy with Wheel Flats and is now awaiting transfer back to York whilst the third of the serviceable, if that's the correct word, units, 20305, is actually 'out-of-service' at Crewe. So DRS has no spares about from those hired in from HArry Needle, as seen here since the beginning of the season... (thanks to Marcus.45111, for these details)