RIP Millhouses 41C

I'm sad to report that demolition of Sheffield Millhouses MPD is well under way. Opened in 1901 as the Midland's largest straight shed, serving mainly passenger services, it closed in early 1962 and was in industrial use for many years.
A colleague approached the developers with a view to saving some of the window frames, columns and beams for future preservation use and at first the outcome looked hopeful but it seems it's not to be.
So the ghosts of the last active Compound 40907, and of Jubilees Bombay, Fiji, and Gilbert and Ellice Islands now have nowhere to slumber.
The pics were taken about four years ago on a visit when I also discovered that my old school Abbeydale Grammar had been demolished, and from whose chemistry labs the shed site and mainline was visible.

Dave

 

and not to forget the Patriots that once rested here -45514 Holyhead; 45522 Prestatyn; 45532 Illustrious and 45536 Private W Wood VC which once graced the 12:57 Sheffield - St Pancras; it doesn't seem like 55 years since such sights were once common.

 

I went to Millhouses on a spotting trip, must have been around 1960, a coach tour of the Sheffield sheds starting at silly o clock in the morning from London. Very exciting for a 13 year old with a first trip up the nearly new M1.
I seem to remember 45536 and one other unrebuilt Partriot on shed, they were fairly rare in the London area. 45536 was once a Longsight engine where Wilfred Wood was a driver and a picture exists of him on the footplate. I can't think of any other possibility of a main line driver in charge of an engine named after himself.

 

You mean there wasn't an NB area driver called Bailie MacWheeble?

 

I lived only 2 miles away and never visited, it was even on our bus route at that time too, but I'm not sure that at the tender age of 8 in I even knew it existed

Speaking of Private W Wood VC, my uncle went by the name of Walter Woods and he worked at Laycocks (once proud makers of auto transmissions - now a Sainsburys) in Archer Rd, right next door to the shed. Incidentally it was he and his offspring, my older cousins, who were responsible for me being on here today. They holidayed in N Wales and his slides shows of the Talyllyn and Ffestiniog lit my fire.

 

I passed 41c ( or 19B depending on your age.....) a couple of weeks ago on a quick visit to Dronfield to see my almost 100-year old Dad, and then to Sheffield to catch a quick train back to Birmingham. At that time the shed looked largely intact, a remarkable survivor. After closure in 1962 it was taken over by an engineering firm for many years.
How the skyline between Millhouses and Sheffield station has changed! Gone is the large Queens Rd goods depot, and many of the engineering firms that lined the route, names such as Tysack Sons & Turner, Hardypick ( now just a pub name) and others. The twin minarets of a Mosque are prominent at Heeley.
Only went round Millhouses shed once, and indeed saw 40907 tucked up on one road. This loco spent its last years often working local trains to Derby, and then returning piloting northbound expresses back to Sheffield. As I saw these trains thunder through Dronfield I often wondered if the "Jubilee" was actually pushing the poor old compound! I have a photo of 40907 towards the end of her life, stood at Dronfield, when working a Derby local. The blower is on, the cab wreathed in steam leaks, and the tender appears full of nothing more than slack.

46118

Edit: Closure year corrected.

 

Ha - I forgot it closed in 1960 - thought it was 1964, in which case I was only 5 and I'll forgive mysef for not getting on the bus and visiting!

 

45609 Gilbert and Ellice Islands was the first Jubilee to be withdrawn for "natural causes" and not by accident damage.

 

Millhouses closed on 1. 1. 1962.
The impressive allocation at the end of 1961 included Patriot 45536, Jubilees 45570, 45576, 45590, 45594, 45602, 45627, 45654, 45656, 45664, 45683, 45725, Royal Scots 46131, 46147, 46148, 46151 and 46164.
Initially, all these locos were stored at either 41E Barrow Hill or 41H Staveley (GC). Some were re-allocated to London Midland sheds, but some were, sadly, stored at Staveley (GC) or Sheffield (Darnell) until the fateful call came. 45536, 45576, 45683 and 45725 were in store at Staveley (GC) for quite some time before they went for scrapping. 45627 ended up being the last operational Jubilee allocated to an LMR shed, when allocated to 27A Bank Hall.

 

I'm sure there was and his regular fireman was Luckie Mucklebackit