6233 - Derby to Newcastle - 17th October.

Hi all

Can someone give us an update if the duchess is still running tour next Saturday 17th October?! To Newcastle

No tickets or timings received yet.

I'm booked on this trip, seems good value for money on steam engine mileage.

 

Times on RTT:
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50671/2015/10/17/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50675/2015/10/17/advanced

 

Looks like 46233 is moving from Butterley to Derby on Friday for this trip:
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50669/2015/10/16/advanced

 

Tickets arrived yesterday.

 

Received our tickets today. Long day but going to be well worth it!!

 

Not done Derby to Sherburn-in-Elmet via Rotherham by steam before, so that's another failrly big chunk of my steam map sorted. I've been wondering about when steam last traversed the route between Chesterfield and Sheffield. I realise it has done the stretch from Dore and Totley on the 'Tin Bath' whenever it gets that far, but other than this, steam through Sheffield towards Wakefield seems to have been rare in recent years. Presumably there is little spare line capacity.

 

I remember seeing 70013 Oliver Cromwell pass through Dronfield, on the way to Sheffield in May 2009. The line from Barnsley to Wakefield was taken by 45407 on a tour to Keighley in June 2008 I was on it it picked up at Meadowhall.

 

Thanks. Suspect capacity has been an issue since then.

 

I see this train is going through a station called Moorthorpe. Is this the same Moorthorpe and South Kirby station which was transversed by the Bournemouth to Newcastle trains of the 50's and 60's?

 

Yes. It is the Midland and North-Eastern or Swinton and Knottingley. Funnily enough I looked up Moorthorpe on RTT yesterday to see if Bulleid Pacific was right about capacity. On average it has one stopping train, one X-Country and one freight per hour. Obviously there's a lot more than that between Meadowhall and Sheffield but there is a loop at Brightside.

Only two trains a day each way stop at Pontefract Baghill. Not quite in the Denton category but not far off.

 

I could never work out why a cross country service all the way from South to North and visa versa, would stop at a place called Moorthorpe and South Kirby. Surely it was just a small town or large village!!

Other stations stations called at in the area were: Leciester Central, Loughborough Central, Chesterfield Central, Sheffield Victoria, Rotherham and Pontyfract. How many of these stations still exist. Not many I suspect.

 

All the GC ones have gone as stations so only Moorthorpe and Pontefract Baghill survive in network use.

The north/south part of the GC joined the E/W part (ex M,S and L) at Wath-on-Dearne so to get to York the GC had running rights over the S and K reached I think at Dearne Jct. Maybe part of the deal was their trains stopped en route. Pontefract was an important place a century ago anyway. Even in 1960, Baghill had 14 trains a day including through trains to Cardiff, Bournemouth, Bristol and an all-nighter to Swindon. Maybe Bulleid Pacific can give us a report on whether Baghill retains any of its former glory or is simply a bus stop like say Normanton.

There has been some debate about using part of the location of Sheffield Victoria for HS2, but presumably without the reversal required for the Bournemouth-Newcastle train!

 

LINK

 

Just one minor correction to the above - Rotherham Central Station, an established calling point for the York-Bournemouth and v.v. service (Newcastle in the summer months) survives in network use following its 1987 resurrection with the opening of the Holmes Chord from the Midland Line.

An interesting reversal of fortunes here for Rotherham's two stations - in the sixties it was the establishment of Aldwarke Junction that I believe facilitated the transfer of services away from the old Central Station to the Midland line/ Masborough, with its subsequent closure in September 1966 (coinciding with total closure of the GC as a through route to London). Twenty years later, the Holmes Chord did exactly the reverse, with Masborough surviving only a further 17 months to its final demise in October 1988.

.....And that is about as far off-topic as I would probably be allowed to get with this one, much though happy (and vivid) memories of a handful of journeys on the GC-routed Bournemouth-York service in 1965/66 persist to this day.

 

Apparently we are taking on water there on the return, so if there's an opportunity for a leg-stretch, I'll be taking it...

 

Baghill retains it's station building (occupied by a learner driving centre) but is something of a ghost station with Monkhill seeing about 90% of the passenger services in Pontefract. Put it this way,there's better stations to spend half an hour on a Saturday night!

As for paths around Moorthorpe,I think if you look at capacity west of Moorthorpe,on the Doncaster-Leeds line (Hare Park Junction would be the best timing point of note) then you'd find less paths available,a fairly rare route for steam these days between Moorthorpe and Hare Park,which is a shame because I personally think it's an underrated bit of track.

 

Currently 38 late passing Ferrybridge North Jct

 

Did they change watering stop then ?? Back on time !! Thats good

 

Stopped at Pontefract Baghill for water.

Saw it in Baghill station this morning:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-walker/22229683012/in/photostream/

Got lucky with the light at Burton Salmon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-walker/22054420580/in/photostream/

Cheers,
Mark

 

Nice shot at Burton Salmon MARK.


I Filmed her at Church Fenton this morning -