Views in Camera
The new Fox Valley Shopping Centre & TATA Diesel Shunter at Stocksbridge - 9346+352+362+371
'Yorkshire' has rattled past with a crew of 3 on-board and is about to pass the local sidings containing a number of DBS/DBC 'liveried' flat-bed billet/bloom wagons over on the right. Some with steel blooms on-board awaiting rolling in the TATA steel mill ahead, behind the camera, others already rolled to the required size and awaiting the trip back to Parkgate on one of the nightly moves, 6J58, normally but while the on-going NR Tram/Train work is proceeding this schedule has been shifted to the early morning around 02:00. The corresponding in-bound moves being 6J57 at 18:15 or at the moment, after a week of the normally timed paths, the working is 6J52 timed at around 23:00. The load usual;l;y consists of 20 wagons amounting to 1500 tones but I was told there is a move to try and increase this to 24 wagons, each with 70 tonnes of steel, not a bad haul considering the grade up from the old Sheffield Victoria site is, on average 1 in 100. The material is brought to the Ellen Wood sidings along the track here, visible in the background in the lower left picture where two of the crewe have walked back to my locale awaiting the arrival of the shunter and allowing us to have a good gossip about the state of the works and what is happening; TATA have still not found a buyer for the works, here or at Parkgate, the other side of Rotherham. Some more pictures of diesel Shunter #35, taken here before the site was redeveloped by Dransfield Properties Ltd, into a shopping centre and housing estate, can be seen here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/11873748563/
and here
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/11874551666/
and with the 'blooms', having been being brought up from Parkgate, arrive at the Ellen Wood sidings behind DBC class 66, 66151, in April 2013-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/8656869743/
The Dransfield housing estate occupies the whole of the site along the river, the course of which has switched sides again and is now running alongside the site over on the far right, seen to the right of the shunter in the lower right picture. In the lower left picture, the land along to the corner where the rail bridge is situated over the river, it having switched sides once more to run along into Deepcar on this side of the Ellen Wood sidings, the land here deemed to be 'Private Property', the blue sign is visible on the left, and its future use is unknown. As a matter of interest only, on the right, in the lower right picture, standing prominent on the hill, is one of the Super-grid pylons striding along the top of the Don Valley and making its way to the Woodhead Tunnel area where the half-million volt cables are brought down to pass through the 'new' Woodhead Tunnel and on into Longdendale; the tunnel now owned by the National Grid... its just possible that the objection made at the time, to the pylons path over the top of Woodhead, spoiling an area of outstanding natural beauty, and the subsequent solution of putting the cables in one of the _old_ Woodhead Tunnels, may just have been part of the problem when the cables were switched to use the 'New' tunnel, of it ever being used for anything else, Rail or otherwise. One can't help but feel that some concession should have been made, as tax payers originally footed the bill for this tunnel in the guise of the nationalised British Railways, for walkers and cyclists to use the new tunnel, the alternative is a walk alongside the horrendously busy A628, Manchester Road, or over the top, a bit of a detour at the best of times. The presence of half-million volt power cables would of course be seen as something of both a danger and security risk, if this had been possible.
The new Fox Valley Shopping Centre & TATA Diesel Shunter at Stocksbridge - 9346+352+362+371
'Yorkshire' has rattled past with a crew of 3 on-board and is about to pass the local sidings containing a number of DBS/DBC 'liveried' flat-bed billet/bloom wagons over on the right. Some with steel blooms on-board awaiting rolling in the TATA steel mill ahead, behind the camera, others already rolled to the required size and awaiting the trip back to Parkgate on one of the nightly moves, 6J58, normally but while the on-going NR Tram/Train work is proceeding this schedule has been shifted to the early morning around 02:00. The corresponding in-bound moves being 6J57 at 18:15 or at the moment, after a week of the normally timed paths, the working is 6J52 timed at around 23:00. The load usual;l;y consists of 20 wagons amounting to 1500 tones but I was told there is a move to try and increase this to 24 wagons, each with 70 tonnes of steel, not a bad haul considering the grade up from the old Sheffield Victoria site is, on average 1 in 100. The material is brought to the Ellen Wood sidings along the track here, visible in the background in the lower left picture where two of the crewe have walked back to my locale awaiting the arrival of the shunter and allowing us to have a good gossip about the state of the works and what is happening; TATA have still not found a buyer for the works, here or at Parkgate, the other side of Rotherham. Some more pictures of diesel Shunter #35, taken here before the site was redeveloped by Dransfield Properties Ltd, into a shopping centre and housing estate, can be seen here-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/11873748563/
and here
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/11874551666/
and with the 'blooms', having been being brought up from Parkgate, arrive at the Ellen Wood sidings behind DBC class 66, 66151, in April 2013-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/8656869743/
The Dransfield housing estate occupies the whole of the site along the river, the course of which has switched sides again and is now running alongside the site over on the far right, seen to the right of the shunter in the lower right picture. In the lower left picture, the land along to the corner where the rail bridge is situated over the river, it having switched sides once more to run along into Deepcar on this side of the Ellen Wood sidings, the land here deemed to be 'Private Property', the blue sign is visible on the left, and its future use is unknown. As a matter of interest only, on the right, in the lower right picture, standing prominent on the hill, is one of the Super-grid pylons striding along the top of the Don Valley and making its way to the Woodhead Tunnel area where the half-million volt cables are brought down to pass through the 'new' Woodhead Tunnel and on into Longdendale; the tunnel now owned by the National Grid... its just possible that the objection made at the time, to the pylons path over the top of Woodhead, spoiling an area of outstanding natural beauty, and the subsequent solution of putting the cables in one of the _old_ Woodhead Tunnels, may just have been part of the problem when the cables were switched to use the 'New' tunnel, of it ever being used for anything else, Rail or otherwise. One can't help but feel that some concession should have been made, as tax payers originally footed the bill for this tunnel in the guise of the nationalised British Railways, for walkers and cyclists to use the new tunnel, the alternative is a walk alongside the horrendously busy A628, Manchester Road, or over the top, a bit of a detour at the best of times. The presence of half-million volt power cables would of course be seen as something of both a danger and security risk, if this had been possible.