Going green...
An image originally uploaded to Flickr in early 2011 (a few days after I joined) now rescanned / processed to yield a better result, including correcting the overly warm colour cast. Well, I figured it deserved a bit of TLC for its 50th Anniversary! The original version has been deleted.
The shot, taken in the summer of 1974, captures the eastern end of Healey Mills Marshalling Yard from the Storrs Hill Road overbridge. The yard was still a vibrant and busy operation with reasonably well-maintained tracks and a small locomotive depot (55C / HM). No surprise then that this was a well-visited spot by both local enthusiasts and those from further afield.
Having only just arrived I was pretty lucky to bag this rarity, a green livered class 40 unit 40039, heading east with an unfitted rake of empty 16T mineral wagons. Rare because there were very few class 40s still knocking around in the original British Railways green (most were now in rail-blue), but also because 40039 was one of the first members of the class to be withdrawn some 18 months later in January 1976. It lasted just over 16 years in service and never received the rail-blue paint job.
Strangely enough the Yard was opened as recently as 1963 but, with the closure of the Yorkshire collieries and a move to trainload rather than wagonload traffic, sorting work would come to an end in 1985. The slow death of other activity around the yard, including locomotive maintenance, finally saw some of the tracks removed and others abandoned to the encroachment of nature. In the last few years it has been a somewhat surreal experience to see the still-glowing ground signals shining amongst the trees and shrubbery guarding rusted and unusable tracks that hadn't seen any activity for years.
On a positive note however, in recent months the area has been gradually 'de-forested' and tracks once again exposed in readiness for lifting and partial replacement. Apparently the Yard might see some life again, this time as a train-holding facility for the Transpennine Route Upgrade project.
Kodak Ektachrome 64
22nd July 1974
Going green...
An image originally uploaded to Flickr in early 2011 (a few days after I joined) now rescanned / processed to yield a better result, including correcting the overly warm colour cast. Well, I figured it deserved a bit of TLC for its 50th Anniversary! The original version has been deleted.
The shot, taken in the summer of 1974, captures the eastern end of Healey Mills Marshalling Yard from the Storrs Hill Road overbridge. The yard was still a vibrant and busy operation with reasonably well-maintained tracks and a small locomotive depot (55C / HM). No surprise then that this was a well-visited spot by both local enthusiasts and those from further afield.
Having only just arrived I was pretty lucky to bag this rarity, a green livered class 40 unit 40039, heading east with an unfitted rake of empty 16T mineral wagons. Rare because there were very few class 40s still knocking around in the original British Railways green (most were now in rail-blue), but also because 40039 was one of the first members of the class to be withdrawn some 18 months later in January 1976. It lasted just over 16 years in service and never received the rail-blue paint job.
Strangely enough the Yard was opened as recently as 1963 but, with the closure of the Yorkshire collieries and a move to trainload rather than wagonload traffic, sorting work would come to an end in 1985. The slow death of other activity around the yard, including locomotive maintenance, finally saw some of the tracks removed and others abandoned to the encroachment of nature. In the last few years it has been a somewhat surreal experience to see the still-glowing ground signals shining amongst the trees and shrubbery guarding rusted and unusable tracks that hadn't seen any activity for years.
On a positive note however, in recent months the area has been gradually 'de-forested' and tracks once again exposed in readiness for lifting and partial replacement. Apparently the Yard might see some life again, this time as a train-holding facility for the Transpennine Route Upgrade project.
Kodak Ektachrome 64
22nd July 1974