'The times they are a changing' at Woodburn Junction & along the Lincoln Line, part II to IV - 8635->8747

* Extended stills (87) video in 5 sections at Woodburn Junction, Woodburn Bridge, Nunnery Bank, Beighton Station, Beighton Junction & back at Woodburn Junction, 113Mby, it is 7mins 20secs long, so video will have to be down-loaded to watch the full extent. To obtain the full version, right click the link at lower right of the video, and select 'Save Link As' to save the file to the desktop.

 

** It has just come to my notice (10/12/23) that the Download option below and to the right of the media _does not_ allow you to download the full version, only the 3 minutes available here. So, I am going to try and 'fix' this for all videos lasting more than 3 minutes, this is the link to obtain the full version shown here-

www.flickr.tightfitz.com/Video/Lincoln_Line_Rail_Possessi...

 

* Music in the background is Dreamstate Logic Ambient-Earthbound

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJXksJxXjk4

 

The video shown here covers 5 locations- Woodburn Junction, Woodburn Bridge, Nunnery Bank, Beighton Station, Beighton Junction and Woodburn Junction again, over the period this week 13th to 16th March and today, Friday 19th March, I have re-visited Woodburn Junction & Bridge and, more importantly, to view the demolishing of Woodhouse Junction Signalbox. This will then mark the end of the changes in this area and N.R. are now in the testing and completion phase; the lines are back in operation from early next Monday morning, the Spring Equinox, March 22nd.

There will be pictures of Woodburn Junction & Bridge and a demolition video from the Woodhouse Junction box area, as Part 6, to finish off this series, early next week.

 

The workings in the area extended from late Friday 12th March and the last one left on Wednesday 17th March on these days came and went with 18 freight trains carrying various materials coming into the Network Rail possession, which latterly ran from here at Nunnery Bank and all the way through Woodburn, Darnall, Woodhouse, Beighton Station Crossing and along to Beighton Junction. It commenced at 08:00 on Saturday 6th March at Beighton Station crossing and until 08:00 next Monday, the 22 March at this location but the complete line block now including the locations here, came in last Saturday, 13th March, again until Monday 22nd. A lot of works and resulting changes, have taken place, though it now seems the heavy freights with new materials, ballast, track panels, switch panels, signalling etc, and old materials removed, is now about complete. As far as I can make out, the workings which came into and subsequently left the site, starting late last Friday, 12th March, were, upto the time of the last pictures which will be shown here, 16th March, are-

 

Friday 12th March

-------------------

GBRf

23:53 6X40 66787 Belmont Down Yard via Rotherham Central, Meadowhall & Chesterfield to Woodburn Junction

Freightliner

00:04 6Y30 66547+66597 Toton North Yard to Woodburn Junction

00:04 6Y31 66523 Toton North Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction

 

Saturday 13th March

---------------------

Freightliner

08:45 6Y32 66533 Toton North Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction (loco name: 'Hanjin Express/Senator Express')

10:20 6Y30 66547 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard (with 66597 'Viridor')

12:24 6Y33 66516 Toton North Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction

15:19 6Y31 66597 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard (loco name: 'Viridor')

 

Sunday 14th March

-------------------

GBRf

08:54 6X41 66731 Toton North Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction (loco name: 'Capt Tom Moore(A True British Inspiration)' 'Thank You NHS' livery)

D.B. Shenker(for GBRf)

09:10 6Z40 66078+66134 Doncaster Up Decoy to Nunnery Main Line Junction (emergency move due to replacement for broken down SB Rail crane)

Freightliner

11:20 6Y32 66523 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard

16:25 6Y33 66516+66533 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard (66533 loco name: 'Hanjin Express/Senator Express')

GBRf

20:43 6G42 66717 Belmont Down Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction (loco name: 'Good Old Boy')

 

Tuesday 16th March

--------------------

Freightliner

07:12 6G42 66516 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard

Colas Rail

09:09 6C83 70802 Belmont Down Yard to Sheffield, runs round then on to Nunnery Main Line Junction (with 20 full Autoballasters)

GBRf

12:31 6Y20 66717 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton Up Sidings (loco name: 'Good Old Boy')

Freightliner

16:08 6Y21 66523 Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard (the one parked under the Darnall Flyover)

Colas Rail

16:21 6C84 70810 Belmont Down Yard to Sheffield, runs round then on to Nunnery Main Line Junction

Volker Rail

21:52 6J31 Track Machine Chesterfield Down Sidings to Nunnery Main Line Junction

Colas

23:11 6C83 70802/810? Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton Up Sidings (with 20 empty Autoballasters)

 

Wednesday 17th March

----------------------

Colas

02:53 ???? 70810? Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard

Volker Rail

13:37 6J31 Track Machine Nunnery Main Line Junction to Chesterfield Down Sidings (THE LAST ONE OUT)

 

(This table was modified and added too slightly compared to the one shown in the last video)

 

Highlights of this video in chronological order-

1. Beighton & Woodhouse Station, March 13th. The views look across the level crossing with the box on the wast side Woodhouse Junction is to the north and Beighton Junction, with the 'Old Road' is away to the south. The station was opened in June 1840 and subsequently had two rebuilds, the 3rd station closing on 1st November 1954; the box survived, until this week! It was 'manned' 24 hours a day by all accounts but saw very little traffic during a 24 hour period. By the time I got to Woodhouse Station, all the action of the 1st week's operation on the 7th March, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/51029375533/

was over and the almost all the associated equipment had been removed. Looking south towards Woodhouse Junction, with the box there still in tact at this stage, a fox calmly walks across the traction-less tracks behind the down line Signal, WH27, caring not what events are happening just away south... WH51, was still in place and lit at hits time, but not more, it has been removed during the last few days; signal control now having been moved to the York R.O.C. Also visible in these shots, a bracket arm with two semaphores, this too has now gone, a multi-aspect signal having now replaced it. Between the semaphores and the Woodhouse Box, the new order in signalling can be seen, a large post controlling the exit from the two sidings now remaining; today, this signal was glowing red.

 

2. Woodburn Junction, March 14th. As a prelude to the Woodburn Junction shots, the first picture in this section is a screen-grab taken from the Sheffield RailCam on March 13th, as material starts to be brought into the site in the form of Freightliner 66533, named, extensively, ''Hanjin Express/Senator Express', on the 6Y32, Toton North Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction, 1200 tonne ballast working. At the site on the following day, Saturday March 14th, the working is in top gear, having commenced a few days earlier, with yellow coloured 'plant' of various sorts around and the old rail having already been removed from the Tinsley to Deepcar branch line, over on the right. New sleepers, track and ballast have been laid and work is now proceeding on the main Lincoln Lines. Another Freightliner, this one 66516, loaded with ballast, has come along having arrived yesterday, March 13th, at 13:05, on the 6Y33 working from Toton North Yard. It is seen here having come along, 'wrong-line' but is now crossing over to the up line, this cross-over has now been removed and replaced with another, further west, behind the camera, to permit the East Midlands Railway to continue to use this area for Empty Coaching Stock reversals and to allow moves onto and off the Deepcar branch from the main lines. It transpired that a VSTP working had been put in the time-table to permit a replacement SB Rail crane to be brought in as the one on the site had broken down; it can be seen in the next shot, parked up just beyond the Darnall Flyover in the distance. The junction off the Tinsley line, seen in the picture with 4 'orange-suits' sat on the ballast shows a brand new set of very impressive looking point and associated control gear. An old track panel has been discarded beyond them not sure why it hasn't been cleared away with other stuff and it was still there today, Friday, 19th.

 

3. Woodburn Bridge, March 14th, looking east along the work-site next to the Woodburn Junction signal cabin which, it appears, is to be retained for the present. The Stocksbridge/Deepcar branch line is on the far left, the up line is missing and the down line has the rake of JNA wagons, full of ballast, brought along by Freightliner 66516, seen earlier. A tele shot from the Woodburn Bridge shows the old section of footbridge in the distance with Freightliner 66516 parked on the cross-over to the up line and beyond that bridge, in the distance, the old Darnall Flyover which took locos off the up line to cross over the formation and into the large Darnall Engine Shed, off on the right in the further distance. 'Siemens AG Ltd', 'S&B Rail', 'R.P. Webb' and 'Mculloch' are some of the contractors in the area, and everyone likes yellow, for 'hi-viz' purposes of course, just like the attire the track-workers are wearing.. can't miss any of it really! A shot between the two decks of the Woodburn Road Bridge follows, the left deck carries Woodburn Road and the right deck the Sheffield Supertram. Between the two decks is a small space and the shot here shows the Deepcar Branch in the foreground with the main Lincoln down line beyond with one of the JNA wagons visible. At this stage the cross over from the main lines to the Deepcar Branch hadn't been put in place but as will be seen, by the 16th March, it was there, the installation needing completion.

 

4. Nunnery Bank, March 14th. What a mess it all was, plant everywhere, mud, it was wet and a lot of the fence had been removed and was strewn around the place. The first shot shows, above the parked Ford hatchback car, an old LMSR bracket signal post can be seen, long disused of course, but never removed, it is barely visible here, but can be seen in a later shot at Nunnery, on March 16th. The bracket signal is also featured in this picture of a class 37 test train, led by 37419, as long ago as January, 2014, seen coming up the Nunnery Bank, with explanatory map beneath the picture, showing what the area used to look like in the early 1900s, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525243126/

Moving on from that, the next shots show 'the arrival of the cavalry'. This is in the form of a red DBS pair of 66s, in top-and-tail fashion, hauling a replacement 'SB Rail', 'Kirow Rail Crane', number, 'KFA FS97415' and at present the set was parked up on the bank awaiting instructions. This is the VSTP working, 6Z40, from Toton North Yard to Nunnery Main Line Junction with an SG Rail Crane to replace the broke down one, now parked away east along the line, the other side of the old Darnall Flyover. As 'Baz' approaches, trying to keep dry in one of the shots, I was informing him that the N.R. guy who was controlling events here asked if we would like the DBS set brough forwards so we could get better shots, now, I am sure this is what was going to happen anyway, but still.. well, what could I say. The events here with DBS class 66s, 66078 leading and 66134 at the rear, were what formed the basis of the video which was shown earlier and is a complete, 'proper', sequence of the DBS move along the line when it was stopped, the crane brakes put on and a sleeper set across the rails behind the rear loco; looked as if it might be there for a bit!

To the right of the two locos, on the 'correct line' a long rake of yellow track panel carriers with, at the front, GBRf 66731, named, 'Captain Tom Moore (A True British Inspiration)' and with the 'Thank You NHS' livery, applied a while ago. The track panels had come in that morning with 66731 on 6X41 and, as the signaller at York rightly knows, 'Tom Moore' has been an inspiration over the past months, sadly he died just recently, during the on-going Covid crisis. So with this in mind, another screen grab follows showing the state of the the signalling at the north end of Sheffield Station and in particular that of S0123, on one of the Down Slow lines, indicating 'GONE' and below it, controlling the exit from platform 2, Signal S0127, with 6X41, the track panel move from Toton with 66731. 'Tom Moore' in charge. 'GONE', set on the signal aspect above it meaning I suppose, 'Gone but not forgotten'; the shot here reflecting what was an out-of-gauge freight, the 'X', which came through the station earlier on at 09:04. A few minutes after the first shots were taken of the red DBS pair, the guy on the ground, called the set slowly forward so we could have a look at the SB Rail replacement Crane, KFA FS97415, apparently this was supposed to be a GBRf move, but looks like no locos were available and so DBS provided the traction, 66078 and 66134. in the next shots the 'Crane Train' pulls up to a halt and the accommodating guy on the phone can be seen next to one of the many 'Sunbelt Rentals' high-output portable LED lamp standards. 'Baz with Bobble hat' appears again getting one of the last shots before we leave as the weather deteriorates and the 2 red DBS locos look to be grounded for a while, though not to the liking of personnel on the ground as they are extra hire-ins replacing the GBRf locos which weren't available and had to be sent back to Toton as quickly as possible...

 

5. Woodburn Bridge, March 16th, looking east along the work-site next to the Woodburn Junction signal cabin which, it appears, is to be retained for the present. The Stocksbridge/Deepcar branch line is on the left and now the main line at centre is in place, unlike the earlier shot on March 14th when this was just being relaid. The new formation of the junction and the lack of connection to the Deepcar Branch, is now clear to see. The Deepcar Branch connection is now behind the camera under the Woodburn Road bridge and the double-track junctions at either end have been removed with the Tinsley line connecting as before but now with a single cross-over onto the down line. A view of what the formation used to look like can be seen here, the RHTT with class 37s in charge passes through the area on October 1st, last year, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50410651113/

and

www.flickr.com/photos/vinc2020/50594058761/

So instead of moves coming off the branch line and onto the main line, right in front of the camera as seen in the above shots, it will now take place behind the camera and under the bridge. Freightliner 66523, has come forward to the Woodburn footbridge with a rake of yellow JNA and MLA wagons full of what looks like old ballast, so it may be parked up waiting a passage out of the area back to Toton. It was time-tabled that afternoon as the 6Y21, Nunnery Main Line Junction to Toton North Yard but got cancelled at 15:39. It however left at 16:16 that afternoon on what was a very VSTP diagram with origin, remarkable, as Chinley, on the Manchester side of the Pennines, to Toton! It did however carry out the 6Y21 diagram from here, weird or what! I suspect therefore that the load is spent ballast being taken back to Toton to be recycled. As can be seen in these shots, there is much work proceeding all over the show from Nunnery along the branch and along the main lines, its a large job and today marked the last day when traction came into the possession with materials. The last shot in this section shows the new crossover from/to the Deepcar branch line, now, inconveniently placed, for photographs, underneath the Woodburn and Supertram bridge and new ballast still has to be off-loaded onto all three tracks.

 

6. Nunnery Bank, March 16th. Well, it 'Good Old Boy' time, the name of the GBRf loco which is about to leave the area with a rake of, this time, a mixture of yellow MLA and JNA wagons, the former look remarkably similar to the JNA variety to me.. The area is a little drier than it was just 2 days ago and there looks to have been some removal of 'plant'. The third shot in this sequence at Nunnery, once again shows the view towards Sheffield down the Nunnery Bank to the Nunnery Main Line Junction, the latter being the destination for all the Civil Engineering trains which came into the Possession which extended from here, all the way along the lines to Beighton Junction, south of Beighton Station Crossing. The scene in the view shows once again, the old LMSR bracket signal post, long disused of course, but never removed. The trackbed which took moves, past the Nunnery Single Line Junction signalbox, from Midland Station and into the LMSR carriage sidings behind the camera; the box was to the left, atop the Bernard Road bank, on the left. It is also featured in this picture of a class 37 test train, led by 37419, as long ago as January, 2014, seen coming up the Nunnery Bank, with explanatory map beneath the picture, showing what the area used to look like in the early 1900s, see-

www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525243126/

Further, a picture of this area with the signal and an ECS propelling move with 4F, 0-6-0, 43900 in charge, on 4th of October 1958, is featured in Steven Batty's, 'Rail Centres' book, 'No. 11 on Sheffield', p.41. The trackbed over the bridge and the bracket signal post look exactly the same, after 53 years! Today, GBRf 66717, 'Good Old Boy', is about to depart on the 6Y20, Nunnery Main Line Junction via Sheffield to Toton Up Sidings and is in dramatic contrast to the 4F, 43900, seen in this area in 1958...

 

7. Woodburn Junction, March 16th. Its almost at the point where the new ballast is ready to drop on the lines and Freightliner 66523 has now reversed back along the down line and is parked up under the Darnall Flyover, just 20 minutes after being photographed next to the Woodburn footbridge. The limit of the new work can be seen in the foreground and the 'orange-jackets' are about to do some work to interface the old and new track-work. In the distance in the 3rd shot, under the Woodburn Road bridge, the front of a Colas class 70 can be seen just right of centre, this is 70802 which come in at 09:09 that morning on the 6C83, Belmont Down Yard via a run-around at Sheffield Midland then to Nunnery Main Line Junction. It has a rake of 20 full 'Autoballasters', timing load 1800 tonnes, and is the first of two such workings these, presumably, are the means by which the new ballast will be dropped straight onto the 3 sections of new line. The second of the two workings, 6C84, with Colas class 70, 70810, came in at 16:19 with the same type of 'Autoballasters' and another 1800 tonnes of new material, this one crossing over to do the drop on the Deepcar Branch line. The two empty workings left the area at 19:06, 243 minutes early though it was held in Heeley Loop by the looks of things for about 3 hours! and the second, 100 mins early at 01:07 the following morning, both going back to Toton. The last shot in this section, shows what is termed a 'Fast Clipper' on the up Lincoln Line with, behind it, the operator with console in hand controlling the operation of the device. Its a 'Rosenqvist/Speedy CD400SP Fast Clipper' unit and goes along the rails putting in the clips which hold the rail-head to the concrete sleepers... Much of the work now appears to have a machine perfected for the arduous tasks, all in all, speeding the rail replacement operation up very significantly; something which in the past would have all been undertaken manually by a large crowd of 'gangers'. The ballast drops of the Colas 'Autoballasters' meaning that around 800 tonnes of the material can all be dropped on one section of line, in one go; all of which I guess, is why this work possession has 'only' been for two weeks..

 

8. Beighton & Woodhouse Station, March 16th. The final stop on this day, was back to the Beighton area to see what the place looked like now the box had been demolished. It, like its counterpart further south at Woodhouse, took a matter of a few hours and here, you now wouldn't know that there had once been a signal box here at all. Beighton Station was opened in June 1840 and subsequently had two rebuilds, the 3rd station closing on 1st November 1954. The box survived, until this week and had been 'manned' 24 hours a day by all accounts but saw very little traffic during a 24 hour period, various ECS moves by the EMR, freight traffic to and from Barrow Hill, the odd stone trains and diversions which not infrequent for one reason or another. Now, after this Spring Equinox weekend, control will pass to a Panel in the York R.O.C., the same for Woodhouse Box which was demolished yesterday, March 19th. The scene looks to be dominated by the track personnel and there was little left of the infra-structure to reasonably photograph, of course a train passing through would have helped but that was 6 days away when the line block was lifted for the Monday morning service to re-start on the 22nd. And finally, a quick jaunt southwards along the line to the Beighton Junction area and a look back, to see what was to be seen.. The Beighton BX33 signal which is still evident on the track diagram has already been changed, ts seen glowing red here of course and is now identified as WN8131; which looks like a Woodburn designation. Its a single head, multi-colour type, like the ones now installed in the Woodhouse Station/Junction area and well, they don't look all that interesting compared to the two-head multi-aspect type elsewhere.. And, finally a freight... not planned but had a look and noticed the lunchtime 'rails train' was on-track and heading this way and would pass in around 15 minutes. Looking from the newly re-furbished GCR footbridge, with new, open, '#' type wire fencing along the sides and with NO apertures cut to poke the camera lens through, though, I can see that changing, is the the Advanced Metal Recycling works skip compound in the foreground, the area once being the ex-Thomas Ward steam engine scrapyard. Passing south along the 'Old Road', in similar 'livery' to the blue skips, is GBRf class 66, 66786 on the 6X01, Scunthorpe Trent T.C. to Eastleigh East Yard working and this marks the end of the last 5 days ventures to chronicle the work on-going until this coming weekend on the GCR's old formation out of Sheffield and as far as Woodhouse Junction.

 

At 13:37 on Wednesday March 17th, the last working out of the possession was 6J31, a Volker Rail On-Track Machine, from Nunnery Main Line Junction to the Chesterfield Down Sidings. From that time, the area was left to the resident N.R. Personell and Contractors to finish off, as mentioned above; finishing off and extensive testing now appears to be going on. More pictures will follow taken yesterday morning, from Woodburn and Woodhouse, with the demolition of the box at the latter, early next week. By Monday, the 22nd March, all the works will/should have been completed on the Sunday evening and by that stage, all signalling control along this line from Woodburn Junction's area will be in the authority of the York Railway Operating Centre, outside York Station. This relatively extensive Civil Engineering work along this line marks a change in both the available semaphore signalling in the area and the interest residing in the railway infra-structure; the engineering work having simplified the rail layout at Woodburn and Woodhouse Junctions and with the two old boxes which will be gone by this weekend.

 

This has been a long job too, all in, it will have taken 20 hours to put all this together, a lot of the time spent on sorting out the workings which came and went, getting the video shots into a consistent sequence and, repeatedly, it turned out, correcting the text labels in the video which I had made several mistakes with, when typing them in. The last one I noticed as I was typing these very words, had the GBRf as 66731, 'Capt Tom Moore' on the Eastleigh working, not 66786...

Done