Tracing the former Midland Railway route between Southwell and Mansfield is fairly straightforward throughout its course. Going west out of Farnsfield, it runs parallel to the road before crossing a farm access track on the outskirts of Rainworth by way of this substantial and well-preserved stone bridge with its brick-lined archway.
Here the formation disappears under a field and the route is lost to view in more recent housing development after running beneath the Blidworth colliery branch. However, the railway builders had to cut through the ridge at Python Hill and I picked it up again behind the houses occupying a deep cutting through the higher land on either side. At the foot of Kirklington Road in the centre of Rainworth, the line used to cross the road on an overbridge having passed through Blidworth and Rainworth station, of which there are no obvious remains.
The entrance to the former Rufford colliery is marked at this point with one of the winding wheels from the pit and a plaque remembering those who had lost their lives there during the time that the pit was operational between 1911 and 1994. The side road has acquired the name Petanque Way, marking a successful transformation of part of the former pit site by Rainworth Petanque Club.
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