“Each a glimpse and gone for ever!”

This is the last line from one of these five stand-out railway poems…..

Edward Thomas, Adlestrop

Robert Louis Stevenson, From a Railway Carriage

Thomas Hardy, Faintheart in a Railway Train

WH Auden, The Whitsun Weddings

WH Auden, The Night Mail

Butler-Henderson

John Dyer took his picture of Butler-Henderson in Gorton works, in 1962. I think that this must have been on a Wallasey Grammar School Railway Society visit during the summer holidays, though I don’t have any surviving notes of my own as evidence. I do remember seeing Butler-Henderson at Gorton, though, and I recorded her presence in my brand-new combined volume in the same year. The more recent other photos show her at Loughborough, in May 1992.  

Eric Butler-Henderson was a director of the Great Central Railway and, as such, had one of the company’s express locomotives named after him. His father, Lord Faringdon, was the board’s chairman. The Improved Director Class were elegant 4-4-0s and Butler-Henderson became GCR No. 506 and later BR No. 62660. She was withdrawn from service in 1960 and preserved as part of the National Collection, one of only two ex-GCR types saved from scrapping along with the O4 freight locomotive, No.63601. Both were Robinson designs.

 

The John Dyer Archive

John Dyer’s photographs provide a fascinating glimpse of the steam railway. Most were taken during the late 1950s and early 1960s. John organised his archive of over a thousand images by following the numerical system adopted by British Railways after 1948 and adopted by the Ian Allan trainspotting books published throughout the post-war period. I am grateful to John for giving me access to his file of pictures and allowing me to share them with others. These photos of the Vale of Rheidol Railway were taken at Devil’s Bridge in June 1961.

Nostalgia

I read an article recently suggesting that far from posing a psychological problem, nostalgia actually has positive health benefits as “a powerful tool in the battle against anxiety and depression” [Tim Adams, The Guardian, 9/11/14]. That’s good enough for me.

Here’s my Dad leaning out of the cab of Class A2 No. 60537 Batchelors Button on Carlisle Canal sheds in 1962. Dad had asked permission for us to have a look round, and had been encouraged by one of the staff to pose in the cab while I took the shot. On the next lane is A3 No. 60043 Brown Jack. The Pacifics were used on the Waverley route to Edinburgh and were then moved to Kingmoor for the relatively short period of time between the closure of Canal and the end of the direct route to Edinburgh.     

Near Staythorpe

Class 60 No. 60091 Barry Needham passes between Staythorpe and Rolleston on an afternoon Humber Oil Terminal working to Kingsbury. An automatic camera setting did not quite freeze the locomotive, but the telephoto shot towards Rolleston is a bit different, at least. I had to leave my bike on the other side of the track because the replacement steel gateway is designed for pedestrians only.

Cycling with a Smile

Not all fellow cyclists are that friendly, I’m finding. I always let on with a cheery hello, a hopefully noticeable nod of the head or a raise of the hand but I get blanked by about a third of all other cyclists. Maybe there’s a bit of a cycling hierarchy thing, going on here. Family groups are generally friendly and so are couples. Younger single males are often less communicative. Is it because I have straights, not drops? Is it because I have a garish, baggy yellow top and not figure-hugging black? Is it that my helmet is ancient and not streamlined? Is my bike easily recognisable as a bottom of the range item, even though it’s a Boardman? Or, am I not moving fast enough or looking purposeful enough, like I’m not communicating an appropriate level of commitment? When we ran an old VW Beetle almost everyone with a similar car exchanged a wave or a beep. On reflection, that created a rather nice feeling of togetherness and shared identity. I shall just keep trying.

Real Time Trains

This is a really useful website for enthusiasts. www.realtimetrains.co.uk provides information about where all trains are on the network, 24/7. It is often locomotive-hauled freight trains that are of greater interest to spotters and photographers, rather than the passenger trains advertised in the conventional railway timetables. RTT includes passing times along the route and enables you to plan your visit to the lineside more productively. As the title suggests, the times are live on the website. Even I can manage it on my mobile phone. It is a thoroughly good thing and I commend it to the house. 

Happy Snapping

Bike, plus camera, plus trains is currently a convenient way of combining exercise with a focal point for the ride. My nearest railway line is about seven miles away in the Trent valley and I have been exploring the stretches I can reach fairly easily in search of promising spots to take photos.

This is not quite so straightforward as I had imagined. Railway property is more thoroughly fenced off in Britain compared to many other countries. Lineside vegetation is not cut back in the way it once was. High-tech’ grey steel boxes of varying shapes and sizes partially obstruct the view at some otherwise convenient locations and there is a proliferation of modern signage in some places.

Some attractive features of the trackside landscape have been eliminated. Historic station buildings have been replaced with functional shelters, sidings have been taken out, semaphore signals have disappeared and the old signal boxes are closed and now gradually decaying while they await removal.

I have also been getting used to a bridge camera, acquired to record wildlife without having to quickly change over the lens, as on the conventional SLR. In theory, the built-in zoom brings the action closer, without going any nearer and frightening off the birds.

The camera certainly has a lot of different functions. I’m gradually familiarising myself with it but it’s very much work in progress. Crucially with a moving target - and like so much else in life - it still comes down to a matter of timing. Thoughtful artistic composition might have to wait a bit longer.

Still Biking It

Less well known, perhaps, than the old Southwell to Rolleston branch line, itself, was the spur taken from it to the south, which enabled coal trains to head straight for Nottingham. It joined the main line at Fiskerton Junction, next to Morton Crossing.

Having come through what later became a council recycling site [behind the camera, and itself since closed], and viewed from the bridge on Fiskerton Road, the line crossed the culvert below the parapet and cut across the field towards the gap in the hedge opposite, to a point just short of the junction.

Staythorpe Crossing

This was once an important destination for coal traffic heading to the nearby power station. The sidings have long gone and the signal box next to the level crossing is closed and now starting to show signs of neglect. Automatic barriers existed here well before others were added along the same stretch of line during the more recent upgrading. The replacement gas-fired power station, Staythorpe C, was opened in 2011. It occupies a substantial riverside site and tends to dominate this otherwise rural landscape west of Newark.

Rolleston Interlude

It was a pleasant afternoon to stand around for a bit. Announcements from the public address system drifted over from Southwell racecourse. While I waited for the train to pass through, I was treated to the commentary of the 2.00 p.m. - the MansionBet Proud to Support British Racing Handicap Chase, which was won by Silent Steps. A pair of sparrowhawks put in a brief appearance and three buzzards soared high overhead. They had a much better view of the race than I did standing on the platform, which is shielded from the course by a line of trees. Eventually, Class 60 No. 60001 appeared at the head of the 11.04 from Kingsbury Oil Sidings to Humber Oil Terminal, twenty-five minutes down on its booked time.

The Gatehouse

This private house on the edge of Southwell was once the crossing keeper’s cottage, where the Mansfield to Rolleston Junction line crossed the main A612 road towards Newark. It is similar in design to the other Midland Railway houses along the route, dating from the opening of the line in 1871. They share the characteristic features of elaborate barge boards, steeply pitched rooves and angular gable ends. The railway ran alongside the River Greet here before running onto the Trent valley flood plain via what is now the approach road to the racecourse.  

Zoom

Class 60 No. 60040 The Territorial Army Centenary heads the 14.30 from Humber Oil Refinery to Kingsbury Oil Sidings. It is seen here approaching Fiskerton station at 16.33 on Friday 13^th March.

The bridge camera with a zoom lens was primarily for wildlife shots, like this osprey, but I’m trying it out on trains, too. It certainly provided a different perspective on the Class 60.  

Langwith

I had heard about Langwith when I was twelve years old and at home on Merseyside. It was listed alongside its 41J shed code in my summer 1962 edition combined volume of British Railways locomotives. I did not have a clue where Langwith was or why somewhere apparently so obscure should have locomotive sheds at all.

I had never seen the shed at Langwith until yesterday. The remaining building is now part of WH Davis, who took it on after the sheds closed in 1966. They have been repairing and making railway wagons next door since 1908. The surviving brick built shed with a corrugated roof has had modern factory units added nearby.

Langwith Junction was always a much more interesting location from a railway point of view than I had given it credit for in my youth. This was where the Great Central Railway, running east from Chesterfield to Lincoln, crossed the Midland Railway, going north from Nottingham to Worksop. The sheds were opened by the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway in 1896. They housed mainly freight locomotives, many of them Class O2 and O4s designed by Robinson for the GCR, followed by Austerity 2-8-0s and Standard 9F 2-10-0s, distributing coal from the North Derbyshire coal field. 

      

 

Lowdham

The old station house is now a private residence but one with plenty of reminders of the Midland Railway, including a lamp standard, a boundary marker and a wall-mounted lantern with glass tablet. The signal box is now defunct but there are plans to re-locate and reopen it as a small museum in a position where it can be accessed more easily.

This was my longest cycle ride yet in my “new bike” era. My destination was about an hour from home. I heard partridge, green woodpecker and buzzard calling and there were lapwings wheeling overhead in a couple of places - nice signs of spring.

Morton Crossing

The 1929 ground frame hut, long obsolete and gradually rotting away in situ, has since been joined in relative obscurity by the former Fiskerton Junction signalbox. It has lost its name board but the hand operated wheel that was used to open and close the former level crossing gates is still visible through the window. This is an attractive corner of the Trent valley. The lane that crosses the line at this point is now protected by modern automatic barriers. The crossing keeper’s cottage is now a private house.

Skylarks were singing and a yellowhammer perched on a neatly trimmed hedge at the roadside. Back home, a tree creeper came to the garden again yesterday and a sparrowhawk perched in a bush and put off any further visitors for a while first thing this morning. We have had no redpolls this winter, unlike last year, but a pair of bramblings have regularly put in an appearance.

Mountsorrel

Developments at Mountsorrel are very impressive. Dramatic progress has been made over a relatively short period of time. The purpose-built Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre is spacious and the information boards are thoughtfully presented. The café has already established a good reputation and the museum has some interesting exhibits.

Coach number 946 was built by the Great Central’s predecessor, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, in 1888. It was later used as a holiday coach and then as a departmental vehicle before ending up on a farm, where it was used as a shooting lodge. Restoration took 16 years and the six-wheel carriage now has pride of place in the museum. The 0-4-0 saddle tank No. 314 was built in 1906 by Brush at Loughborough. She worked at Swansea docks up until her retirement in 1964. Four years later, she returned to Leicestershire, eventually coming to Mountsorrel via the now closed Snibston Discovery Park. 

The granite quarries here were connected to both the Midland Railway to the east and the Great Central Railway to the west, via the [now re-instated] link at Swithland Sidings. Some seasonal weekend workings bring passengers along the re-laid Mountsorrel branch.

Most notable of all, however, is the relationship built up with the local community, as evidenced by the range of projects being undertaken and the number of volunteers actively pursuing their various roles around the site.

Great Central Saturday

The Ivatt Class 2 No. 46521 and the 8F No. 48305 worked the timetabled trains yesterday, along with the heritage DMU. The North Eastern Railway auto-car, which was running on a charter, was an unexpected bonus. Designed by Raven and built in 1903, petrol-electric powered No. 3170 - now fitted with a modern diesel engine - has been splendidly restored.

  

Rolleston

Formerly Rolleston Junction and the link with the Southwell branch line, the station has lost all its original buildings apart from the station house. After the two-mile straight stretch from the town as far as Southwell racecourse, the branch line once curved into the island platform, to join the Nottingham to Newark main line.

A concrete former signal post with a finial on top was the only visible reminder of the railway along the metalled road that takes the former branch line’s course. It was a damp, cold, overcast March day and the photos I took with my phone appear suitably dismal.  

 

Bleasby

Opened by the Midland Railway in 1846, the original station buildings disappeared long ago, though the Italianate crossing keeper’s house [in a style commonly found along this route] still stands as a private dwelling. The platforms at Bleasby are skewed, on either side of the level crossing, which is controlled by automatic barriers. Many trains on the Newark to Nottingham route don’t stop here, so local people have to plan their trips to the city carefully to ensure a conveniently timed return journey.

Oil tanker trains from the Lindsey refinery to Kingsbury oil terminal also use this route, but although there are paths provided for them on the daily working timetable, they actually only run on demand. The 11.52 from Bleasby is about to depart on a Cleethorpes to Matlock Bath service on Tuesday 3/3/20.