Chesterfield. U.K rail hot spot For many years now one of the best places to watch trains in England has been a stretch of line running from Tapton Junction just to the north of Chesterfield station in Derbyshire down to Clay Cross Junction. At the southern end the Erewash valley line joins the Midland main line from London to Sheffield for a distance of about 8 miles before the Midland ‘Old Road’ splits off taking most of the freight traffic to the north whilst the passenger trains head north west to Sheffield. I have been photographing and videoing this stretch of line since 1978 and it can be one of the busiest spots at times. The combination of North-South expresses and cross country Liverpool-Norwich workings make passenger traffic busy and the Coal, Steel and Mineral traffic has always provided plenty of freight action. It may seem odd to start a feature like this with a picture of the top of a wall but this spot, at the south end of Platform one at Chesterfield station, was thronged with train spotters back in the sixties and seventies. Over the years steam gave way to diesel, the class 45 Peaks gave way to the HSTs and they in turn were bumped off the top links by the class 220s,221s DMUs etc. These also eliminated one of the last strongholds of class 47/8 loco hauled passenger workings in the U.K. On the freight side first generation diesels like class 20s and 37s were superceded by classes 56,58 and class 60s on mineral traffic and these were all but extinct with the mass arrival of EMD class 66s Here is an early picture I took, on a 2 1/4 square twin lens reflex camera, of a lone train spotter on the wall as a classic class 45 Peak 1-Co-Co-1 heads north on a London St Pancras-Sheffield working A typical day was last Saturday, Angie and I were back in Derbyshire visiting relatives for the weekend and I nipped down to Tapton bridge, a favourite with railfans in the area to see what was going through and soon became aware that something special was turning up as more and more train spotters arrived with cameras and camcorders. I had seen the ‘High Peak’ excursion (Tyseley to Buxton) listed but hadn’t twigged it was coming through Chesterfield. Hauled by LMS Black 5 4-6-0 45305 it arrived on the down main line before swinging over Tapton Junction and taking the ‘Old Road’ which would bring it into Sheffield station from the north. However not only was that in the area but also the Network Rail test train (a converted HST Intercity 125), two coal trains, one ‘DB Shenke’ and one ‘Freightliner’ and a Freightliner hauled train of empty cement wagons heading back to the huge cement plant in the Hope valley. All this in the space of one hour and all the time punctuated by frequent passenger workings! The rare sight of the Network Rail test train converted HST Intercity 125 45305 gets the excursion underway again after pausing in platform 1
Video of last saturday can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eHzObwq08 shortly after the cement train departed the weather broke and it rained for the rest of the morning on and off, talk about good timing! The Cement train was a good length one of 4 wheel wagons
Chesterfield is a small market town in North East Derbyshire but was once served by three railway companies all of whom had their own station in the town. Now just the Midland railway station survives, the Great Central station was swept away by the construction of the bypass road through the town and the old Market Place station of the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway was obliterated by the construction boom of the 1960s. The town is most famous for its ‘Crooked Spire’ the steeple of St Mary’s church has been twisted almost from the beginning and whilst local legend has it that the devil flew over it before the church was consecrated whilst the more scientific minded blame either unseasoned wood or the excessive weight of the roof lead on it, take your pick! Another early shot of mine taken on a Zenit 35mm camera showing the crooked spire on top of the hill as a northbound Peak accelerates away An old video of mine, taken at the south end of the four track stretch, shows trains in snow just after the 1997 new years holiday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4_7_FLx7Mk and further north around the station itself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpdLwaWVqo I'll try and find some early steam stuff and put it on as well over the next few days Cheers KEV
Kev, looks like a definite hot spot. I had never seen a rail map of UK and guess I should have guessed how dense the tracks are, much like the roads. I spent a little time in Derbyshire many years ago while working for Lockheed and dealing with Rolls-Royce in Derby. Thanks for posting the photos and descriptions. :tb-biggrin:
The area around most of the coal areas of the U.K were a rabbit warren of lines. here is a map of South Yorkshire-North derbyshire at the height of the railway boom All of this prosperity was based on Coal and Steel!
King Coal Back in 1964 coal traffic was dominated by the ubiquitous 16 ton all welded steel mineral wagon. tens of thousands of these were built to replace the wooden private owner wagons in use from the early days of railways after the nationalisation of the the railways and collieries in the early post war years LMS 8F 2-8-0 48352 trundles past Tapton Junction with a rake of these wagons British Rail standard 9F 2-10-0 92016 follows shortly after with another load The area behind the train is now a large housing estate, the track has been rationalised and all of the trees have grown eliminating many photographic vantage poits but the area is still busy and worth a visit
Kev, that is a real treat, both the steam pictures and the videos, particularly the ones of 'real trains' in 1997 including class 47's (Brush type 4's to us oldies!). I have never visited that location although I have been to several places very close to there - didn't realise how busy it was/is! Thanks for the hot spot, I look forward to further episodes.
