Mark_A 14 Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Apologies if this link (courtesy of 'Photony') has already been posted here. In their own words: "1984 - I went a walk down the line." https://www.flickr.com/photos/photony/sets/72157645581322676 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisB 150 Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 I havn't seen those before, fascinating pictures. So sad to see it all being destroyed though! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rob.L 1,088 Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Some great pics. Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubblewrap 3,815 Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Great photos But very depressing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FLY2 10,108 Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 Sacrilege ! Great pics. Forget your poncey GWR, this was the finest Rly ever built, but never used to its full potential due to weak management under BR and divisional rivalries. So sad. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bilbraborn 1,594 Posted October 2, 2014 Report Share Posted October 2, 2014 In the words of Smokey Robinson (nice pun) 'Tracks of my tears'. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swe62 334 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 a fantastic railway opportunity thrown away ,it could have made a high speed link to London Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gibbo 04 188 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Stunning photos Mark_A..... so sad to see the decay created by years of neglect....... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Merthyr Imp 729 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 'a fantastic railway opportunity thrown away ,it could have made a high speed link to London' At the time of its closure they were more interested in high speed roads to London. Still can't do quotes on here any more. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
swe62 334 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 typical short sighted planning the best rail infrastucture in the world thrown away, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loppylugs 8,427 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Great pictures. I'm no great railway enthusiast or expert, but it does seem to me that such great engineering and routes should have been preserved. The overcrowded roads in all of our countries are no fun to drive battling with eighteen wheelers. Seems like the railways are especially good for heavy loads. Typical government short sightedness and the population are left with the bill in money and lives. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisB 150 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Apart from the small section of brick viaduct on Trent Street, I noticed the other day that the retaining wall (still with a refuge at the bottom) by the side of the new steps at Weekday Cross is still in place. I think that's about all that's left of the original infrastructure in the city apart from the clock tower of course. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubblewrap 3,815 Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 The mouth to the Mansfield Road tunnel can still be seen from the bus station Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bilbraborn 1,594 Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Working for the railway, I worked with the descendants of men who worked for the LMR in the fifties and sixties Several generations of the same families worked and still work on the railway. I learned from them how the Midland Railway, then the LMS then the BR Midland employees despised the whole being of the GCR and as soon as the GCR mainline came under the London Midland Region, they wasted no time in running it down. By getting rid of the infrastructure quickly after closure, the destruction was complete. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ravintrainman 10 Posted January 7, 2015 Report Share Posted January 7, 2015 The mouth to the Mansfield Road tunnel can still be seen from the bus station The tunnel mouth and wing walls of Victoria St tunnel are still in place, and pretty much unchanged behind the wall at the south end of the Vic centre. There are still various bits and pieces of railway stuff in the tunnels, sleepers, keys, signal wire and the like. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dkw 1 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 hello, im new to this(sorry if it sounds daft ) am i right in thinking that the line from victoria station runs under town towards the broadmarsh area. if so is it possible to go down there and explore? cheers Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,457 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Yes, it does, but no you can't. And welcome to the site. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
firbeck 859 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 1966:- Weekday Cross. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BulwellBrian 107 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Iron ore to Stanton? It was better with the O4's before the Midland Region got hold of it. It then went via Maperley tunnel. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dkw 1 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 thanks for the speedy reply clif ton Quote Link to post Share on other sites
firbeck 859 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 That's what I was thinking mate, presumably via High Dyke and Grantham, they had another class of 2-8-0's shedded there for that purpose as well, O2's weren't they, lovely looking GNR beasties that used to work through Vic from High Dyke when there were two routes into Stanton Ironworks. What a place that was, we used to watch the coal trains going in from Stanton Gate, I can even recall the Garretts on that duty in the 50's, they used to swap around trainloads of coal in Stanton Gate sidings. Go down there now and there's one of those horrible security fences that stops you sitting on the bank that is on the other side of the road from what was the Stanton Gate Station booking office. I have a nice photo of an 8F chugging through there, can't upload it at the moment. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,139 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Firbeck,.......as you know i'm not into Trains and that (well perhaps just a little) but i thought about you recently,when i had reason to be in the old Stanton ironworks,my daughter spends 2 days a week working there,a few of the old buildings are still in use and you can imagine what a hive of activity it must have been when Trains were in and out and thousands of people spent their lives working there. Sorry you can't upload at the moment, lol. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Robbie 39 Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Benjamin, I remember as a kid we used to swim in the river because of the warm water at Stanton Ironworks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
firbeck 859 Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 Robbie, that would have been the Erewash Canal, there was a footpath opposite the Festival Inn at Trowell that brought you out on the canal bank right opposite one of the blast furnaces. It was a fantastic experience to go down there at night and watch them pour out the steel into special railway trucks, you could feel the heat from the opposite bank. Ben, there used to be a road that cut through the centre of the ironworks, it's not passable anymore, to cycle through there was an experience, the howl of the air being introduced into the blast furnaces, very low bridges, pipes, trains chugging all over the place, wagons full of red hot slag parked up to cool down, the smoke drifting everywhere from the coking plant up at the Ilkeston end and inexplicably next to the Stanton Ironworks sports field and pavilion. I used to play hockey for the company team, sometimes on a Saturday afternoon we'd end up choking from the fumes when the water was introduced to cool the coke, that funny old timber cooling tower belching steam at an incredible rate. I suppose I lived just over two miles from the place, when I was a kid, I would lie in bed and hear the howl as the air was forced into the blast furnaces, there used to be inexplicable loud rushing noises which I presumed was the coke being dropped out of the plant into trucks. There also used to be a very sulphorous smell which I presume came from the coking plant. On top of that I could hear the continuous sounds of shunting trains within the complex and the chug and clank of coal and iron ore trains travelling up the Midland Main Line, if it clanked you knew it was an Austerity 2-8-0. If you cycled up the through road from the Stanton Gate end, the sheds were situated just before a double bend and very low bridge, not far from the coking plant. Here's a couple of pics I took of Stanton Ironworks Co engines one evening when Bilbraborn and I were sniffing about, taking in the atmosphere, unhealthy though it no doubt was:- 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BulwellBrian 107 Posted January 22, 2015 Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 The coke came out of the ovens red hot and burst into flames when it reached the air. It was transported in a special rail wagon and drenched with water to put out the flames. The tower was called a Quenshing tower. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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