mick2me 3,033 Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 The Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom Viewed this topic via www.google.co.uk — nottingham suburban railway route At 21 Dec 16:01 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
banjo48 928 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Came to this thread via a link from a current thread. May be of interest, my brother in laws best mate lives in a house he built on Woodthorpe drive, he has the old railway tunnel as part of his garden. Was going to use it as a wine cellar/store but it was way too damp, he now uses it as a gardening store. Cost him a fortune to enclose the front with some fancy timber work. Think he also has problems with floods when heavy rain as the water comes in from the blocked (park side). Another memory as a kid for me, my great aunt lived on the Wells road, backing onto the railway line. Would be early mid 50's, when I used to walk their dog along there with my great uncle Harry. They left mid 60's to go into the Abel Collins homes on Derby road Woolaton (as in another thread). Prior to emigrating, my work depot was the old Thorneywood station (British Telecom) and I remember the blue brick arches in a previous photo very well, as we used to park our work vans near them in the early 80's. All sold off though after privatization came in the late 80's. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Would love something like that! though can only think it was actually just the bridge of Woodthorpe Drive? which pre the railway was called Scout Lane, both ends of the original route of the road diverted over the bridge can still be seen there, The tunnel in the park (IIRC called Seeleys after the then owner of the land) leading through to Sherwood Station was further in the park with a cutting between that and the bridge. Did you ever see a (no doubt bricked up by then) single line tunnel mouth in those blue brick arches you mention leading more or less under the pub at bottom of Porchester Rd? this was only a short one and came out in the brickyards where the car auction place is/was, may actually have been a cable hauled arrangement as the later pub built in said yards bore the name The Engine House I think? After the BT depot closed I explored the site but could find no evidence of that tunnel, You would not know it now, totally filled in and housing built on it and the old iron footpath bridge long gone Quote Link to post Share on other sites
denshaw 2,871 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 I knew someone that ran the Coopers arms at the bottom of Porchester Road. The cellar went down quite deep, i think at one time it could have been some type of parcel delivery system from the station. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
banjo48 928 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Ashley The house I mentioned is at the corner of Woodthorpe Avenue/ Woodthorpe drive, I visited it last year as my BIL was house sitting for the owner. Cannot remember the tunnel under the pub but do remember the the bricked up arches, yes I saw last year that there was houses now built on the old BT depot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 I got the tunnel name wrong it was Ashwells Tunnel in Woodthorpe Park, hopefully will include a photo copy of a photo copy of bridge and tunnel mouth, poor quality I'm afraid All that is the other side of the bridge in bottom picture was in Woodthorpe Park Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,458 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Did you ever see a (no doubt bricked up by then) single line tunnel mouth in those blue brick arches you mention leading more or less under the pub at bottom of Porchester Rd? this was only a short one and came out in the brickyards where the car auction place is/was, may actually have been a cable hauled arrangement as the later pub built in said yards bore the name The Engine House I think? After the BT depot closed I explored the site but could find no evidence of that tunnel, You would not know it now, totally filled in and housing built on it and the old iron footpath bridge long gone Until I started looking, I never knew I had these photos. You can just see it in the murky distance, apparently after it had been bricked up. To get your bearings, The Coopers Arms is just visible. Before it had been bricked up. And where it all was. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Hang on a minute, you didn't know you had the pics, I didn't recall seeing it, and get tunnel names wrong, is there something catching in here or just old age, admittedly bricked up but do recall it now (dimly) I wonder what else I've seen and what other pics you or others have? lol Despite being built late on the stations also shut early (cept for the royal visit) so can't recall any photos of station entrances, roads etc in fact any station photos other than official ones, never seen the embankments at daybrook nor the bridged signal box at junction there, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,458 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Hang on a minute, you didn't know you had the pics, I didn't recall seeing it, and get tunnel names wrong, is there something catching in here or just old age I have increasingly noticed that whenever a problem crops up, the explanation is likely to be "it's age-related". can't recall any photos of station entrances, roads etc in fact any station photos other than official ones, never seen the embankments at daybrook nor the bridged signal box at junction there, Never thought of that before, but now you mention it.......... I'll have a look around for anything else I might not know I have Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mick2me 3,033 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 The Engine House Pub. Been in once many years ago, 70s perhaps? It was relatively new and did have an engine on display. What was it? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 I Found this on the internet The Engine House public house, Burgass Road "This public house was built on the site of The Nottingham Patent Brick Company and incorporated this rather large and old horizontal single cylinder steam engine. This was possibly c1850 and installed secondhand in 1868 and worked here for 98 years - a very creditable performance. The cylinder is 21" bore x 66" stroke and the flywheel is 16' diameter and had been adapted for rope drive. The engine was removed from the pub in 1982 and is being slowly re-erected at Nottingham Industrial Museum" Don't know much about this site but the similar quarries of the same company working around the Winchester Street/Woodthorpe Drive area with railway lines and rope and pulley haulage of wagons, so it looks as if a similar system employed at Burgass Rd with maybe the single tunnel used by a steam loco to collect the wagons from some central point? I'm guessing actually but Sherwood Station had a similar branch line going to the quarries via a bridge under Sherwood Vale, but the map on this site and one of the Sherwwod set up show no sign of cables or ropes on the line coming into the sidings http://s0.geograph.o...85_bd6f3a7c.jpg the link takes you to a photo of the actual engine in situ at the pub 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mick2me 3,033 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Thanks for that Ashley Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,458 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 so can't recall any photos of station entrances, roads etc in fact any station photos other than official ones, These two are slightly in that category http://www.pictureth...008362&prevUrl= http://www.pictureth...008363&prevUrl= Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beefsteak 305 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 In the old quarry, Honeywood ? Gardens . Top of Carlton Road just as it enters Carlton from the Nott'm end. The engine was removed and succesfully re activated at the Wollaton Park Museum Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beefsteak 305 Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Sorry, just got back online and noticed the other posts after I wrote the last bit. IMMSC there is a map in existance (In my collection somewhere) of the branch line from near Thorneywood Station (on the Nott'm Suburban line) into the Quarry that is now actually "Thorneywood Gardens" (not Honeywood as I had initially thought) again IMMSC it states that this was not operated with a "loco" but just the big engine pulling and lowering trucks up and down the line. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Thanks Cliff Ton for photos, had seen them before, but now in my collection, however still not the sort I was hoping for, but thinking about it am not going to get as no trainspotter etc with a box brownie would be interested in the stations seeing as they shut in 1916 that 2nd one of the Sherwood station house brings back memories as I worked at that site in 1964 actually spreading that foundation stone the JCB is compacting, horrible job spreading such by a shovel after about 10 ton tipped in a heap off back of a lorry, 2nd worst only to unloading what seemed like 30,000 bricks by hand off the lorries that delivered daily. The station house was later subject to a police raid after some neo nazi pirate radio station set up there blacking out half the area's tv and radio reception! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
banjo48 928 Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Another memory as a kid was the small tower at the top of Anold Lane / Gedling Lane, on the right as you drive East. When a train used to go through the tunnel , (assume it was a steam train) the smoke used to rise from the tower ! Probably a vent shaft ? As a young teenager we used to bet each other to walk from the Arnold side through to the Gedling side with no torch or anything ! rumour said the tunnel was haunted ! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Yes that was the GNR main line, there were 3 of those shafts, one in the former wooded area which became a sports centre/squash club now housing site the one across the road in the boy scouts site named pepper pot as that's what they looked like, and a 3rd in more woods to the left going down towards Gedling pit, the latter 2 still stand, they were actually I understand shafts to gain access when digging the tunnel, I always assumed when digging they'd go in one end and dig through, or from each end and meet in the middle as it were? but not the case, there would be various shafts down from which they then struck out when they got to required depth, Mansfield Rd tunnel on the GCR had such a shaft at the end of the forest, the covered in daffodils bank from the old gatehouse next to the graveyard down to Gregory Boulevard is spoil from the tunnel there. The 3 shafts on the GNR route were built up and as you say left as ventilation shafts. After closure I walked through the Gedling tunnel twice and rode though on a motorbike, pitch black in the middle! access can still be got from the Gedling end so far in I understand Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Refound this , the Arnold end of the GNR tunnel, on here somewhere already I think but another clue to my oncoming senility lol, had said tunnel was pitch black in the middle when as clearly seen straight so some light coming in, think confusing with the NSR one from Winchester St under Mapperley top which had 2 bends in it, (and keeps us on topic) The cutting in the photo is still there, at rear of some scouts hut/community building weaverthorpe rd/woodford rd area off Arno Vale Drive (or is it Road)? the tunnel mouth is banked up but rest is as seen if overgrown (alot) If the gates are open and hut etc in use you can usually get permission to have a walk down the cutting, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 If you go here http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/ hopefully you will find 4 photos of The NSR I've never seen before, plus various Nottingham railways photos and trolleybus photos, maybe 8-10 in all of interest, theres 92 photos and in no particular order so a case of just going through the site, would be good to get them on here 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 now that's what I call a garden feature http://i287.photobuc...eller/007-8.jpg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubblewrap 3,815 Posted December 15, 2012 Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 Going through the posts on the N.S.R. I could see no mention of David Birch's history of this line at the moment it runs to two volumes available from Book Law publications with a third volume to follow in the new year. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,458 Posted December 15, 2012 Report Share Posted December 15, 2012 If you go here http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/ hopefully you will find 4 photos of The NSR I've never seen before, plus various Nottingham railways photos and trolleybus photos, maybe 8-10 in all of interest, theres 92 photos and in no particular order so a case of just going through the site, would be good to get them on here A nice discovery. Never seen any of those before, the railway or the bus/coach photos. And, one of the coach photos is described as being "in the back yard of the Victoria Hotel". Never heard of that before, and looking at old maps I can't work out where it was and where the access was. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mick2me 3,033 Posted December 16, 2012 Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 Where is that located in post #76? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley 288 Posted December 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 It's actually in the west mids somewhere and over a canal tunnel! found it via google search for mapperley tunnel images Re Victoria Hotel back yard, I recall a couple of narrow gaps in building on Milton Street. possible the juctions of of roads done away with when the vic was built, maybe entrance down such Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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