A Tale Of Three Bridges (2)

 Blame The Midland Railway!

In 1838, the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway opened the first train line into Sheffield from the north east. The terminus was on the fringes of the city just north of the road called Wicker.

A link was engineered with the North Midland Railway at Masborough some distance from Rotherham town centre. The Sheffield line continued to  more central terminus at Rotherham Westgate.

Clearly such a weedy link to what was becoming a major industrial city was soon wholly inadequate. So the Midland Railway built a brand new line north from Chesterfield and through the hugely challenging Bradway tunnel ...

... to serve a brand new Midland Station. The route was challenging but simple in one sense. Just dig a gurt big tube through solid rock then run the tracks alongside a minimalist river.

OK, it got a bit more tricky as the rails approached the city centre and that river had to be buried to make way for the station - but the approach from the north was tricky as well.

The new main line opened in 1870 when Wicker was demoted to being a goods depot. 

We will get to our Three Bridges soon, honest.

So let's let the train take the strain as we chunter cheerfully southbound to Sheffield Midland. In this Google Earth view ...

... we see the main line entering top right and making its exit bottom right. Bottom left is the square block that is Tesco on the site of Wicker station, passenger then goods.

It is just about possible to draw a theoretical straight line frim top right to bottom left, the route taken by goods trains to Wicker until closure in 1965.

Moreover, we can explore the 1870 new line c/o Google Earth as it approaches Midland Station..

So here goes! Here we may spot our three bridges ...

... two rail and one road as the River Don is crossed. Next we cross the Sheffield and Rotherham canal ....

... as seen from the canal towpath.

 Keep an eye on the chimney, far right. 

We burrow under the Sheffield Victoria line.

 Next we are below the Sheffield Parkway A57 ...

... noting one of many disused roads that once crossed the line. There will be many more! Our next bridge is Sheffield's Supertram, namely the route to Meadowhell and Rotherham.

Then cast a bewildered eye on even more bridges and arches where trains from the east join in ...

... and even more ...

... as the tram tracks to Halfway filter in.

The tram then crosses over to the east side of the big train tracks ...

... and we are at the throat of Midland Station.

And we are told that HS2 is "challenging"!

It should be a doddle compared with getting the Midland Main Line through Sheffield! And the railway companies were doing it all over the UK!

Tomorrow, at last, we get to explore the Three Bridges..

  Next Three Bridges blog : Thurs 28 May 

A Tale Of Three Bridges (1)

Please note : fbb is still "fragile" and recovering far too slowly from a really heavy cold and other associated nasties. Helpful Seaton chums report that there is a lot of it about.

Three Bridges, Where?

But not the above trio. What about Three Bridges station?

There is even this junction in Southall, London.

The "Three Bridges" of this blog is not an official name of an area in Sheffield which has three obvious bridges and quite a few more nearby.

Well that's one bridge seen in a before and after montage. Neither of these pictures is dated, but Sheffield's last tram route ran under this bridge and was withdrawn in 1960. fbb suspects that the trams are older than that.

Courtesy of Google Earth we can see the junction in its recent guise.

The white building with the rounded end is a useful clue to aid matching the pictures with the view from fbb's helicopter!

So, let is take a drive from the city centre to the photographed bridge. There is, however, a health warning. It is no longer possible to follow fbb's route exactly due to road "improvements".

We would start by travelling along Wicker, erroneously called The Wicker by many.

The arches mark the point where Great Central trains crossed on their way via the Woodhead route to Manchester.

The bridge is a lot cleaner now, a testament to the decline of heavy industry in the city. 

The left fork under the bridge leads up Spital Hill which ultimately becomes Barnsley Road. Guess where that leads!

But we fork right along Savile Street. The land on the left used to be the Wicker Goods Yard of the Midland Railway.

It was huge!

Savile Street is on the right. 

Just past the yard, the road splits..

This point (once a tram junction) was known as the Twelve o Clock junction after a pub which stood in the apex

A modern block ...

... is called Twelve o'Clock Court.

The left hand fork leads to the inappropriately named Brightside, location of some of the city's heaviest and smokiest industry.

The smoke has all gone as has much of the heavy industry.

Soon afterwards we come to our bridge ....

... or maybe bridges. 

Just under the bridge on our left ...

... we see the former Midland Railway main line on its merry way to Barnsley and Rotherham. The road is names Princess Street and plays a very small part in a Sheffield bus route.

Part 2 will look at the railway and its bridges in more detail.

  Next three bridges blog : Weds 27th May 

Bank Holiday Monday Variety

Puzzle Pictures

This was, perhaps a little unfair. The picture is a ' colourised' postcard with colours being chosen by the printer without any public transport knowledge.

The tram is too fuzzy to be identified but the bus can only be from Liverpool city transport. It should be green. fbb pointed out the unique destination blind layout in a recent blog.

Latterly all city trams were similarly endowed.

Picture 3 was The Fat Controller from the Thomas books.

But even childrens' stories have to be politically correct. You cannot cause deep offence to fat people by calling them fat. So the bodily badly inflated controller became Sir Topham Hatt.

Incidentally, thanks to Google's clever (?) search routines, fbb can reveal that you can buy a Fat Controller.

Yep: it controls fat!

Picture 2 was of Seaton Junction station on the South Western main line.

The train to Colyton, Colyford and Seaton will depart from the curved platform far right. The very long footbridge is part of a public footpath and provides no access to station remnants. It does, however, allow visitors to view the remnants of a once busy junction.

Correspondent Andrew wondered whether fbb had asked the same question in a previous blog.

If he did, fbb cannot find it! But there are over 5600 blogs to consider. How quickly we forget?

How Quickly We Forget! (1)

The Councillor is very excited!

The local press has been equally thrilled.

But it looks like just three trips on arbitrary days.

Surely an occasional round trip is hardly a "trial"?

But from 1966 to 1968 Hovertravel ran a proper service between Ryde and Lee on the Solent.

This followed a trial by an SRN3 vessel in 1964 ...

... with the SRN6 being the standard for passengers once the real service began.

There were not enough passengers to make it viable.

Has anything changed?

How Quickly We Forget! (2)

The Duchess of Hamilton was a 'streamlined' loco of the LMS.

The loco achieved notoriety by being part of a promotional train despatched to the USA, where it was equipped with regulatory headlight and bell.

But the UK railway authorities told porky pies. Because it was thought nobody would have ever heard of the noble Duchess, the loco was renamed Coronation for the visit!

The real "Coronation" was blue ...

... and the special Coronation Scot trainsets were also blue.

The good news us that the Royal Mint has just produced a commemorative £2 coin showing 6229  ...

... in its maroon guise. You could get a "plain" £2 coin for ...

... a modest £17.50. Or coloured for ...

... a modest £27.50. But for the real oficionados ...

... a Silver Proof at £115! Not quite good enough? How about ...

... a Piedfort version for £190?

Piedfort? 

It is thicker, so won't work in slot machines. It is also struck "with extra care" and a brand new mallet!

Or maybe you prefer the lure of Gold!

What cost of living crisis?

How Quickly We Forget? (3)

fbb is well narked with himself! Yesterday was Whitsunday (White Clothing Sunday) which is the third most important "festival" in the Christian calendar.

It marks the occasion, 50 days after Christ's resurrection. And very much, yes he did!

A gang of frightened, mostly uneducated blokes were behind locked doors expecting they would be next for the Cross.

And fbb forgot the day! Blame it on the Rangoon Nadgers of the past week or so. The fbbs were not fit to go to Church on 17th when they would have been reminded, and not fit yesterday either.

But Pentecost is so powerful that the thousands of artists impressions of the event can tend to put people off, especially if they try to paint the scene literally or as some sort of "religious" event.

Maybe better to sit quietly and let the words paint the picture for real.

When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

What matters is less the picture and more the event. Those humble blokes took the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah and began the exponential spread of Christianity.

Every committed Christian feels the power of God's Holy Spirit from time to time.

=======================

And fbb has struggled to remember ...

 Next Three Bridges blog : Tuesday 26th May