An Unlikely Connection!
Treeton (top left) was one of many South Yorkshire colliery villages.
Only Pit Lane remains as a reminder of those days.
There is no pit down Pit Lane; just new housing plus a posh community centre!
But those changes are still very much in the future.
Buses ran frequently from Rotherham as service 33.
They ran up Bole Hill to a turning circle above the village ...
... now adorned by a heritage colliery truck!
fbb is certain that extra buses ran to Pit Lane at shift times.
Bole Hill is top right; Pit Lane is bottom right. High Hazel Road is a new-ish thoroughfare taking traffic away from the original roads, Front Street and Wood Lane, through the village.
Pit Lane was the time point for a bus service from Sheffield numbered 21.
Part of the 21 service (later all buses) was extended from Treeton to Swallowest ...
... and further extended to serve new housing, confusingly, called Aston Estate; although the blinds always showed Swallownest!
Q
Readers might be forgiven for getting a bit confused.com. So here is a summary of Sheffield Transport (technically Sheffield Joint Omnibus Committee) services to the area.
The PTE renumbered the services by adding 200, but, for a while the 221 remained basically the same.
Possibly because Harthill is a boundary town, it was never served by Sheffield Joint Omnibus Committee. But Harthill WAS in Yorkshire - just.
Nearby Killamarsh to the west is in Derbyshire whilst Worksop to the east is in Nottinghamshire.
Buses from Sheffield via Harthill were provided by East Midland route 46 ...
... often continuing to Clowne. Booth and Fisher ...
... ran from Worksop via the intriguingly named Rhodesia!
Rhodesia is a village and civil parish in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. The village lies just west of the town of Worksop, and approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-southeast of Sheffield. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish was 982.
The village was built in 1920, near the small established settlement of Haggonfield, to provide housing for coal miners working at the nearby Shireoaks and Steetley pits. It was named after G. Preston Rhodes, then chairman of Shireoaks Colliery. Tylden Road, the main road through the village, was named after the pit's first manager. There are no longer any active mines in the area.
As part of the People's Republic of South Yorkshire, the PTE was committed to serving everywhere within the new Metropolitan County. So, eventually, PTE buses found their way to Harthill.
Services were soon in a state of upheaval brought about by deregulation, competition and the opening of the retail-fest at Meadowhall, so in tomorrow's blog, fbb will try to explain how buses came to link Treeton and Harthill, a link developed as the chaos subsided.
One development that characterised the planning department of the PTE was services branded "Fastline".
Sheffield Transport had pioneered genuine express service to Dinnington, but only as peak "commuter" services. The route numbering policy had been that of adding 100. So service 6 began a whole list of associated routes.
6 - The core Dinnington route
106 - Colliery service
206 - renumbered by PTE from 6
306 - Sheffield to Woodsetts
406 - via Sheffield Parkway
506 - via M1 to Aston
The Fastline buses were not very fast, but, in the case of Treeton and Dinnington, they, too, used the Sheffield Parkway from the city centre to Handsworth.
The Fastline buses were not very fast, but, in the case of Treeton and Dinnington, they, too, used the Sheffield Parkway from the city centre to Handsworth.
Treeton became Fastline X14 and X15 depending on the ultimate destination.
The 406 and 506 became X4 and X5 respectively and these numbers soon begat all day "X" services via Swallownest.
Without going into great detail (which fbb really needs to research further) this pattern of services speeded up via the Parkway and shown on the map below via Handsworth in green ...
Routeing via this "fast line" was a bit faster but still presents horrific problems at morning peak as traffic from a wide area was funnelled into one roundabout right in the centre of the city.
Above, the Parkway (plus tram tracks) arrives at Park Square with the city centre just off shot top right; below, typical peak hour queues.
Tomorrow, we shall see this Parkway pattern in today's services, particularly to Treeton. We shall also see how it links to Harthill which, on the surface, might seem and odd route for buses to take.
... remains in place today.
That's because it is an odd route.
How mysterious are the ways of the bus scheduler?
Another Expensive Engine
Another Expensive Engine
As part of its 10th Anniversary celebrations, Hornby (Triang as was) announced a small range of locos to be sold under the old Hornby Dublo brand. These, like their originals, were to be almost completely diecast (metal) rather than plastic; and with a limited production run.
The "Spam Can" comes in a traditional Hornby Dublo box ...
... but the model is superb.
As might be expected, the model comes at a "superb" price.
Next "Why Do They Do This" blog : Thursday 26th August
Sorry but where have you dreamed this from. The 406 became the X6, which ran once a day each way following the 206 but omitted Darnall. The 506 went to Anston, Wee Wille Hotel via Attercliffe, Carbrook, M1, Todwick. The X4 was completely new running Parkway, M1, A57, Anston to Dinnington. The X15 went to Aston and the X14 only made an appearance in the tenner years. Nd before you continue on this fairytale the X54 is operates beyond Aston with funding from the PTE.
ReplyDeleteBooth and Fisher served Rhodesia, Wales and Ireland Colliery!
ReplyDelete