'A Window on the Past'; Tinsley Yard, 1960s-1980s

* The fourth in a series of 'look-back' mosaics using pictures recently made available to me from Adrian Wynn's archive.
Regarding Adrian Wynn's picture collection.
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22/2/23
Note: I am currently seeking the higher resolution material from Adrian's photographic collection, both negative and digital. His partner, Annie, has offered to let me use them as I wish, and I hope she is able to find this material in Adrian's extensive collection.
26/2/23
This has now occured and I have both her permission to use original PSD files and negatives and so I have therefore up-dated the mosaic material here, with the higher resolution originals. Our meeting also resulted in my both getting some of Adrian's collected negatives and his digital camera files, from over the last 40 & 20 years respectively, and agreement to use them with due credit to him, which is what I always do here of course.
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** None from me this time as have just posted a contemporary Tinsley set related to the 'Spoil Train' and the Liner depot.

In this set of 4, the upper pair face north-west towards Shepcote Lane and now, of course, the Meadowhall shopping area. The lower pair face south-east over-looking the denuded Reception Sidings and Tinsley Yard Box on the left and on the right, the scene as it looked about a decade earlier with the Reception Sidings full, the Sheffield Parkway is in the distance.

Taking the 4 pictures separately, at upper left, a wide-angle view of the whole north part of the Yard after electrification had reached it soon after the Woodhead Electrification was complete. The gantries enter the Yard on the far left coming up the bank at Broughton Lane JUnction, passing through Shepcote Junction and joining the lines from both the old Sheffield District Line from Brightside, the line still signalled but unused and the other line from the north-east from the Rotherham direction, all three lines converging at Shepcote Lane Junction. The Sheffield District Line, which ran along the site to the far left, remained in use until the development of the Yard began in 1961, the east end of the line at Brightside being used by several local industries and at the other end, at the other side of Catcliffe Station & Viaduct, was Hadfields' Tip, with a connection coming off the curve from Treeton South Junction. The short, 65 metre, Tinsley Wood Tunnel, was situated just 800 metres east of the Station and this closed to public traffic in 1955, the Tunnel succumbed early on in the development, when material excavated from the Yard was used to fill in the cutting. Hadfields' Tip remained in use for a while, access was from the north-east curve at Treeton, with outbound moves along the south-east curve to Treeton Junction and the Tip remained in use until around mid-1967; though I have unfortunately never seen any pictures of those moves along the two curves.
Continuing. The Yard Control Tower stands prominent at centre and if the detail on the negative is correct, this is 1972. On the left, between the lines of OHL gantries are, from the left, the Diesel Servicing Depot, the Washer and standing at the end of a short siding, the Breakdown Crane shed. On the far right, the double-track lines are those which replaced the S.D.R, Sheffield District Railway's line through the Yard it having been filled in and in fact, the Tinsley Diesel Maintenance Depot, which can be seen in the lower left view, was built on top of it, sited just about where Tinsley Wood Tunnel was once located. There appears to be little in the way of actual train movements in this somewhat poor view of the Yard activities, which is rather a shame, I don't think operations stopped here for any reason, tine of the day or night or season of the year..

At upper-right, now in colour and showing a little bit more in the way of traction, just the south side of the view, shown in the panoramic view to the left, shows a class 37 with fellow UID locos behind moving along one of the non-electrified lines, behind the Diesel Servicing Depot. The flight of steps down the bank on the left, is one of the now few few things still remaining in the Yard and there is a large pile of sand piled up behind one of the buffer stops at the end of a short line from the depot, maybe just a convenient store for the sand? The rest of the Yard once more looks to be without much activity and like the other picture at left, there doesn't seem to be anyone operating the equipment in the Control Tower, I wonder if this is another Sunday afternoon?, there is no date on the 35mm negative unfortunately. The date must be, once again, before July 1981 as the Woodhead electrification gantries are still in site. The Woodhead Line closed on the 18th July of that year and it took a while for all the gantries to be removed, though the approx. 1" diameter copper wire was removed immediately, as it was so valuable. One of the other artifacts which still remains, and can be seen in both these pictures, though in the left-hand one, it is hard to make out, is the concrete water tank, standing in the background behind the control tower and to its left, the shorter of the 2 structures visible, its still there!

Moving now to the other side of the Wood Lane over-bridge and the lower two views now face south-east, the one at lower left has interest of another kind in that two locos, one UID class 47 and one class 37, 37053, are parked up on the engine line, outside the Tinsley Power Box. This is one of Adrian's large format, 55mmx55mm negatives and the quality is quite good, though not the exposure, it is also in B/W so doesn't show the livery on both locos which is a large yellow panel with 3 red diamond motif, the old, sectorised, 'Speedlink Livery', from the early 90s after B.R. had been, catastrophically, privatised. As can be seen, it must be well into the 1990ss as the Reception Sidings, which are so full in the right-hand picture here, have now been lifted and there is nothing happening in this area of the Yard. Over on the left, but not visible in this shot, is the double track formation along the bottom of the other bank, visible in the picture at top left, which take moves through the Yard and over to the NOrth Midland line, via the north & south curves at Treeton. The Diesel Maintenance Depot stands atop the filled in cutting of the Sheffield District Railway in the upper right of this picture and behind the Depot, atop the bank, there is a line of engines hiding behind the row of bushes, shame that, at the front of the two lines are a class 47 and class 31. The Sheffield Parkway can be seen crossing the site somewhat downhill from the parked up locos and over the years, there were a few runaways here, with the odd loco appearing stuck on the dual-carriageway Parkway itself!, here's one-
www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_2021_03...
and another-
www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_2021_03...
37053 appears to be popular, it's in this, 1 hour, video about Tinsley Yard in the 1980s and 1990s, taken in 1992 and its 45m30s in, see-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BAYwVVAsCY
It also features on p.174 of Chris Booth & Alex Fisher's Tinsley book, see below, the picture take on 23/4/92, showing it hauling a rake of acetic, 'vinegar', tanks on the 6V14 Hull Saltend to Baglan Bay working. The loco was allocated to Darnall Shed, 41A, on 14th September 1962 but moved to Tinsley in 1964 after which it moved on again to various locales, before coming back at Tinsley on 16th July, 1989 and finally on to Immingham in 1995 before being withdrawn the following year but was not finally scrapped until 2005. 37185, 47345 and another 47 are in this loco convoy through the Yard, well worth a look...
Another 'feature' in this picture which I knew nothing off until close inspection of the negative, can be seen between the 3 and 4th lamp standards, counting from the bridge, along the track behind the two locos, its a steeply inclined line, rising to the top of the bank and connecting with the lines which the stabled locos are occupying, behind the Maintenance Depot; I had never seen this before. Apparently, according to the Booth & Fisher book on Tinsley Yard, see below, its an access line which 'zig-zags' up at the eastern end of the Reception Sidings, connecting to the lines at the back of the T.M.D. In this shot from the early 90s, it is clearly disconnected and ends abruptly with a sleeper 'stop block' sat across the line where it once joined the Engine Line. This line coming down the bank looks to meet the Engine Line at too acute an angle to have joined just at this spot. The lower picture on p.68 of the 'Tinsley Book' also shows this line, this time in a colour shot of the populated Reception area, similar to the one at right here and, on p.39 in the same book, the words 'the buffer stops at the west end of the viaduct (at Catcliffe) were moved to the bottom of the zig-zag access to the higher level diesel depot...' so .. there you have it.. shame there isn't a shot with a locomotive on it!
I have just taken a look at the Google Earth view for 1/1/1999, just about early enough to show the remains of this trackbed from the east end of the Yard, up the bank to what used to be the tracks out of the rear of the T.M.D. The 'zig-zag' line is now marked by shrubbery, but it is clearly visible and shows the extent of it, something which the picture here makes look very steep; it is still visible on the Google Earth views for 2002 and 2008.

Moving to the last shot in this series at lower right. And, 'back in time on the sounds of the nations, its the Radio Caroline flashback..', ha! Fortunately another colour negative and of pretty good quality, though once again, with no thought to the impact of a bright sky in those days, its over-exposed at the top so most of it has been cut off. Once again, no indication of the date on the 35mm colour negative, along with the quality and colour rendition, it looks to have been taken at the same time as the one immediately above it, looking the other way, no sign of any traction action here either. The Reception Sidings are full of what would now be described as 'classic goods' vehicles of all types, but there's not one loco in sight. The over-head electrification for 5-6 of the lines went along through the sidings at this side, the final gantry being just under the Sheffield Parkway which can be seen in the distance; the huge concrete bases for the supports for this last, terminating, gantry are still extant. I have just been able to upload a shot of the OHL Gantry removal, which I have had for a while, which shows the huge structure being taken off its concrete base, presumably during an Engineering Possession at this end of the Yard. The photograph was taken two years after the Woodhead Line closed in July 1981, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/52817497995/
Photographer: unknown.
As the OHL gantries and the copper conductor is still present, this means this shot was probably from the 1970s, like the one above it in this set. The signalling at Tinsley was under control from 3 boxes, Shepcote Lane, Tinsley Park & the main one, Tinsley Yard P.S.B. the latter existing in-tact until it was destroyed by an arson attack in 2010; the concrete pad of this being the only thing that remains, and is now used by the Newell & Wright Container Company for some of their storage.

Tinsley Depot closed on March 27th, 1998 and since that time the Yard saw a gradual decline in its facilities. It has been somewhat 'rejuvenated' in the last few years by the presence of the 'Amey PLC Ltd.' stone processing business, starting out in the early 2010s, at the north-west end of the Yard near the site of the old Shepcote Lane box. Subsequently, just a few years ago, the Newell & Wright Container Terminal set-up business on the land once occupied by the Reception Sidings and now appears to be very busy. On the other side of Wood Lane bridge, next to the location of the Yard Control Tower, a 'Spoil Pad' has been built to deal with disposal of the huge amount of material being dug out in the London area for the HS2 project, the material finding its way to the local area here, in holes at the old Silverwood Colliery site in the Thrybergh/Dalton area. This too appears now to be well used and so the Yard spaces, left over after the building of the huge, white, air-craft hangar type distribution buildings of Marks & Spencer, appear to have filled up with modern retail/industrial facilities.

Additional Comments...
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* A summary of the conversation between two senior personell just before work was commenced on the site in early 1961-
'... A major problem was the lack of connections between the former Midland and former Great Central networks. Gerry Fiennes the Chief Operating Officer, Dick Temple, the Divisional Manager at Sheffield and Ralph Sadler, the Chief Civil Engineer spent two days looking at the places where Midland and Great Central were close with the idea of a common marshalling yard... Eventually we landed up at Catcliffe with the Midland line at our back and before us, the Sheffield District Line leading to Brightside and junctions with the Midland and with the Great Central there. "From here," I said, "with a couple of new junctions we can get north, south, east and west. We can make the Midland and the G.C. one railway. But look at that bloody great mountain in the middle of the site". Ralph rolled his head and his one eye; he waved his hands; "Muck shifting is easy nowadays. I can take it away in a matter of months". We decided there and then...'

* I am indebted to Chris Booth for help with the negative ID with 37053 in it and for pointing out what the 'zig-zag' line was on the bank in the background. His & Alex Fisher's book, 'Tinsley & the Modernisation of Sheffield's Railways', pub. by 'Platform 5' was also most useful for the background research.

* In addition-
In support of this 'Tinsley Yard, Window on the Past' piece, I have made available again, the 3 videos on which were first published 10 years ago for the 'Celebrations for 100th Anniversary of Steel City', 35028 'Clan Line' at Tinsley', until now they were no longer available here, but have they have been uploaded once more ,this time to the 'IMARCH2' archive site, so they may be viewed once more in connection with this piece of work, see-
* at 1m 3s - 4764, 81Mby MP4
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/52781414586/
* at 1m 39s - 4765, 133Mby MP4
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/52781665719/
* at 2m 3s, - 4787, 123Mby MP4
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch2/52781415651/

The still pictures from the series are here-
4646
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525244591/
4659/660/661
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525244516/
4702
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525244451/
4719/721/727
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525244426/
4744
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49525466882/
4779+781+782+784
www.flickr.com/photos/imarch1/49524732508/

Taken in: UK / England / Tinsley (show map)

Taken on: June 6, 2019

Tags:

Tinsley Yard

Shepcote Lane

Tinsley Control Tower

S.D.R.

Sheffield District Railway

Newell & Wright Container Terminal

Outokumpu Steel

Marks & Spencer

Tinsley Park Colliery

Broughton Lane

Amey PLC Ltd.

Tinsley Intermodal Terminal

Signal TY0204

Signal TY0202

Signal W0207

Signal W0206

Signal W0205

Signal W0204

Signal W0209

Signal W0208

Signal W0226

Signal W0227

Tinsley Wood Tunnel

Catcliffe Station

Hadfields' Tip

Treeton North East Curve

Treeton South East Curt

Class 37

37053

ex-D6753

Darnall Depot

Shed Code 41A

Speedlink Livery

Class 47

Shepcote Lane Signal Box

Tinsley Park Signal Box

Tinsley Yard P.S.B.

Marks & Spencer Ltd.

London Spoil Pad « less

Sets appears in: • Window on the Past • Tinsley Yard

Groups appears in: • South Yorkshire Railway History

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