Home Page  I  Dairy of EventsLatest News PageSpecial Articles  I  General Information  I  Other Attractions   Links    Local RadioWalt's Archives  I  Letters  I  From the Digital Archives  |  Window's Live List

Stockholes Farm Railway operating day 30th May 2016

Stockholes Farm Miniature Railway near Sandtoft were very busy in the unexpected afternoon sunshine. A cuppa and a cake from the café and then time to do some photography and a chat some of the members.

Above the "Buffer Stop" café being kept busy as it looks like the tracks to the locomotive shed. Below passengers being taken around the railways extensive circuit around the farm layout. Time for some oil and water before taking the next train out. 

In steam with passengers passing the station signal box whilst the Atlantic locomotive is parked up on the access siding. The railway is open most Bank Holiday Mondays to the public. For further details please contact: Mr. I Smith or Mrs. B Smith, Stockholes Farm Miniature Railway,, 27 Sandtoft Road, Belton, Doncaster, DN9 1PH, Tel: 01427 872723. The railway may be hired for private parties.

Thompson Park Miniature Railway Burnley

I have just received a Facebook message from the railway with a selection of photographs. This is a railway worthy of visit this summer whilst on our travels with the campervan so I shall be looking up the nearest campsites. 

The floods between Boxing Day and New Year hit the railway heavily, with over the quarter of the railway covered in silt washed in by floods. Ballast, the stones that help hold the track in place, has been contaminated or washed away and now needs to be renewed, along with the wooden sleepers which have suffered from resting underwater for such a significant period of time. So an appeal was put out for volunteers and people to help them restore the railway in readiness for the 2016 season.

RUNNING TIMES Every Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, plus Wednesday during school holidays from Easter until the end of September 12:00pm - 4:00pm If you would like more information on the railway you can visit their website on http://www.bpmrs.org.uk/

Coal trains and other goods traffic pass through the Hatfield Stainforth station but none now take coal from the nearby Hatfield Colliery which suddenly closed in June 2015 and is now slowly being dismantled.  The colliery opened in 1916. The pit was stopped in 2001, and restarted 2007; the mine passed through a number of different owners in the early part of the 21st century, with subsequent operators entering receivership. During the same period the site was proposed as the location for high-technology coal burning power stations schemes which did not proceed.
In 2013 the major Doncaster-Thorne railway line which connected South Yorkshire to the Humber ports and Scunthorpe was blocked by a landslip at the colliery spoil for around 6 months. The cost of this and subsequent need to create new tips for the waste on the opposite side of Kirton Lane in Stainforth seemed to indicate that the 2016 closure was going to be brought forward.

The landslip after weeks of heavy rain back in 2013 resulted in the railway line being closed for 6 months costing the colliery and the Network Rail rather a lot of money and diversions of trains and alternative bus services. Above right the now closed colliery and the coal loading facility.

Major changes at Hatfield Stainforth station with the contrasting views from 1975 to the present day . Station buildings have been replaced by bus stop type shelters and the signal box is no more.  The once goods office still survives but no longer can you go in on a winters day and warm yourself in front of the open fire.

Doncaster's Platform 0 continues to take shape

After several more Saturday night road closures of the original Doncaster North Bridge more infrastructure has been lifted into place enabling us to see similarity to the artists impression on the lower left.   

It is now 54 years since London's Last Trolleybus 

On May 8th 1962 London said a spectacular  "Farewell" to its trolleybus system after 31 years of serving the city. Londoners certainly gave them a fond farewell as did many other towns and cities in Britain until the very last trolleybus ran on the streets pf Bradford in 1972. Since then the quest for pollution free buses has taken many shapes and types. 

On May 8th 1962 London said a spectacular  "Farewell" to its trolleybus system after 31 years of serving the city. Londoners certainly gave them a fond farewell as did many other towns and cities in Britain until the very last trolleybus ran on the streets pf Bradford in 1972. Since then the quest for pollution free buses has taken many shapes and types. 

Fresh hopes for the return of the trolleybus back to the streets of Great Britain when plans were drawn up for a return of trolleybuses to Doncaster and Rotherham in 1984. In 1985 a prototype better known to many as the Electroline was constructed for trials to take place along a 1 mile section of temporarily erected single track wiring alongside Doncaster Racecourse. Test took place until the early 1990's but regrettably the project was cancelled the wiring removed and the trolleybus became an exhibit at The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. Whilst many other trolleybus bus systems developed and expanded around the UK was left with many artist's impressions of what a new modern system might look like in an attempt to resolve the problems of the ever increasing air pollution and the inability of all battery buses or other forms of low emission vehicles to meet the oncoming requirements that by the 2020's buses must be 100% pollution free.  The rail network continues to expand the use of electricity and electric trams have returned again in places like Sheffield, Manchester, Edinburgh etc. We just await to see if the proposed trolleybus system better known as the NGT Leeds makes it off the drawing board (New Generation Transport).  You can visit their website for details of the project. http://www.ngtmetro.com/

Left: First of four battery hybrid trolleybuses for Esslingen has been delivered for service. Featuring Lithium-titanate batteries for off-wire service use, these Solaris/Vossloh Kiepe Metro Trollinos are 18.75m long and have two motors each driving two axles to cope with hilly routes. Right: An artist's impression of the proposed NGT Leeds system using very similar vehicles to the new ones for Esslinghen in Germany.  Leeds Project Cancelled

LATEST NEWS The proposed trolleybus project in Leeds not the best depending how you viewed the project. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has blocked the Leeds trolleybus scheme after a planning inspector rejected the case for the project, it was announced this morning.
The decision represents a major blow to the city's transport plans but will be welcomed by campaigners along the proposed route who had mounted a vigorous campaign against the scheme.
Read more: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/transport/not-suitable-for-development-leeds-trolleybus-scheme-is-thrown-out-1-7907098#ixzz48Rr4dQfL

Meanwhile back on the railway tracks at Rotherham--Meadowhall

Work continues to progress on the work for the Tram/Train project between Meadowhall and Parkgate shopping Centre in Rotherham. Left looking along the compound alongside the Magna steel museum whilst to the right we have one of the motorbuses that specially serve the shopping centre passing the construction work. 

Looking back to the Magna Centre the traction standards await the wiring whilst at Rotherham Central station there was little evidence of the proposed new lower platforms for the new tram trains. However the Pacer trains will soon be sharing the tracks from Rotherham to the new Parkgate tram terminus.