Elsecar Heritage Railway | |
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Peckett OQ Class no. 2150 "Mardy Monster" at the Elsecar Heritage Railway | |
Terminus | Elsecar- Rockingham station |
Commercial operations | |
Name | Elsecar Heritage Railway |
Built by | South Yorkshire Railway |
Original gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Preserved operations | |
Owned by | Earl Fitzwilliam, Barnsley Council, Elsecar Railway Preservation Group, Elsecar Heritage Railway Ltd |
Operated by | Elsecar Heritage Railway Ltd |
Stations | One, at Elsecar (Rockingham station) |
Length | 1 mile (1.6 km) |
Preserved gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Commercial history | |
Opened | 1850 |
Closed | 1984 |
Preservation history | |
1994 | Reopened |
2020 | Closed |
Headquarters | Elsecar, Rockingham station |
The Elsecar Heritage Railway (EHR) is located on the southern part of the former South Yorkshire Railway freight-only branch which ran from Elsecar Junction on its Mexborough to Barnsley Line.
The Elsecar Heritage Railway operated an out and back tourist train ride on a 1 mile (1.6 km) section of the branch using steam and diesel locomotives, previously running between Rockingham station (at the back of the Elsecar Heritage Centre) and Hemingfield Basin. The railway was operated using a variety of different preserved rolling stock.
The EHR had planned to eventually operate the line into Cortonwood, with a new halt at Hemingfield, doubling the length of the line to two miles.
The line was built to serve Earl Fitzwilliam's collieries and ironworks, which he leased out to local ironmasters. It opened in 1850 as part of the South Yorkshire Railway, known as the Elsecar Branch. Following assorted mergers the line finally became part of the LNER upon formation of the Big Four.
The whole infrastructure was nationalised after the Second World War, with the mines becoming part of the National Coal Board in 1947 and the railway becoming part of British Railways in 1948.
The Elsecar branch closed in 1984 following closure of the final colliery on the line.
Restoration began in 1994 as a project of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, and the line reopened as a heritage railway in 1996, operated by the Council. The Elsecar Heritage Railway became the operator in 2006. [1]
Elsecar Heritage Railway was mothballed indefinitely when its operators surrendered their lease in November 2020, it was reported at the time that a commitment was made by Barnsley Council to reopen the site. [2]
In November 2023 Barnsley Council and Historic England announced plans to re-open the site with a track engineering college with places for 400 students each year and employment for 40 staff. The £25 million plan has been allocated some funding from the Cultural Development Fund though the plans are not expected to happen straight away. Other ideas for developing the site include a restaurant, a cycle hire centre, an outdoor performance area, and public spaces. [3]
The railway's collection of steam locomotives are used regularly for passenger services.
The railway's diesel locomotives are used to operate both passenger and engineering trains.
Coaching stock is painted in British Railways 'lined maroon' livery.
The railway's extension, currently under construction, involves the reinstatement of two level crossings, Tingle Bridge Lane and Smithy Lane. The latter, being a quiet road, will be protected by manually-operated crossing gates of traditional design. Tingle Bridge Lane is a busier road, and the railway is constructing a semi-automated crossing barrier system, with barriers manually lowered from a signal box, but automatically raised by track circuitry. On 16 May 2011 the permanent way materials for the level crossing arrived and a donation scheme was set up to raise the remainder of the money needed. Funds raised through this scheme have since been used to purchase barriers and traffic signals for the crossing ready for building. In August 2012 trial holes were dug to locate services under the road surface ready for construction of the crossing to take place.
On 21 June 2012 the ground was cleared and levelled for ballast and track alterations in anticipation of constructing the station at Hemingfield, currently the end of the line.
On 19 April 2013 the EHR built the level crossing on Tingle Bridge Lane, financed by a Director's loan, and began extending the line into Cortonwood Colliery, as the next step of the Project.
By June 2014 the whole track had been laid up to Cortonwood, with minor levelling and ballasting remaining to become operational. The railway is now engaged in refinements to the permanent way, together with the necessary regulatory processes (with the local authority and the Office of Rail and Road) to see the extension opened for public services.
In November 2013 the EHR received a lottery grant of £50,000 to finance the provision of a Coal Mining Memorial Park at Cortonwood Colliery, [4] a nationally important site, where the 1984/5 Miners Strike began. The project was completed in November 2014.
Elsecar is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is near to Jump and Wentworth, it is also 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Hoyland, 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Barnsley and 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Sheffield. Elsecar falls within the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Ward of Hoyland Milton.
The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising 127 feet (39 m). The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two miles long with reservoirs at the head of each. The Elsecar branch also has another six locks. The only tunnel was bypassed by a cutting in 1840.
The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway is a 2+1⁄2-mile (4 km) long standard gauge heritage railway in the English county of Oxfordshire. It operates along most of the length of the former Wallingford branch of the Great Western Railway (GWR), from Cholsey station, 12 miles (19 km) north of Reading on the Great Western Main Line, to a station on the outskirts of the nearby town of Wallingford.
The Rushden, Higham and Wellingborough Railway is a heritage railway operated by the Rushden Historical Transport Society in the town of Rushden in the county of Northamptonshire, England.
Rutland Railway Museum, now trading as Rocks by Rail: The Living Ironstone Museum, is a heritage railway on part of a former Midland Railway mineral branch line. It is situated north east of Oakham, in Rutland, England.
The Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust operates a 1+1⁄2-mile (2.4 km) long heritage railway line at Hunsbury Hill, south-west of Northampton. The line is mainly dedicated to freight working, featuring many sharp curves and steep gradients which were typical of the industrial railway, but rides are available in a variety of vehicles including a converted brake van.
The Cambrian Heritage Railways is a heritage railway company, trust and society based at both Llynclys and Oswestry in its newly restored Oswestry railway station, Shropshire, England.
The Scottish Industrial Railway Centre is an industrial heritage museum operated by the Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group. The centre owns a number of standard gauge steam locomotives and diesel locomotives as well as some narrow gauge items and an extensive collection of photographs.
Elsecar Heritage Centre is a visitor attraction centre in Elsecar, Barnsley, England. Operated by Barnsley Museums, it has independent shops, studios, galleries, cafes and a large antiques centre in former Victorian engineering workshops.
Hemingfield is a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Hoyland Milton Ward of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. The village has two pubs, The Albion and The Elephant & Castle, as well as a post office and The Ellis CofE Primary School. Notable organisations, past and present, include Hemingfield Action Group (HAG) and Albion AFC.
Cortonwood was a colliery near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The colliery's proposed closure was a tipping point in the 1984-85 miners' strike. The site is now a shopping and leisure centre.
The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Earl Fitzwilliam's private railway station is a former private railway station in South Yorkshire, England, situated at the upper end of the Elsecar branch of the South Yorkshire Railway.
The A6195 road runs through the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire, England.
Southall Railway Centre is a non-publicised railway heritage centre at Southall in west London, near Southall railway station and the Grand Union Canal. Formerly of the Great Western Railway, the site is now run partly by Locomotive Services and West Coast Railways, both of whom lease the site from Network Rail. The location is not open to the public.
The Elsecar Collieries were the coal mines sunk in and around Elsecar, a small village to the south of Barnsley in what is now South Yorkshire, but was traditionally in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The Elsecar Ironworks opened in 1795 in the village of Elsecar near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The company was bankrupted in 1827 and taken over by the Wentworth estate who owned the land it stood on. The buildings are now part of the Elsecar Heritage Centre.
Elsecar goods station was a goods facility constructed near the village of Elsecar, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, at the terminus of the South Yorkshire Railways branch line from Elsecar Junction on its Mexborough to Barnsley line. The total length of the line was 2 miles 1204 yards.
Rockingham railway station is the terminus of the preserved line which is being built along the trackbed of the former Elsecar branch of the South Yorkshire Railway. The station is built within the Elsecar Heritage Centre, the former National Coal Board workshops at Elsecar. The station officially opened to passengers on 5 April 1996, when the inaugural train ran to Hemingfield.
The Peckett OQ Class is a class of 0-6-0ST steam locomotives built in Bristol, England by Peckett & Sons. Three were built; no. 2124 for Tower Colliery in 1951 and nos. 2150 and 2151 for Mardy Colliery in 1954. No. 2150 has been preserved and is named Mardy Monster. According to Heritage Railway magazine it is "Britain’s most powerful industrial locomotive". This claim may be misleading because it is based on tractive effort rather than horsepower.