Robin Hood Line Construction.

[TheSignalEngineer]

During the latter part of my railway career I had the good fortune to be expanding railways rather than rationalising layouts and closing lines.

 

One of these jobs was to put Mansfield back on the railway map in the shape of the Robin Hood Line. 

 

Recently whilst sorting some old photos I came across a couple of strips of negatives from an old film. No ID or prints so I scanned them. They were from a walk-out I did in April 1994 during the early stages of building the section from Newstead to Kirkby-in-Ashfield. As a taster this is a shot I took from the A611 road at the summit of the line above Kirkby Tunnel.

 

The line at this point follows the Midland line from Nottingham to Mansfield before straying to other railways north of the tunnel. I have added some notes of old landmarks.

 

[Mallard60022]

From a time when County Councils could be visionary and go ahead to support-fund projects such as this. I discovered a lot about this when I moved to Notts in 2003; superb project and I do hope you enjoyed playing your part in it?

Phil

[TheSignalEngineer]

It was a very political issue at the time. The Council members had promised to get the line to Mansfield back on the map and they were up for re-election in 1993.

 

The first stage went right to the wire. I 'piloted' a driver through the line to Newstead in a Class 156 when it was still officially a construction site to test out the level crossings. 

A few days later we took a Saloon up there with a the Inspecting Officers to get permission for Driver Training to commence. There were a few small mods required to markings at level crossings so that was arranged for the weekend and the Inspecting Officer turned out on the Sunday to check it had been done. The following day we took a set up to get a couple of drivers familiarised then the next day there was a special train for Council members. They got their pictures in the local paper that weekend in time for the County elections the following week. 

 

I had to drop off Robin Hood construction just after these pictures were taken as Snow Hill phase 2 was then a full time job on virtually the same time frame, but the die had been cast and we were well on the way to getting to Mansfield.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Three more pictures taken at Kirkby Tunnel and further towards Mansfield. The third one at the end of the GNR cutting at Kirkby-in-Ashfield shows how parts of the old lines were to start with.

 

 

 

 

Edited to correct location of third photo.

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by TheSignalEngineer

[TheSignalEngineer]

The three other pictures discovered so far were taken in the area of Grives Lane, where the new line leaves the old Midland alignment until rejoining it a couple of miles later.

 

The first is from Grives Lane Crossing looking back towards Kirkby Tunnel

 

 

The second is from Grives lane looking north. The dirt track to the left is the old Midland alignment, now lost under houses. The GC Annesley Tunnel came out just by the yellow toys to the left.

 

 

Moving on past the heavy roller, the third shows the start of the new alignment parallel to the filled-inGC cutting as far as Lindley's Lane where at the site of Kirkby South Junction it takes the old GNR Leen Valley Extension alignment towards Kirkby-in-Ashfield.

 

 

 

[John_Miles]

Mansfield was reputed to be the largest town in the UK without a railway service.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Sorting through an archive box this week a carrier bag of photos turned up. There were 21 which were taken before site work on Phase 2 of the project started. Some had been used for a presentation in the office and were rescued from the boards that they had been stuck to. 14 were in a congealed lump of picture, glue and sticky tape but a couple of hours in a bucket of water managed to rescue many intact and the wonders of photoshop and rebuilding the damaged ones. Some of these will be posted when I have sorted and cleaned up the scans.

 

The upshot was that the third picture in Post #4 which I thought was at the north end of Kirkby Tunnel isn't there. I was having difficulty resolving it but have found two pictures which was taken a few months earlier from the footbridge over the Pinxton line at Kirkby Lane End. It looks as if that picture was the Kirkby end of the GNR line towards Mansfield and the stonework is where it crossed the Midland line. Many years ago the Midland alignment through the town was abandoned in favour of using the GNR Lean Valley Extension.

 

I have edited the post and caption accordingly.

[Mallard60022]

Sorting through an archive box this week a carrier bag of photos turned up. There were 21 which were taken before site work on Phase 2 of the project started. Some had been used for a presentation in the office and were rescued from the boards that they had been stuck to. 14 were in a congealed lump of picture, glue and sticky tape but a couple of hours in a bucket of water managed to rescue many intact and the wonders of photoshop and rebuilding the damaged ones. Some of these will be posted when I have sorted and cleaned up the scans.

 

The upshot was that the third picture in Post #4 which I thought was at the north end of Kirkby Tunnel isn't there. I was having difficulty resolving it but have found two pictures which was taken a few months earlier from the footbridge over the Pinxton line at Kirkby Lane End. It looks as if that picture was the Kirkby end of the GNR line towards Mansfield and the stonework is where it crossed the Midland line. Many years ago the Midland alignment through the town was abandoned in favour of using the GNR Lean Valley Extension.

 

I have edited the post and caption accordingly.

 

I wonder if NCC have an archive of the build? Sadly I left work there in 2006 and so I now have no 'contacts', however I could enquire if you have no contacts either?

Sincerely,

Phil

[Orion]

Sorting through an archive box this week a carrier bag of photos turned up. There were 21 which were taken before site work on Phase 2 of the project started. Some had been used for a presentation in the office and were rescued from the boards that they had been stuck to. 14 were in a congealed lump of picture, glue and sticky tape but a couple of hours in a bucket of water managed to rescue many intact and the wonders of photoshop and rebuilding the damaged ones. Some of these will be posted when I have sorted and cleaned up the scans.

 

The upshot was that the third picture in Post #4 which I thought was at the north end of Kirkby Tunnel isn't there. I was having difficulty resolving it but have found two pictures which was taken a few months earlier from the footbridge over the Pinxton line at Kirkby Lane End. It looks as if that picture was the Kirkby end of the GNR line towards Mansfield and the stonework is where it crossed the Midland line. Many years ago the Midland alignment through the town was abandoned in favour of using the GNR Lean Valley Extension.

 

I have edited the post and caption accordingly.

You can see both the old GN formation towards Annesley in the cutting and beyond that the bridge abutment over the old Midland line from Kirkby town centre (left) towards Pinxton (right) just to the right of the digger.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I don't have any contacts at Nottingham but I expect they have a record of the project. In 1994 someone found a stash of cash for work on the Jewellery Line section where it was parallel with the proposed Midland Metro so that became a full time job for me.

 

I've found two more envelopes related to Robin Hood 1, one covering the old crossings at Hucknall and Linby, the other around Bestwood and Bulwell.

 

Eric

Edited November 28, 2018 by TheSignalEngineer

[russ p]

Was annersley tunnel ever considered for use as the northern alignment uses the GC.

Is that tunnel completely filled in as I understand its under Kirkby tunnel

[Mallard60022]

I don't have any contacts at Nottingham but I expect they have a record of the project. In 1994 someone found a stash of cash for work on the Jewellery Line section where it was parallel with the proposed Midland Metro so that became a full time job for me.

 

I've found two more envelopes related to Robin Hood 1, one covering the old crossings at Hucknall and Linby, the other around Bestwood and Bulwell.

 

Eric

 

I might well contact the Records Office as I'm sure there was an 'enthusiast' working there a few years ago. Maybe they are still there and might enjoy searching some stuff out?

[Dava]

Thanks for these very interesting photos. The railway geography of the Annesley, Kirkby and Sutton areas was very complex with overlapping lines of 3 companies, and unstable geology around the tunnels too which made the civil works more difficult. Look forward to seeing more photos of the project.

 

The line did make a positive difference to the area, the more so when extended to Worksop. All making it easier and quicker to escape from the ex-coalfields areas to Nottingham [dive for cover].

[TheSignalEngineer]

Was annersley tunnel ever considered for use as the northern alignment uses the GC.

Is that tunnel completely filled in as I understand its under Kirkby tunnel

Both tunnels were not in a good state and IIRC had been filled with colliery waste. When it was cleared from Kirkby Tunnel there was a bit of distortion and voids behind the lining which needed attention. The preferred option was to use the shorter tunnel as it was only about 150 metres long whereas Annesley Tunnel was about 850 metres. 

 

The new formation went above the old GCR line from Grives lane to Lindleys Lane. The cutting had been used for landfill since closure. I don't know what was under the Grives Lane end but several thousand tonnes of household waste was removed from the GNR cutting between Kirkby South Junction and the junction with the Pinxton line.

[Mallard60022]

I have had a swift and helpful response from NCC Archives. I shall be taking a visit to Nottingham, on the RH Line, in the future. meanwhile I have some other links they provided and I shall look a those some time later as I am off to Sheffield shortly for some medical assessments that last most of the day; nothing too serious

P

[RedgateModels]

I've found two more envelopes related to Robin Hood 1, one covering the old crossings at Hucknall and Linby, the other around Bestwood and Bulwell.

 

 

 

My Aunt lived in the Bungalow right next to Linby (south) crossing. I Still have a Home signal arm that was discarded in the undergrowth next to her fence

 

 

I Don't think it's the one in the picture as it was taken when the pit was closed, I probably have the pictured arm's predecessor LOL

 

She was actually my Great Aunt, married William "Billy" Bodill of Bodill Construction. He knocked down an earlier building on that plot and built the bungalow from the bricks. I earned much pocket money chipping mortar off them!

 

What I would dearly love to come across is a picture of the road bridge over the old Great Northern line a little further to the south, not the one that now sits orphaned in the undergrowth but the one circled. I nearly fell off the half demolished thing on my way home from school one day.

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by RedgateModels

[TheSignalEngineer]

My Aunt lived in the Bungalow right next to Linby (south) crossing. I Still have a Home signal arm that was discarded in the undergrowth next to her fence

 

LinbyColliery.JPG

 

 

Did I meet her back then in 1992? I spoke to a lot of residents in the area and that bungalow appears in some of my pictures. I think it is also in the video I made when I took a train up there to check the new crossings but unfortunately I don't have a functioning Sony Video8 camera these days. Must get it converted to a DVD.

[RedgateModels]

Did I meet her back then in 1992? I spoke to a lot of residents in the area and that bungalow appears in some of my pictures. I think it is also in the video I made when I took a train up there to check the new crossings but unfortunately I don't have a functioning Sony Video8 camera these days. Must get it converted to a DVD.

 

Not sure when she died, she would have been quite an old lady by then, smoked like a chimney!

 

EDIT: Just checked on Ancestry and chances are she died in 1989, so it would have been the couple who bought the bungalow from her estate you spoke to.

Edited November 30, 2018 by RedgateModels

[TheSignalEngineer]

At least she wasn't the old lady I met walking her dog down the four-foot between the two Linby crossings a few days before the service started.

[Mike T]

Was a fun job that one Eric!

 

Regards

 

Mike

[TheSignalEngineer]

Yes, I remember testing the locking frame for the remodellong of the Calverton Colliery junction in 1993. Half way through the Plod turned up at Bestwood box. There was a siege in progress with a gunman holed up nearby and they wanted to evacuate us. We suggested that we were probably safer working inside that box than he was on the road outside and he finally agreed that we were out of the line of sight so we carried on.

Later on phase 2 they were suspicious of the number of comings and goings on the track across the fields up by Warren House so it ended up with two members of the Drug Squad being loaned BR orange coats and accompanying us on a walkout along the old trackbed so they could get a closer look at the area.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Those were only a couple of events, they were almost weekly right through the job.

 

On Phase 1 the PWay went along recovering one track and using the best stuff to improve the other,. The estimated that they had 'lost' something like seven hundred chaired sleepers to the local 'Night Shift'. They were also partial to cable troughing for some reason. We stored it inside the REB at one crossing but they still managed to take it. Breaking into the REBs only reduced after we put large High Voltage - Danger of Death zapped corpse graphics on the doors.

 

When we were developing Phase 2 we had a public meeting in the Station Hotel at Newstead to show the level crossing proposals. The dartboard in the back room was rawlbolted to the wall. The barmaid told us it was to stop the players using it as a weapon when the game got out of control.

[great central]

Station Hotel Newstead demolished earlier this year after being closed and up for sale a good few years.

A friend lived in Newstead for 18 months or so, couldn't get out quick enough when the opportunity arose!

[TheSignalEngineer]

The meeting at the Station Hotel took place on a very warm summer afternoon. It was just after the Transport & Works Act came in so whilst the natives downed copious quantities of brown liquid the railway people and the Inspecting Officer were on orange juice and lemonade.

[TheSignalEngineer]

During a Saturday night heavy job at Kirkby-in Ashfield a local turned up with a large dog of a now banned breed and a shotgun and requested to contractors to stop making a noise. When he offered to let the dog make their acquaintance they didn't stay around long enough to find out if the gun was loaded.