Walter Whigham XIV

Various internet local history sources come out wth the unsurprising comment that the coke went to steelworks in Sheffield. I think (but am not sure) that the coke was tripped to Tinsley in the first instance. The oil terminal was at Ecclesfield West on the MR line. It was never connnected to the GC(Smithywood) line. It wasn't in the 1956 Clearing House handbook of stations, so must postdate that. It shut about 1995, I think. Its existence requireed the survival of Ecclesfield signal box until that date. The Newton Chambers complex at Chapeltown had been connected to both the GC and Midland lines. Izal was a subsidiary of NC but I'm not aware it ever had a rail connection- it was a 1930s build by the look of the architecture. In any case the line north of Smithywood closed in March 1966, partly because the M1 was about to be constructed across its path. There was some other traffic on the surviving section apart from coke. At Grange Lane British Acheson Electrodes and Roe Bros scrap merchants had sidings. There is a photo of these (and some of Smithywood in the steam era) still in use in 1971 in Bob Pixton's misnamed Pen and Sword book 'Great Central Sheffield Main Line services' (Pen and Sword 2020) which covers just about everything GC in the area except the main line!