28th July – BLS Steel City Special
Now I come onto the main event of the weekend, a tour of the
Sheffield Supertram network, the tour sounded interesting when it went on sale
as it covered the track into the depot, plus some other odds & sods. Worryingly when I checked Google Maps it
suggested there was no yellow route trams running all day (seems the revised
timetable due to the track closure beyond Hillsborough hadn’t been loaded in),
but it did highlight a McDonalds on the route towards Carbrook tram stop which
was roughly the same walking distance and would serve me for breakfast.
But before hand, as I was staying in a pub in the Brightside
area, it was located pretty close to the old station (the road alongside the
pub was even Station Lane), so I walked up the footpath and onto the footbridge
which formally gave access to Brightside station, closed in the 90s when
Meadowhall opened up. Funny how even
after these years it still has lampposts and old shelters, the stairs from the
footbridge are still in place but have had the horizontal bits removed.
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| Old platforms at Brightside Station |
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| Former staircase to the platform at Brightside |
Back to the mainroad, and towards Carbrook, but again
passing some old railway as it was in this area the old Sheffield District
Railway towards Tinsley branched off at Brightside junction, crossing the road
and the River Don on a lovely viaduct, now disused completely (judging by the Satellite
view on Google Maps). I carried on
walking along the road via an industrial estate, passing some little used
overspill carparks for Meadowhall shopping centre (I guess from the state and
the large concrete blocks, they are very rarely used). Anyhow I got my breakfast from McDonalds and
headed towards Carbrook tram stop for the first tram of the day.
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| Disused Railway Viaduct over the River Don |
Tram 122 took me to Cricket Inn Road, where I decided to
waste some time with tram 399201 to the Cathedral and back to a lot busier platform. God knows what the driver of a yellow route
service was thinking when he stopped and nobody boarded before tram 108 rolled
in, which would be the tram used for the first part of the tour. The timings sheet we got given with the
tickets was incorrect as they changed some bits around a couple days before the
tour.
The first leg was via the lesser used side of the “Delta
triangle” (direct towards the station) towards Herdings Park where someone
forgot to request for the tram to stop and it went into the overrun. During the time another tram arrived and
departed which gave for this unusual picture (as I was lucky enough to get one
of the seats by the cab end during the chaos of boarding).
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| This is what happens when nobody requests Herdings Park! |
Once tram 107 has cleared away, tram 108 pulled forward onto
the platform before waiting time before heading towards Gleadless Townsend
where the driver jumped out to set the points on the crossover to allow the
tram to crossover to the other line (jumping out again to reset them) before
the tram continued its journey towards Halfway, reaching Beighton/Drake House
Lane for another reversal, back towards Birley Lane, causing a bit of traffic
chaos as the traffic lights turned red stopping cars as the tram reversed once
more for a quick comfort break at Crystal Peaks.
30 minutes (or so) later, we were back on the tram for
another quick reversal after Donetsk Way before running to Halfway and going
beyond to the overrun. Not quite as long
as the one at Herdings Park, but still causing confusion with regular
passengers. Back for the long run
towards the city centre, and out the other side for another reversal at
Shalesmoor, heading back towards the city centre area (more confusion by
regular passengers when the tram didn’t stop, or it stopped but the doors weren’t
opened). The next leg was into the depot
area, where it used the loop after line 4, going via the carriage washer on
line 7 to the exit route, before another reversal back via line 7 and out of
the Woodburn Road exit to carry on to Meadowhall for another comfort break and
a tram swap.
I got a bit lost in the shopping centre when looking for
Boots, but eventually found my bearings and headed back towards the transport
interchange where tram 108 had magically turned into 399202 for the 2nd
part of the tour. A random trip to the
start of line 10 in the depot before heading back to Meadowhall, before heading
towards Arena/Olympic Legacy Park to do a couple trips over that crossover
before heading back towards Meadowhall, but this time using the new chord to go
towards Parkgate, this time not using the overrun because if anything goes in
there it sets alarm bells off at Network Rail HQ and Thunderbird 2 flies in for
the rescue! (OK, maybe not). After a
reversal at Parkgate it was back towards Arena, using the rarer side of the
Delta triangle again for a final reversal at Sheffield Station before heading
back towards Cricket Inn Road, the end of the tour.
Strangely the crossover between the triangle and Hyde Park
was dropped (the one near Spring Lane is out of use), otherwise it would have
been a near full clearance. With a
couple hours to kill, I jumped on tram 122 to Castle Square because I knew both
my last original trams for a mile were out, and I didn’t have long to wait
before tram 107 rolled up to take me to Granville Road/Sheffield College,
pushing it over a mile. Tram 104 took me
towards the Cathedral with a short wait for 105 to West Street, where I managed
to intercept tram 111 for the run
to Fitzalan Square/Ponds Forge to push it over a mile (which is my target for ‘light
rail’ stuff). With still time to kill I
took tram 109 to the end at Hillsborough to tick that crossover off as it
departed rather full (as football had finished), so it was back towards the
station to say farewell to the tram network for the day.
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| Tram 109 at Sheffield Station |
I was booked onto the Cleethorpes bound TPE service, a bit
of a worry as it was a +10 at Doncaster and TPE services always tend to run
late due to the Hopeless valley being hopeless for time keeping, but today I
was in luck as 185112 rolled in only a couple minutes down, my reserved seat
was taken by a group “reservations have been cancelled mate” [so why was there
slips in other seats, did you decide to remove the label to get yourself a nice
table seat, roll on electronic reservations!], but I got another seat behind
the cab for the fast run towards Doncaster.
I shouldn’t have worried so much as my connection was also running late,
as winner 800103 rolled in from
Leeds. It managed to regain some of the
lost time but got caught up in congestion south of Stevenage. It was a busy service with no empty pairs of
seats in Coach K, at least after Grantham, but an enjoyable run to Kings Cross,
where I walked to London Underground.
Victoria Line set 11043/11044 took me to Oxford Circus,
followed by 3242/3540 on the Bakersoven*.
Nothing of interest at Waterloo other than a pair of 73s with the
Underground 4TC set on the first of the Swanage Sunday Specials. It was to a quiet 159101/159108 & 158890
on the 21:15 service, where I settled down to relax for a very slow run towards
Surbiton (something had broken down on the fast line, so everything was going
via the slows), the guard popping up after Andover to ensure nobody was sat in
the wrong part of the train for stations beyond Salisbury. At Grateley it was a short walk home, to
relax for what was left of the evening, reflecting on a good little tour, some
little bits covered. I do like the
Sheffield tram system, the seats are comfortable (on the original trams, the
399s are harder than the original trams, not as hard as on the Midland
Metro!) Next weekend sees another
return to Yorkshire, this time on mileage hunts before attempting to Snaith
victory of the Northern network.
(*Yes I know it’s the Bakerloo, but it’s a joke this time of
year at how hot it gets)
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