* Woodburn Junction
Hardly had the pair of 37s departed the scene along to Nunnery and Sheffield, than a toot in the distance indicated that the lunchtime Dewsbury was on its way along the Lower Don Valley line rather than going straight through on the main line via Meadowhall. With the usual haul of empty JPA/PCA cement tanks, numbering 33 in all, is Freightliner class 66, what else, 66607 on, not the 6M89, as is usual, but 6Z89 then re-assigned to 6C35! so not quite sure what is going on there. The Silvan landscape of the route through the Lower Don Valley is obvious and although there has been some clearing here, the once stark view of the palisade fence, which was put up a couple of years agon, around the land between the Woodburn Curve here and the old track-bed of the Darnall Curve over on the right, is now almost completely obliterated by greenery, in such a short time; there has been no further development or plans regarding the large triangle of fenced off land, that I have heard about. At right, snaking across the main Lincoln Lines and past the Woodburn Junction signal cabin, the loco is approaching Nunnery and may be brought to a stand, depending on how busy traffic is on the bank down into Sheffield Midland Station. The line on the far right of this picture is the one which goes up to Deepcar and the Stocksbridge Steelworks and on which the earlier 37, 37612, was expected to be parked up on, behind Woodburn’s W0218 signal, awaiting passage back onto the main line to a reversal at Westthorpe Run Round/Barrow Hill.This is the route which the evening steel train takes though of late, it has only been happening irregularly and for the last two weeks, nothing at all as the steel works were shut down for the 2 stop weeks. We now appear to be back to a t or 3 times a week service though having run on Monday this week, it was cancelled last night. The Scunthorpe and Rotherham Steelworks have had an up-and-down history over the last few years, in April 2016, the long products division including the Scunthorpe works, as the only primary steel producer and main employer, was sold by Tata Steel to Greybull Capital for a nominal sum of £1 and subsequently things have quietened down a bit, after this, the business was subsequently renamed British Steel Ltd…. Woodburn Road over-bridge stands prominent next to the box and Sheffield City Centre, with developments still going on in the Shalesmoor and Netherthorpe area, is in the background, the Arts Tower being the bluish structure to the left of the train and the Nunnery Supertram depot, with a Supertram parked up, is just to the left of the Freightliner.
And I have just heard, there is nothing to move out of the U.E.S. Works at Parkgate today, so no run up the branch tonight, to the Steelworks at Stocksbridge..
