* Woodburn Junction
Moving off from Deepcar and heading into town, the plan was to catch the Westthorpe working, at Nunnery Junction, coming back from the Run Round loop, in effect, as it turned out, not there but Barrow Hill, as the Run Round loop was disconnected in February, 2019. This extra distance to the south, to Barrow Hill, meant the working running about a half hour late and having waited around 45 minutes, atop a short ladder, in the the blazing sun behind, it soon was evident that the set wasn’t coming along the Lincoln LIne as far as this, to take the line up to Deepcar once more. In fact a long distance shot towards the Woodburn Road bridge should the 37 not on the branch line but on the down line into Sheffield. It was hard to see anything other than the yellow front panel, but a few minutes after arrival there, the driver got out, and walked to the front.. a good indication that the loco was setting off back from there and missing out the 2nd of the jaunts up the branch line to Deepcar… Decamping quickly out of the heat… moving off east .. and looking west, the 37 was sat at the up-line signal W0220, awaiting the green for the journey back to Westthorpe but in fact this time it reversed at Woodhouse Junction, not going even as far as Westthorpe, and then came back and went into Sheffield for the 2nd part of the diagram back to Doncaster. Here the loco, 37612 is seen passing along the up line, east, to Woodhouse and it will b back in around half an hour for its 50 minute early departure from Sheffield at 13:18! So, that’s the story, much of the diagram missed out, no Westthorpe as its dis-connected and an extra bit added to Barrow Hill.. This is the last section of the initial run, from Doncaster West Yard via Rotherham, the Lower Don Valley, Deepcar and Westthorpe Run Round/Barrow Hill, a class 37, 37612, ex-D6879, light engine working, 0Z66, having not set off for Deepcar on the second leg, it will now miss out the other two this afternoon at 14:55 and 16:20, preferring instead to get back to base 100 minutes early at 15:40. It seems that I had missed ‘spotting’ the imminent arrival of another ‘Tractor’, this time a pair and that the Dewsbury cement was in the area, so it looks like the last minute move to Woodburn was very timely …
