The Lost Railways of Westhouses, Blackwell & New Hucknall Collieries

[@martinmarsola6477]

Thank you for the tour today. It’s sad that the businesses are all out of business. Cheers mate! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Martin 👍😉

[@seamusmcevoy2011]

That looked like an excellent day out, a heavy frost, decent company and railway history. The lines were really crammed into the area, it must have looked like steel string from the air!!! The added GCR bit at the end was a real bonus too, I'm always fascinated by the detail and size of the structures of that line, even the cuttings were massive.

[@WobblyRunner]

Top stuff. Yeah as we saw, you can tell when it's GCR. 👍🙂

[@paulcharlton4788]

Best time of year to explore under the A38, it’s like a swamp most of the time! I used to live over that was and it was good to see all the paths and trails I used to explore.

[@WobblyRunner]

I think luckily for me the swamp had frozen 🙂

[@andrewmarriott4033]

That fantastic been down the Blackwell trail a few times but loved the great central bit at the end 👍

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Andrew. That was a nice bonus to see the GCR at the end.

[@ffrancrogowski6263]

Unbelievable! It's incredible to think now that there was a loco depot at Westhouses. When I was on the railway at Buxton, going back to 1979, I went on that place, just the once, when there were many pairs of class 20s and even a visiting class 44! The Erewash Valley line then was busy with coal trains, but I never realised that there was such a network of lines like what you showed us on this video, to the east of Westhouses, including Great Central lines. A very interesting showing, and so, many thanks.

[@WobblyRunner]

Thanks very much. Yeah it always amazes me to network of lines around there with all the collieries. These things disappear from the landscape so quickly.

[@WanderingwithWatto]

Very interesting video mate. Interesting to see the network up there. 👍🏻

[@WobblyRunner]

It sure is 👍

[@trevorbirch797]

Interesting video..thanks

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Trevor 👍

[@mrbetamax1969]

Better that heated front screen come in andi. Another winner paul 👍

[@WobblyRunner]

😄 Got to love a heated windscreen

[@petereaton6982]

Hi there. Not noted in the nice again Local video, The Bonus bit is / was on the proposed HS2 route? Liked the old photo fade in's especially the passenger train taken from the A38 bridge, I had high hopes of standing there watching the high speed trains passing under! the Westhouses area was not open-cast that many years ago. thanks Peter

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Peter 👍. I thought HS2 was going to be slightly West of this line?

[@maestromanification]

Another Great one Paul, I'm learning so much about areas I work through from your videos One reason why there was a connection to the GC may have been that prior to nationalisation the two railways belonged to different companies and each wanted their share of revenues from pits. There are a number of pits in South Yorkshire that two connections Frickley had a connection to the NE& Midland joint at moorthorpe and another to the Hull and Barnsley If two companies ended up with different owners after grouping ie LMS or LNER they would have kept two and obviously once it was all BR there was little need for two connections

[@WobblyRunner]

Nice one Russ. That's probably the reason. I find it confusing they would use the line that included a reverse rather than the direct line :)

[@maestromanification]

@@WobblyRunner cheers Paul. Some locations used to have strange methods of working. Could it have possibly been because of the length of the train especially when it went to MGR wagons

[@psychicspies673]

Absolutely loved that as it brought back memories of walks exploring the silverhill, teversal and blackwell trails in 2021. That ultimately led to the Skegby trail explore we did. I had my lunch on the bench at 12:04! Did you spot the weird industrial site on the hill south east the Westhouses triangle? I think it was maybe for explosives storage.

[@WobblyRunner]

Aha the bench at Hilcote!!! I hope it was warmer when you had your lunch there? Yeah the explosives place. I thought they were pig house things at first 😄

[@psychicspies673]

You certainly had a crisp day. It was warmer but I still had my trusty flask

[@richardharris4452]

Great video Paul...i live about a 10 minute walk away from the location of the old New Hucknall Colliery and have walked the Blackwell trail a few times. Didn't know,however about that spur up to the Sidings,so that's straight to the top of the to-do list! The GCR bonus.....top addition....you can follow the route down to Kirkby In Ashfield where it tunnelled under the A611 (sadly infilled) and on to Nottingham. As for under the A38 bridge, was the metal table and chairs still down there??😄

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Richard 👍. I don't remember seeing the table and chairs.

[@richardharris4452]

@@WobblyRunner must have put them in storage for the winter!!

[@WobblyRunner]

@@richardharris4452 😄

[@andrewdavis9223]

Please tell me how to get to spinkhill tunnel 😫

[@WobblyRunner]

Do you know the area at all? I walked down the trackbed from towards Killamarsh, past Spinkhill Station. You can get on the tracked from Westthorpe Hills County Park.