Northern Rail again!
Sheffield and York
17 July 2025
Another Northern Rail £10 day ranger
outing, making the most of our ticket for an
enjoyable day out, exploring some lines we
haven’t visited recently. We used Transport
for Wales trains (and fares) to get to
Crewe, where our ranger’s validity begins,
but only on Northern Rail’s trains. As they
tend to be the “stoppers” on lines that are served by more
than one operator (TPE, CrossCountry et al) it will be clear
that our travels are leisurely - and all the better for it.
The only downside of that is the limited amount of time
when we’re changing trains. As we also need to take on
board refreshments (no buffet cars - no refreshment
trolleys...) there’s not much time for photography.
Nevertheless, there are a few opportunities at Sheffield
and York (hence, in a photographic sense, the title).
We travelled from Crewe to Sheffield on the stopper to
Piccadilly, thence to Sheffield on the Hope Valley local
service. From Sheffield we’ll ride to York on one of the
three daily trains in each direction that use the former
Swinton and Knottingley Joint (MR & NER) line. When I
was travelling between York and Birmingham in the early
1970s, this was the normal route for NE-SW trains - at
first. Then the favoured route switched to the former
Midland line through Normanton (and Pontefract Monkhill,
rather than Baghill...). That didn’t last for long; it has since
closed as a through route and been partially lifted. NE-SW
services ran via Doncaster, or via Leeds using the S&K
from Swinton to Moorthorpe, then up the Great Northern
line via Wakefield Westgate. North of Sheffield, a new spur
takes stopping trains through a reopened Rotherham
Central. Longer-distance trains still pass through the
remains of Rotherham Masborough. (The full story would
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
fill a book, I suspect.)
Our train to York stopped at Rotherham Central, after
waiting at Holmes Junction for a late-running southbound
Voyager which in turn made us a few minutes late. Central
is a rather odd station in that the south end of both
platforms is used by tram-trains on their way to the
shopping centre at Parkgate. A little way beyond, at
Aldwarke, we regained the original route.
There was time for a quick look outside York station,
where work is ongoing to reduce the level of Queen Street,
where it once passed over the rail tracks leading into
York’s old station, now long gone. Interesting to see but
not photogenic...
Now we’re heading for Harrogate - a line I’d travelled
along in the 1960s, when steam was still active at York.
Harrogate still saw steam in those days too, but the York-
Knaresborough-Harrogate trains were all first generation
DMUs. After a gap of several years, my next trip along the
line was in a class 141 DMU (remember them? I
remember the driver struggling to get our train to change
gear...). That was almost 40 years ago. Today we have
the comfort of a class 170 - in a different league from
those early units!
So to Leeds, where there’s time to grab a coffee before
boarding our train to Manchester Victoria, via Bradford and
the Calder Valley. And yes, in Manchester we’ll walk
(ready for a leg-stretch!) to Piccadilly, nicely in time to
board - and get a seat - on the stopper back to Crewe.
What a good day! Nothing wrong - no missed connections.
Always found window seats. Plenty of good scenery to
enjoy. Can’t beat it!
