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
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
remains of Rotherham Masborough. (The full story would 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!
