Wath yard 1953
 

Just been looking at the traffic for WATH YARD in 1953, not a yard that I ever went to, but it looks to have been a busy place.
Anyone ever been there in its heyday ?

48111

We went to Wath Yard in the late 1980's when it was on its last legs.
All the drivers/guards came to HM or Donny on redundancy.
At its death throws, we went past the yard with sand empties from Beatson Clarkes Glass Works.We had to stop and let the Tops Cleark take the consist of the train, then off to Belmont and LD/G back to the Mill
The reason Wath Yard was built was to see to the many pits in this area.
We also had a pit tripper which went into Dovecliffe, Manvers Main, and Hickelton on the S and K just down from Moorthorpe.
One Thursday we tripped into Manvers Main to take a load of coal back to the Mill.
I said to the shunter, "Al see thi tomrrow kid. "
When I signed on on the next day, Manvers Main was shut, that quick.
The tripper was 6K22 usually was a class31/37.
We signed on at 09:05 till 16:00hrs.
The maximum load was 720 tons(26 HTV's) back from Wath via Hickelton, Moorthorpe, South Kirby Jct, Hare Park Jct,
Wakefiield Kirkgate Stn, Horbury Jct to HM Hump top. Going home at 1300hrs.
From HM you could get to Wath via the S and K, or Barnsley Quarry Jct , Cudwoth and Stairfoot or via Doncaster and Mexboro.

visited wath yds inmid 60s loads off 76 on shed with class 31 frm mexboro and barnsley odd 37s it was bus with traffic to manchester area mainly coal

One of the main reasons for the demise of Wath Yard was the opening of Tinsley Yard which replaced quite a few yards in the South Yorkshire Area it was also electrified to accommodate a lot of the coal traffic for the Manchester via Woodhead Route, of course Tinsley went the same way as Wath,must have been one of the most expensive Marshalling "White Elephants" ever, thanks to Dr Beeching. When Tinsley opened Saltley men had 5 jobs a day in/out of there. However the main decline of both yards was Mrs Thatchers plan to see off the NUM by shutting all the pits,so we could import the only mineral we had, from all over the world !

The week before the Miners Strike started, I was on a MGR job which entailed 2 Trips with etys to Wath and load back over the S and K.
As we came into Wath Yard we could see the fires of the Cortonwood Pit Picket Line.
The closing of Cortonwood was the start that ignited the long stuuggle to come.
When history is written Maggie T will get the blame for wrecking this countries energy supplies.
The date of this was March 1984.

Just wish I'd seen Wath when it was fully operational all those years ago especially with the DC electrics. I seem to remember from old photos that part of Tinsley yard was electrified too. Just out of curiosity does anyone know when the 76s stopped running to Tinsley?

And thousands of other jobs too.
Heavy engineering suffered greatly with places like Brush, Dougty & Dosco losing 1,000s of jobs & many of these companies suppliers also suffered job losses.
And of course 100s of railway workers jobs went too yards like Tinsley & Toton relied on coal for most of their traffic.

I agree with every syllable you guys wrote. This countries railways, pits and industries were destroyed, for political dogma- and for what? We pay an arm and a leg to other countries, for what we had. We even have our locos in other nations hands, delivering the very materials we have in abundance. It makes me sick!
mickey.

I last visited Wath yard on Sunday 23 July 1961 between 7.15-7.20pm! Shed code at the time was 9G (Sub). A total of 18 26000 electrics were in the yard od which I copped 6. I also copped a lone diesel shunter D 3697 of 41F Mexborough. All I remember is a sunny warm evening and a long line of Bo-Bo Claasss EMI goods electrics. As this was the 13th out of 14 depots visited we didn;t hang around as tiring and a 40 mile ccar journey to base.
Depots visited were - Cowick(92),,Nottingham Midland (29),Annesley(42 including18 9Fs), Langwith Junction(13),Kirkby-in-Ashfield,(8),Stavely(Barrow Hill(26),Stavely(Gt Cent)(14),Sheffield (Darnall)(23),Sheffield(Grimesthorpe)(40),canklow( 7),mexborough(6),
Wath(19), and royston(12). New cops 162 out of 331 seen. Best cop of the day B1 61000 Springbok of doncaster on Cowick.
Further details if required on request

Chris

61000 Springbok was allocated to Colwick (40E) From 12/6/1960 - 5/3 1962 where it was withdrawn
I remember seeing "Springbok" on a few times during it's time at Colwick living only a mile or so from that depot.