69009 Surprise at Newstead

[Bill EWS]

Waiting for the 15.27 back into Nottingham after a pleasant day walking the old GNR route from Hucknall to Newstead via Linby. While waiting for the train my camera was packed away and wasn't expecting anymore photography when suddenly this light loco came into via approaching from Worksop. I just had the bare time to get my camera out of the bag and point and shoot, no second chance for a facing view and with the camera set on manual exposure had to take the exposure as it was. This made for a rather underexposed picture and I have had to brighten it up a bit. This is the first 69 I have seen since they were upgraded. I drove thease from new and they weren't one of my favourite locos to drive but it was interesting seeing them still in operation today. Anyone know what duties the locomotive was on at this time!

Newstead and Annesley Visit has always been aninteresting area for me, especially in regards the old GCR and I have visited this area many times since the very first time way back in 1973/4 and the area continues to change. This time I was interesting to see where vthe GNR trackbed ran between Hucknall and Linby. There is not a lot to see and you have to walk the Libby Road for much of the way but there is still some trackbed walkable for a good half of the way and mostly through the site of what was Linby Coal Mine. I have the Trainsim game route featuring driving from Nottingham Victoria to Annesley and that gives a great sense of what both the GCR & GNR routes were like all around including Colwich to Annesley when all the routes were there.

 

[ChrisC]

You were very fortunate to see anything other than the hourly Nottingham to Worksop passenger train pass through Newstead.

 

[ChrisC]

Waiting for the 15.27 back into Nottingham after a pleasant day walking the old GNR route from Hucknall to Newstead via Linby. While waiting for the train my camera was packed away and wasn't expecting anymore photography when suddenly this light loco came into via approaching from Worksop. I just had the bare time to get my camera out of the bag and point and shoot, no second chance for a facing view and with the camera set on manual exposure had to take the exposure as it was. This made for a rather underexposed picture and I have had to brighten it up a bit. This is the first 69 I have seen since they were upgraded. I drove thease from new and they weren't one of my favourite locos to drive but it was interesting seeing them still in operation today. Anyone know what duties the locomotive was on at this time!

Newstead and Annesley Visit has always been aninteresting area for me, especially in regards the old GCR and I have visited this area many times since the very first time way back in 1973/4 and the area continues to change. This time I was interesting to see where vthe GNR trackbed ran between Hucknall and Linby. There is not a lot to see and you have to walk the Libby Road for much of the way but there is still some trackbed walkable for a good half of the way and mostly through the site of what was Linby Coal Mine. I have the Trainsim game route featuring driving from Nottingham Victoria to Annesley and that gives a great sense of what both the GCR & GNR routes were like all around including Colwich to Annesley when all the routes were there.View attachment 188272

That whole area from Hucknall northwards through Linby, Newstead, Annesley and indeed north of there to Kirkby in Ashfield and beyond is a very interesting area for finding evidence of the routes of the closed GCR and GNR. I regularly walk around this whole area trying to remember what it used to look like 50+ year ago. I grew up as a child in the 1960’s living in one of the six Great Northern Railway Cottages you will have walked past on your way along the Linby Road north from Hucknall. Therefore I just about remember when all the lines were still open and certainly remember the steam hauled coal trains shunting in and out of Linby Colliery on the GNR right at the back of our house. In those days Linby Road was just a narrow lane with no pavements and even in the 1960’s was still lit by gas street lamps. Those cottages are now surrounded by new housing estates and have a busy road in front. When I was a young child they were the only houses along that section of the lane with arable fields opposite.

Having walked to and from school in Hucknall every day along Linby Road I still remember the exact route the GNR took and can still picture it in my mind including the two bridges where the road passed over the railway. Just opposite Hucknall Leisure Centre, hidden behind a tall hedge the part of the red brick remains of one of these bridges can still be seen. The other bridge which was between the Robin Hood Line level crossing and the railway cottages carried the road over both the GNR and the line which ran into Linby Colliery. The road climbed to this bridge up high embankments with an almost right angled bend at the eastern end of the bridge high above where the bungalows at the top of Bishops Way are now built.