Rare Track Days #3: Doncaster-York Diversions

Over the weekend of January 19th-20th, I set off to do a few interesting bits of track in the north of England, spending Saturday night in Sheffield with my friend Jonathan. The plan had in fact been to head north on the night of Friday 18th, but with six inches of snow falling during the day I thought better of it, and instead headed north on Saturday morning instead, deliberately allowing extra time in case the snow caused problems.

The East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Doncaster and York was shut for engineering works on Saturday, so trains were diverted on a number of lightly-used passenger lines. A large network of railway lines remains in Yorkshire, many of them used principally by freight trains to and from the many coal-fired power stations. This map might help:

(Map based on OpenStreetMap; © OpenStreetMap contributors)

The normal ECML route between Doncaster and York is marked in yellow, and the two diversionary routes we took are marked in orange and blue respectively.

0911 (actual 0922) Coventry to Birmingham New St, arr 0942 (actual 0952)
Headcode: 2Y06, operated by London Midland using Desiro 350257
Distance: 19 miles

While the snowfall had wreaked havoc across the network on Friday night, by Saturday morning the problems were relatively minor. Nonetheless, London Midland's driver problems reared their head again, and my first train to Birmingham was ten minutes late having awaited a driver at Northampton. Even so, I made my connection at New Street without any problems:

1003 Birmingham New St to Sheffield, arr 1117
Headcode: 1S39, operated by CrossCountry using Voyager 221128
Distance: 77.25 miles

I headed north through Derby to Sheffield. In spite of having travelled this route many times before, the covering of snow made the familiar look new and other-worldly: gone was the normal colour palette of greenery, replaced with a beautiful yet muted spectrum of greys and browns. The snow made for quite a spectacle, particularly as we fringed the eastern edge of the Peak District.

Because of the engineering works, CrossCountry trains were not running via Doncaster, instead running either via Leeds or Pontefract Baghill. While I hadn't done the latter route, I had more important track to do, so I hopped off at Sheffield and wandered down the platform to head to Doncaster:

1141 Sheffield to Doncaster, arr 1214
Headcode: 1W36, operated by Northern Rail using Sprinter 158848
Distance: 19 miles

This Northern Rail train to Scarborough via Hull started out pretty quiet from Sheffield, but rather more people got on at Meadowhall, a major bus and tram interchange to the north-east of Sheffield. We were allowed eight minutes over standard timings to get to Doncaster, with 33 minutes allowed for a journey of just 18 miles; and sure enough, even though we were held outside the station for three minutes, we still arrived in Doncaster five minutes early.

I had arrived in Doncaster with 45 minutes to spare, which I had allowed in case one of the trains had been delayed or cancelled. I found a warm waiting room and read my book. I had no intention of missing my next train, which was the last one of the day to go on this particular route:

1255 Doncaster to York, arr 1327
Headcode: 1N92, operated by Grand Central using Adelante 180105
Distance: 35.5 miles

The section of the ECML between Doncaster and York is a recent addition to the network. Due to subsidence as a result of coal mining on the old ECML through Selby, a new diversion avoiding Selby was built and opened in 1983 to avoid the crippling speed restrictions that would otherwise have been necessary.

The new line branched off the old one at Temple Hirst Junction, and joined the Leeds-York line at Colton Junction. The points at Colton Junction were being renewed, so we branched off the main line at Hambleton, where the new ECML (running north-south) crosses the Leeds-Selby line (running east-west) with connections from north to east - which I did previously - and from south to west.

The south to west connection at Hambleton is rarely used, only being scheduled for use by the 0655 Skipton-King's Cross on Saturdays. Being able to travel on the connection in daylight is thus rather unusual; but on this occasion a few of the Grand Central services - including this one - were diverted over this connection, and then onwards to York via Gascoigne Wood Jn and Sherburn-in-Elmet (see the orange route in the map above).

At Church Fenton, our pair of tracks were joined by another pair of tracks from Leeds, to which we crossed at Colton South Junction. We then passed Colton Junction, where a large body of men were busy removing the old points; it was quite surreal to have overhead wires but no track beneath them!

The diversion only lengthened the usual 25-minute journey between Doncaster and York to just under 35 minutes, and it is certainly the shortest diversionary route available. Nonetheless, for some reason not all the trains were using it, so I made sure to get a train that did.

The train itself was just five carriages long, with Grand Central's usual six-car HSTs replaced on this particular run with a Class 180 "Adelante", a rather unloved fleet of 14 diesel multiple units capable of 125mph shared between Grand Central, Hull Trains and First Great Western. Being only five carriages, it was fairly full, and the only seat with a window that I could find was a conveniently placed tip-up seat next to one of the doors; even so, I managed to eat my lunch.

I had half an hour in York to look round - time enough to buy a magazine - before heading back to Doncaster on a rather different diversion:

1400 York to Doncaster, arr 1450
Headcode: 1E13, operated by East Coast using HST 43320+43257
Distance: 34.75 miles

The vast majority of the diversions were not via Hambleton, but instead used a route via Askern and Ferrybridge shown in blue on the above map. The route via Ferrybridge is a standard diversionary route that drivers are trained on, and that seems to have been the limiting factor: even though this diversion took 50 minutes to get from York to Doncaster, there weren't enough drivers who knew the faster route via Hambleton to run that way.

As far as Ferrybridge, we followed the Dearne Valley line, which was once considered the main line between Sheffield and York. However, the fact that it avoids almost all the major settlements of the West Riding - the only major station being Pontefract Baghill - means that almost all services now run either via Leeds or Doncaster.

We left York almost the same way we came in (crossing at Church Fenton, rather than Colton South Jn), as far as Sherburn-in-Elmet. From there we continued straight on to Milford Junction, where we crossed over to the other pair of tracks: rather than going straight on to Castleford, we curved left and headed towards Ferrybridge.

We crawled along past Ferrybridge power station, leaving the Dearne Valley Line at Ferrybridge North Junction, and used the Knottingley Curve to Knottingley West Junction. This short section of track sees no regular passenger services apart from occasional diversions by East Coast, most of which are in the dead of night; to do the curve in daylight is thus fairly unusual.

At Knottingley West Jn, we briefly flirted with the Pontefract Line between Leeds and Goole, for all of a few metres, before immediately turning off again onto the Askern Line. This ten-mile-long line from Knottingley to Shaftholme Jn, on the ECML proper just north of Doncaster, is normally used only by a few Grand Central services between London and Bradford (which I did last April), and otherwise sees relatively little use.

On this occasion it saw a train every hour between London and Edinburgh. This particular train was, in fact, the "Highland Chieftain", the once-a-day service between Inverness and London. Fortunately it wasn't nearly as busy as the previous train, and I got a nice window seat in the rear coach. Of course, being an HST, there was no underfloor engine noise to put up with, which made the journey all the more pleasant.

We arrived at Doncaster - not normally a stop for the "Highland Chieftain" but a stop today to permit a driver change - a few minutes late; I grabbed a chocolate bar and then hopped on my last train of the day, a stopper to Sheffield:

1503 Doncaster to Sheffield, arr 1541
Headcode: 2P73, operated by Northern Rail using Pacer 144006
Distance: 19 miles

It wouldn't be a trip up north without a ride on a Pacer. Fortunately, as trains made from bus parts go, the 144s are a lot better than the other kinds of Pacer, and though I was somewhat lacking in legroom, the stops passed quickly enough.

All in all, a very successful day in which I bagged two pretty rare connections. After 204.5 miles, and only just over four hours on trains, I met up with Jonathan and spent the night in Sheffield, ready for another day of rare track on Sunday...