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Lads by the Line


oldrowley

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Hello all,

This is my first post on the forum, so please forgive any faux pas which may occur. There is a photo on the PictureSheffield site showing very clearly two lads watching the trains go by sometime in the 50's. The location is given as 'possibly Nunnery'. The lads' faces are so clearly shown that maybe some of you can put names to them.

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Hello all,

This is my first post on the forum, so please forgive any faux pas which may occur. There is a photo on the PictureSheffield site showing very clearly two lads watching the trains go by sometime in the 50's. The location is given as 'possibly Nunnery'. The lads' faces are so clearly shown that maybe some of you can put names to them.

Welcome to the forum Old Rowley, I have sent you a PM about Picture Sheffield.

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Welcome to er, here, we hope you find some interesting stuff here and some friendly helpful people - we have people from all walks of life with expertise in all sorts of areas of Sheffieldhistory and that blokie from Portugal too !

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Guest Killamarsh GC

Photo's at Brightside on the Midland main line. The wall they're sitting on is still there. You can just make out a gate at the side of the lads, this has now been widened and is our current access to the tracks at the old Brightside station.

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Photo's at Brightside on the Midland main line. The wall they're sitting on is still there. You can just make out a gate at the side of the lads, this has now been widened and is our current access to the tracks at the old Brightside station.

Is the gate you describe just off to the left of this photo, at the top of Station Ln

Brightside looking towards Sheffield

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I thought I remember brightside station but can't work out where the photo was taken - I assume its looking towards Sheffield.

Can you help us locate exactly where it is please?

John

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I thought I remember brightside station but can't work out where the photo was taken - I assume its looking towards Sheffield.

Can you help us locate exactly where it is please?

John

The photo was taken from the footbridge at the Sheffield end of the station that runs from Station Ln to Holywell Rd. The platforms are still there but you can no longer access them from the footbridge.

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Thanks Stuart, The buildings to the extreme right must be the old gasworks ( long since demolished).

Its just shows; I spent hour after hour over some years on the wall about opposite where the photo was taken and didn't recognise the location.

John

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The photo was taken from the footbridge at the Sheffield end of the station that runs from Station Ln to Holywell Rd. The platforms are still there but you can no longer access them from the footbridge.

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Stuart,

Having spent many mis-spent hours hanging round there I am not convinced that that is Brightside but I may be wrong - here's another picture which doen't help much but I don't think it is the same place! There's no wall at the end of the platform - on which the boy is stood - or has that been demolished?

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Stuart,

Having spent many mis-spent hours hanging round there I am not convinced that that is Brightside but I may be wrong - here's another picture which doen't help much but I don't think it is the same place! There's no wall at the end of the platform - on which the boy is stood - or has that been demolished?

It was Killamarsh GC who suggested Britside originally, I tend to agree, but my knowledge of that area is very limited. I think the original "Lads on the Line" photo was taken from the steps of the footbridge looking towards Sheffield. (This bit of wall does not appear on our photo's)

If you imagine both your photo and mine with no trees then look at the original Picture Sheffield photo.

1. Past the Lads to wall dog legs, this can be made out just on our photos.

2. In the left background is a Works at right angles to the track, that is still there.

When I visited there last week I was not aware this could be the "Lads on the Line" location, I went purely for a Now photo for my Then and Now.

Needs another visit I think

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Guest Killamarsh GC

The walls still there on the extreme left. You have to imagine another track on the left as there were 4 tracks here. In the background of the picture with the lads in it you can just make out Brightside signal box. And in answer to the question about the gate its yes the one at the top of station lane.

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Some excellent detective work going on chaps. I have looked in Swift's B.R. Layout Plans of the 1950's and this more or less confirms the arrangement of the signal posts and pegs on the up lines on the Sheffield side of Brightside Station prior to the junction with the Sheffield District line. I say more or less on account of the left hand signal post on the 'Lads' photo apparently only having a home peg and no distant below it whereupon Swift shows a distant also. The signal box is also situated beyond the pegs as pointed out by Killamarsh GC.

Any offerings on the van?

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The walls still there on the extreme left. You have to imagine another track on the left as there were 4 tracks here. In the background of the picture with the lads in it you can just make out Brightside signal box. And in answer to the question about the gate its yes the one at the top of station lane.

I spoke to my mam (who grew up in Brightside) and her train-spotting husband who both think it is Brightside so clearly I don't know what I'm talking about! :o

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I spoke to my mam (who grew up in Brightside) and her train-spotting husband who both think it is Brightside so clearly I don't know what I'm talking about!

A friend of mine (Ralph) who grew up like me trainspotting at brightside has been studying the original photo on here for me as I don't live in Sheffield now, and is convinced it is of Brightside. He took photos last week from around the same place but from a higher angle :

Here is another:

In both the dog leg on the wall can be seen to be the same as the old photo :

picturesheffield

He interprets the old photo as follows:

The tall structures on the far right were erected in the mid fifties and were something to do with the gasworks. Just to their left, the square topped building was a water tower and the wagons below were on a siding that ended with buffers near where we sat trainspotting on the Holywell Rd. The signal gantry and signal box are long gone. The four post gantry is behind the telegraph pole and the signal box can just be seen behind the right arm of the gas lamp, they controled the junction for Treeton.

The van is parked at the top of Station Lane which leads down to the Crown Inn on Meadowhall .

Hope all this helps .

I certainly have wonderful memories of trainspotting there in the 50's.

John

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Crikey that area has changed since I wore my trousers out on that wall! I can still hear the clank of a misused "Black 5" nursing a bearing going behind us onthe slow line towards the sheds. I was there in the late 50's early 60's so I am a young whippersnapper but they were great days.

The good thing was that it was mostly flat to cycle to Bernard Road so we had the best of three worlds.

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