The Elsecar Heritage Railway is located on the southern part of the former South Yorkshire Railway freight-only branch which ran from Elsecar Junction on its Mexborough to Barnsley line. The line was built to serve Earl Fitzwilliam's collieries and ironworks, which he leased out to local ironmasters.
The Elsecar Heritage Railway operates trains on a 1 mile (1.6 km) section of the branch with using steam and diesel locomotives currently running between Rockingham station (at the back of the Elsecar Heritage Centre) and Hemingfield Basin.
As of 2012, There are still plans to extend the line to Cortonwood (Plus a new halt will be built at Hemingfield as part of the extension project). The railway is operated using a variety of different preserved rolling stock.
On 16 May 2011, the permanent way materials for the level crossing arrived and a donation scheme had been set up for the remainder of the money needed. Funds raised through this scheme have since been used to purchase barriers and traffic signals for the crossing ready for installation. In August 2012, trial holes were dug to locate services under the road surface ready for the crossing installation to take place.
As of 21 June 2011, the ground has been cleared and levelled ready for ballast and track alterations in anticipation for constructing the station at hemingfield, currently the end of the line.
Read more about Elsecar Heritage Railway: Stations
Famous quotes containing the words heritage and/or railway:
“It seems to me that upbringings have themes. The parents set the theme, either explicitly or implicitly, and the children pick it up, sometimes accurately and sometimes not so accurately.... The theme may be “Our family has a distinguished heritage that you must live up to” or “No matter what happens, we are fortunate to be together in this lovely corner of the earth” or “We have worked hard so that you can have the opportunities we didn’t have.””
—Calvin Trillin (20th century)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)