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History of Dore station and junctions

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yorkie

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Can anyone provide more information on the history of the railway lines in this area?

I understand Dore station had multiple platforms and the layout had a lot more operational flexibility than it does today.

When was the Hope Valley line singled at this point? Were the other platforms demolished at the same time?

Presumably traffic was really light when that decision was made and the huge increase in services just wasn't envisaged.
 
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Andy R. A.

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I think most of this stems from the rationalisation in the Sheffield area when the new Power Box was commissioned in the early 1970s when the four track section between Dore and Sheffield reduced the four running lines to just two with a loop at Heeley (completed January 1972 ?). I think the line to the Hope Valley was singled at this time at Dore station (between Dore Station Junction and Dore West Junction) leaving just the one platform for the Hope Valley route in place of the original four, the platforms on the Chesterfield route being permanently closed around this time as well?
 

Killingworth

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For the full story up to 1948 Ted Hancock's 295 large page comprehensive book "The Hope Valley Line, Dore to Chinley, Volume One" published in 2019 can't be beaten. It tells all that's known about the background. Volumes 2 and 3 may be a year or two yet.

4 platform Dore and Totley station was downgraded in stages. The lines from Dore into Sheffield had been quadrupled in the 1900-04 period.

Planned around 1900 all the intermediate stations gained two extra platforms. Their names changed over time but in addtion to Dore & Totley there were Heeley, Millhouses and Ecclesall and Beauchief & Abbey Dale. All stopping services on the Midland Mainline to Chesterfield stopped in 1968. After 7th September 1969 all the Hope Valley stations towards Manchester were reduced to unstaffed status with pay trains running at best every two hours.

The rot really set in for Dore & Totley when half the services to and from Sheffield were withdrawn in 1968. (At that time the bus fares in Sheffeld were approaching a period when fares were so low that it might have been more cost effective to make more than half the services free and saved the cost of collection! But I digress.) The footbridge to the southbound mainline platform was removed and tracks were gradually removed down the Sheaf Valley. The other stations were mostly demolished and removed. The steam depot at Milhouses also went, now replaced by a large Tesco store that effectively blocks the trackbed to make reinstatement of 2 tracks impossible without demolition. HS2 may squeeze one through the gap between Tesco and Sainsbury's on the opposite side!

All remained fairly quiet for a few years after 1969. 3 coach Mark I DMUs ran up to New Mills and came back again, usually very lightly loaded. Those wanting to go to Manchester from the intermediate stations had to change at New Mills, or from Dore go into Sheffield and change onto a faster train to come back over. The 2 hourly service was less frequent at times during the day.

Three platforms survived and remained serviceable, although only 1 and 2 were used. In February 1979 road gritters went on strike in Sheffield and buses were ordered off the roads for several days. British Rail stopped mainline trains into Sheffield at Dore and (by then completely closed) Dronfield. The services were well used, see pictures of folks queueing down the road and on the platform, even though a return service out of town couldn't stop at Dore due to the removed footbridge span! After demonstrating the popularity of rail services the reward for Dronfield was reopening in January 1981.

colorized-image-1.jpgcolorized-image-2.jpg

For Dore & Totley it was to be an opposite effect, Platforms 2, 3 and 4 and the remaining span of the footbridge were all demolished in early 1985.

That was bad enough, but the remains of the fairly complex junction of 1903 were rationalised further to allow faster running on the Midland mainline. The remaining two tracks were slewed across the 4 track wide trackbed and some road bridge spans removed or decomissioned. For what happened as the final part of this operation we need to appreciate the passenger trends at the time. Decisions will have been based on trends in the early 1980s when rail passenger numbers were declining. By 1985 that trend had been arrested and the pendulum had started to swing the other way - but that wasn't apparent at the time.
Screenshot (165).png
In 1985 there was one fast train an hour between Sheffield and Manchester. Freight services weren't very frequent. The average maximum number of trains passing betwen Dore Station Junctio and Dore West Junction was just 3 an hour, in total. By 2019 it was at least 6. It must have seemed a good idea at the time to single over a kilometre of track through a quiet station, and reduce the platform length from 6 carriages to 4.

Unfortunately the changes coincided with the resurgence of rail passenger traffic and the Sheffield - Manchester route was no exception. More and longer trains, both passenger and freight have made it difficult to manage. That's compounded by significantly increased train numbers on the Midand mainline as well, all adding up to major congestion down the 2 remaining Sheaf Valley tracks into Sheffield.

Delays to any route will knock on to others. Penzance or Southampton to Aberdeen or Glasgow on Cross-Country. Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport for TransPennine. Norwich to Liverpoool or St Pancras to Sheffield for East Midlands. Leeds to Nottingham for Northern. Northern's stopping service along the Hope Valley is regularly held up by one or more of these, and in turn will hold up some of them.

So that's the back drop to the forthcoming Hope Valley Capacity Improvement Scheme, although it's a lot more complex than that, of course.

Passenger number estimates between Sheffield and Manchester may be known within the industry but are not readily available outside. The annual passenger number statistics for each station are published each year and there's a useful tool built in to produce a graph showing progress over time. The one for Dore & Totley gives some sort of guide as to how much busier the line had become by the end of March 2019. 2019-20 may show further progress. Sadly 2020-21 will look dire!!



colorized-image-1.jpgcolorized-image-2.jpgScreenshot (165).png
 
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Killingworth

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Having computer issues today!

Previous post should have had following graph to conclude, showing the rapid growth in traffic over the last 10 years, ramping up most recently - until March 2020!!

D&TGraph.png
 
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Revaulx

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Thanks for all that @Andy R. A. and @Killingworth

Probably no bad thing that the Midland's planned capacity improvements for the north end of Sheffield got scuppered by World War 1, as they almost certainly wouldn't have survived the 70s and 80s either!
 

Killingworth

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I see I didn't answer the original question as fully as I might. On a wet day I've been looking through my collection of old postcards and other railway stuff and come across these three pictures which may help.

In this era, probably the 1920s, you didn't send an electronic message to say you'd arrived, you bought a postcard at W H Smith's and sent it in the post, and it was delivered by possibly 4 posts a day in the cities. Bookstall on central island platform and they did local deliveries.
DoreStation002-Colorized.jpgs12420a.jpgcolorized-image-16.jpg
 

Helvellyn

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The rot really set in for Dore & Totley when half the services to and from Sheffield were withdrawn in 1968. (At that time the bus fares in Sheffeld were approaching a period when fares were so low that it might have been more cost effective to make more than half the services free and saved the cost of collection! But I digress.) The footbridge to the southbound mainline platform was removed and tracks were gradually removed down the Sheaf Valley. The other stations were mostly demolished and removed. The steam depot at Milhouses also went, now replaced by a large Tesco store that effectively blocks the trackbed to make reinstatement of 2 tracks impossible without demolition. HS2 may squeeze one through the gap between Tesco and Sainsbury's on the opposite side!
I know it was a different time but given it was still an active rail corridor failing to preserve the land for the four track alignment after rationalisation smacks of one of those deliberate acts of ensuring reinstatement wouldn't be put back on the agenda.

A bit like with some road building schemes where building over bridges that didn't allow for future widening was pursued in the 1990s.

Thanks for all that @Andy R. A. and @Killingworth

Probably no bad thing that the Midland's planned capacity improvements for the north end of Sheffield got scuppered by World War 1, as they almost certainly wouldn't have survived the 70s and 80s either!
At the risk of going off topic what were those plans exactly?
 

Revaulx

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I know it was a different time but given it was still an active rail corridor failing to preserve the land for the four track alignment after rationalisation smacks of one of those deliberate acts of ensuring reinstatement wouldn't be put back on the agenda.

A bit like with some road building schemes where building over bridges that didn't allow for future widening was pursued in the 1990s.
Indeed. Though I'm always amazed when driving along the M42 near Widney Manor to see abutments for a third and fourth track. Maybe they were still in place when the plans for the motorway were drawn up?

At the risk of going off topic what were those plans exactly?
No idea, but I've definitely read in a reputable source that quadrupling was envisaged.
 

Killingworth

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Another from the archives, the timetable in 1938 between Dore & Totley and Sheffield. At that time there were a lot of Sheffield commuters and it was a busy station.

Until this March it was becoming an increasingly busy commuter station, but primarily for Manchester! If you compare this timetable with that of today you can see why!1938 timetable.jpg
 

WesternLancer

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For the full story up to 1948 Ted Hancock's 295 large page comprehensive book "The Hope Valley Line, Dore to Chinley, Volume One" published in 2019 can't be beaten. It tells all that's known about the background. Volumes 2 and 3 may be a year or two yet.

4 platform Dore and Totley station was downgraded in stages. The lines from Dore into Sheffield had been quadrupled in the 1900-04 period.

Planned around 1900 all the intermediate stations gained two extra platforms. Their names changed over time but in addtion to Dore & Totley there were Heeley, Millhouses and Ecclesall and Beauchief & Abbey Dale. All stopping services on the Midland Mainline to Chesterfield stopped in 1968. After 7th September 1969 all the Hope Valley stations towards Manchester were reduced to unstaffed status with pay trains running at best every two hours.

The rot really set in for Dore & Totley when half the services to and from Sheffield were withdrawn in 1968. (At that time the bus fares in Sheffeld were approaching a period when fares were so low that it might have been more cost effective to make more than half the services free and saved the cost of collection! But I digress.) The footbridge to the southbound mainline platform was removed and tracks were gradually removed down the Sheaf Valley. The other stations were mostly demolished and removed. The steam depot at Milhouses also went, now replaced by a large Tesco store that effectively blocks the trackbed to make reinstatement of 2 tracks impossible without demolition. HS2 may squeeze one through the gap between Tesco and Sainsbury's on the opposite side!

All remained fairly quiet for a few years after 1969. 3 coach Mark I DMUs ran up to New Mills and came back again, usually very lightly loaded. Those wanting to go to Manchester from the intermediate stations had to change at New Mills, or from Dore go into Sheffield and change onto a faster train to come back over. The 2 hourly service was less frequent at times during the day.

Three platforms survived and remained serviceable, although only 1 and 2 were used. In February 1979 road gritters went on strike in Sheffield and buses were ordered off the roads for several days. British Rail stopped mainline trains into Sheffield at Dore and (by then completely closed) Dronfield. The services were well used, see pictures of folks queueing down the road and on the platform, even though a return service out of town couldn't stop at Dore due to the removed footbridge span! After demonstrating the popularity of rail services the reward for Dronfield was reopening in January 1981.

View attachment 77350View attachment 77351

For Dore & Totley it was to be an opposite effect, Platforms 2, 3 and 4 and the remaining span of the footbridge were all demolished in early 1985.

That was bad enough, but the remains of the fairly complex junction of 1903 were rationalised further to allow faster running on the Midland mainline. The remaining two tracks were slewed across the 4 track wide trackbed and some road bridge spans removed or decomissioned. For what happened as the final part of this operation we need to appreciate the passenger trends at the time. Decisions will have been based on trends in the early 1980s when rail passenger numbers were declining. By 1985 that trend had been arrested and the pendulum had started to swing the other way - but that wasn't apparent at the time.
View attachment 77357
In 1985 there was one fast train an hour between Sheffield and Manchester. Freight services weren't very frequent. The average maximum number of trains passing betwen Dore Station Junctio and Dore West Junction was just 3 an hour, in total. By 2019 it was at least 6. It must have seemed a good idea at the time to single over a kilometre of track through a quiet station, and reduce the platform length from 6 carriages to 4.

Unfortunately the changes coincided with the resurgence of rail passenger traffic and the Sheffield - Manchester route was no exception. More and longer trains, both passenger and freight have made it difficult to manage. That's compounded by significantly increased train numbers on the Midand mainline as well, all adding up to major congestion down the 2 remaining Sheaf Valley tracks into Sheffield.

Delays to any route will knock on to others. Penzance or Southampton to Aberdeen or Glasgow on Cross-Country. Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport for TransPennine. Norwich to Liverpoool or St Pancras to Sheffield for East Midlands. Leeds to Nottingham for Northern. Northern's stopping service along the Hope Valley is regularly held up by one or more of these, and in turn will hold up some of them.

So that's the back drop to the forthcoming Hope Valley Capacity Improvement Scheme, although it's a lot more complex than that, of course.

Passenger number estimates between Sheffield and Manchester may be known within the industry but are not readily available outside. The annual passenger number statistics for each station are published each year and there's a useful tool built in to produce a graph showing progress over time. The one for Dore & Totley gives some sort of guide as to how much busier the line had become by the end of March 2019. 2019-20 may show further progress. Sadly 2020-21 will look dire!!



View attachment 77350View attachment 77351View attachment 77357
Excellent posts - v interesting to read.
 
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