Heritage Shunters Trust

    Formed as the Hallamshire Locomotive Society, circa late 60's very early 70's, their first base was at Broughton Lane, Sheffield, basically on the site of the Sheffield Arena or at least where the Supertram runs at the side of this. They had aquired a small 0-4-0 steam loco from Brown Bayleys (A Steel company), whose premises almost adjoined this site. I would imagine with this in mind the loco would have almost certainly been delivered by rail. A  LNER type guardsvan was also acquired and weekend brakevan rides commenced behind the steam loco (Brown Bayleys No.7) to accumulate funds. The next part of the story is still shrouded in a little mystery, for me anyway, as a move was made a little later to the sidings of Robert Hadfields also a steel company. This is long gone with the advent of Meadow Hell Shopping Centre, (no this isn't a spelling mistake!), that was in the shadow of the M1 Tinsley Viaduct (On the Sheffield side, basically at the side of the Sheffield District Rly. This is mostly irrelevant as shortly after, they moved back to Broughton Lane, where they remained for a relatively short time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

       Having far higher ambitions and aspirations the next move was to Penistone Goods yard on the Woodhead line, where I believe BR were their landlords. Money was tight as visitors weren't exactly beating down the door to travel on the guardsvan rides offered there, and to say it was remote is an understatement. By that time the Society had also started to aquire more stock in the form of at least one or possibly two Ruston 48 diesel shunters. Another move circa 1983-4 saw them move back to North Sheffield, onto the Newton Chambers Industrial estate at Chapeltown. A lease was taken on a locoshed which had been on the extensive Newton Chambers industrial railway system, but with the decline of the Company had seen the shed truncated as the rest of the railway system was removed. A short length of running line was laid down the side of the shed which was served by a small wooden temporary halt /platform where passengers could board trains for a short brakevan ride and return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shed had a capacity for about eight industrial locos, and soon got filled with industrial diesel locos and one other steam engine in the form of "Catherine" an 0-6-0 side tank, ex NCB steam loco. The Class 15 BTH diesel loco was bought from Healey Mills BR yard, by George Atter, on behalf of the formative class 15 group and this took up a sizeable chunk of the undercover shed space. Other stock was aquired very rapidly e.g. A wooden bodied bogied coach, wagons, more industrial diesels most of which hadn't got a hope of being made servicable, but I digress again. In the summer of 1985 the society aquired its very first ex BR diesel shunter in the form of D2284 from NCB Woolley Colliery, S'Yorks area, which was in running order. About this time the name was changed to the South Yorkshire Railway Preservation Society, as this was felt to be a more generic name, and was more appropriate. The second ex BR loco, the 01 D2953, arrived shortly afterwards in Dec 1985. A lease was taken on a large building, situated at the rear of the locoshed. This building had a large 50 ton overhead travelling crane installed in it, and was the building which had been used to build the unique fibre glass bodied, two tier car transporters for British Railways. Apart from No.7 the saddletank and D2953 going in here for restoration the building also housed many preserved buses, fire engines, three or four battery milk floats (I kid you not!), and I believe an early black cab, and the odd old car or two. This proved to be the downfall of the group as the amount of rent charged, didn't equate to the amount of money received from tenants and a huge deficit was run up. At the AGM, when confronted with the accusation, that the then General manager, had been surreptitiously selling to a local scrap merchant, diesel locomotives that didn't belong to the SYR, or him, he promptly arose from his chair on the rostrum gathered his paperwork up and left and was never seen again within our society circle. It just left me with the £15,000 bill they had run up by early 1986 to sort out, as I was managing our society after this time. An invitation by Sheffield City Council, and more importantly as Newton Chambers were selling the site off piecemeal, meant that we left there in late 1986, to move back to the old Brown Bayleys site, by now  derelict, we were given the lease on a two deck lorry garage, which we very effectively changed over a period of time into a locoshed. The idea given by the Council was we were going to run a Steam Railway through a park they were going to create in the East End of Sheffield, neither which plan came to fruition. (The  site of our shed subsequently disappeared under the Don Valley Stadium), built for the World Student Games. This has also now been demolished after the Council finally realised that it was a "White Elephant". Finding out that we had just been invited to go there until the Don Valley Stadium and the World Student Games came on stream we were on the move again. However! the Council hadn't reckoned on David Morgan's persuasive powers. To enlighten you a little, David was the Chairman of the Heritage Railways Association, and on hearing of our plight came to our rescue, Big Time!!! Being public school educated and an eminent member of the Bar, to say he nailed the council into the ground is very much an understatement. After consulting us about possible options he came down on our side to go to Meadowhall Yard, situated at the foot of the defunct GC branch line that ran from Meadowhall up the Blackburn Valley to Barnsley via Aldam Junction. We moved to here and with us doing the move ourselves, and some clever planning, managed to write the last of the £15,000 deficit off from Chapeltown, and also have a little surplus in the bank to boot. This was 1988, and although we had no covered accomodation or electric services when we arrived there, a big bonus was the amount of room we had, and the prospect of running the Branch line from Meadowhall to the outskirts of Chapeltown some three miles further up the valley. We slowly lost the Branch Line to thieves initially, then the death knell was sounded for it by the exorbitant amount of rent required just to retain it, by the BRB, and then finally the trackbed was sold for £1.00 to Footpaths Ltd, an arm of Sustrans. In the intervening years we had used the yard for restoration, and the displaying and storage of many locos. I think at its zenith, the yard was host to over 120 items of rolling stock ,locomotives,etc,etc.

      Sheffield City Council (Bless them), were no help at all, and the numerous burglaries we had, (sometimes three a week), were juggled between, South Yorkshire Police Force and The British Transport Police. The year 2001 came and we were under increasing pressure to relocate, as thieves, Sheffield City Council, Sustrans and various other undesirables where making Meadowhall Yard, the home of the South Yorkshire Railway untenable. Salvation came in the form of Peak Rail, and more to the point Mrs Jackie Staham. I had a chance conversation with her, which resulted in a visit to our yard at Meadowhall. As the time factor was getting crucial an invitation was forth coming for us to move to Peak Rail, where there was a piece of land allocated for us to develop under our own steam (If you can pardon the pun!). By the time the move was underway, sadly some colleagues had already found alternative homes, but the main core of the South  Yorkshire Railway moved to Rowsley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Here we are some 15 years later. Of course we had to lose the name of South Yorkshire Railway, as our front line name, or it would have been very confusing for people coming to Peak Rail! The Heritage Shunters Trust evolved from this although for accountancy, and Charity Commision purposes and to keep our Limited company status  we trade and bank under the name of The South Yorkshire Railway, which is after all who we are. We are very proud of the massive leaps we have made with infrastructure and facilities which cannot be bettered by any other group of our size in the Railway Preservation sphere, since  we settled at Rowsley. We are a true not for profit Charitable Trust, with any monies made being ploughed back into ongoing projects. As the restoration queue gets smaller, (well I would like to think it's getting smaller but even keeping locos indoors still necessitates ongoing cosmetic work as well as mechanical maintenance and breakdowns). I hope this article gives an insight into the trials and tribulations we have experienced in the past, and how gratifying it is to finally get settled with a brilliant secure home, set in surroundings that most other Railways and Groups would give their right arm for! I will end by saying that our greatest asset are our members, some who have been in the Trust now for Twenty Five Years plus and it's no cliche to say it is like one big family, Thanks to you all. A special Thankyou, also goes out to David Morgan who fought a fantastic rear guard action against Sheffield City Council and Adrian Millward who successfully obtained a substantial lottery grant for us to complete our big storage shed, for no more than the fact that he wanted to help us,,,,,,,,,,,,,Here's hoping that the next twenty five years is just as successful, thanks for your interest, this brings the story up to date for the moment.............John Wade.

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