1: Dinting (DTG)

Right! After a week of slacking – if you can call five days of hard work, starting running again after a long break (three runs -- about 11 miles in total) and other general life tasks “slacking” – I thought I’d better start this project in earnest. And what better way to start than with my home station: Dinting.

We moved to Simmondley just under a year ago and I started using Glossop station for the commute to my new job, because I knew where it was and it took about twenty minutes or so to walk there. After a few trips, I thought I would have a crack at using the next stop, Dinting – it must be closer, I reasoned. A quick look on Google Maps confirmed it was! So I decided to try it out one evening on the way home from work.

Unfortunately, my first attempt was when the clocks had gone back, so it was pitch black -- plus it was pretty cold and raining. Lovely. Never mind, I thought; my geography’s not too bad -- if I turn left out of here, I’m bound to find a footpath on my left that will take me to Dinting Vale. As it turned out, I did find a way on to Dinting Vale: Shaw Lane. It took me about forty-five minutes to get home, then another forty-five minutes in the bath to regain the feeling in my extremities.

The second time I attempted to alight at Dinting, I turned right on Dinting Road instead. The pavement ran out after a while, as did the street lighting. When a car did pass, it was a Corsa or similar, with dropped suspension and an exhaust the diameter of an elephant’s trunk, being “driven” by a lad who probably hadn’t started shaving yet. I was worried I would die before I was thirty, at the hands of someone whose driving test certificate still had wet ink. I turned right on to a poorly lit path and happened upon a lady who offered me directions and, bless her, a lift back to Simmondley. (Thank you again.)

I decided to make a third attempt during the day, when I had an afternoon off work. Having turned left out of the station and on to Dinting Road, I managed to locate the pathway that eventually leads to this small footbridge over Glossop Brook, next to the viaduct. Success!

I carried on using Glossop station for a while longer but when the weather improved (after a prolonged period of snow), I started to use Dinting. Later still, I found another route to the station, across a lime green painted footbridge.

Once you have found it by foot, Dinting station is quite impressive, considering its small size. It boasts two platforms, although most of the trains stop at Platform 2 both ways. There are some trains during peak times that terminate at Glossop rather than Hadfield, and these use Platform 1. The station is also staffed from Monday to Friday between 6:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., which is handy.

Dinting Station is far less impressive than it used to be, though. You can travel to Manchester Piccadilly via Dinting today – but that’s your lot. Back in the day, this small station was part of the Woodhead Line, which closed in 1981. Yes, at one time, you could travel between Manchester and Sheffield. If only it were open today! My partner and I have family in Chesterfield; our carbon footprint would be reduced considerably if this line were still in use. Think of the beautiful scenery on that route to Sheffield…and the advantage to hikers and cyclists! There is a campaign to reopen it  -- I think I might join it. I certainly can’t argue with the reasons put forward by the campaigners for the Woodhead Line to be in use again:

• To reduce the environmental impact of transporting people and freight across the Southern Pennines.

• To create a means of access to the northern half of the Peak District National Park for non-car users, cyclists and the disabled.

• To create improved access to employment between the
conurbations of Longdendale and Greater Manchester and the Upper Don Valley and South Yorkshire.

• To restore the competitiveness of trans-pennine rail passenger journey times.

• To make rail-freight a more attractive option by providing a more direct route between the ports on the eastern and western sides of the country.

• To provide more ready access to high speed rail passenger rail services between Scotland, London and continental Europe.

• To improve the capacity and reliability of trans-Pennine rail services by creating an additional route to the Hope Valley Line.

(Source: Re-Open the Woodhead Line)

Ten years after the closure of the Woodhead Line, another blow was dealt to Dinting when the Dinting Railway Museum closed. The museum was started by the Bahamas Locomotive Society and is now located at Ingrow West Railway Station, in Keighley, Yorkshire.

Their website states:

“The Society was formed in 1967 with the aim of purchasing and maintaining in working order the former LMS Railway 'Jubilee' class steam locomotive No.45596 Bahamas.

We subsequently established the Dinting Railway Centre in Derbyshire - as a working museum to house Bahamas and our ever-growing collection of locomotives and rolling stock - before we relocated our operations to Ingrow."

Here are a couple of links I found on Flickr that show what was going on at Dinting Station in its heyday:


This photo shows the shed in 1969.
This photo shows the Flying Scotsman stopping off at Dinting in 1974.
 
Unusually for me, I have managed to time something right. A few hours ago, after getting home from work, I looked in the Glossop Advertiser, only to find a story about Dinting Station: the former Museum was auctioned on 20^th September for several times its guide price! The article I read tonight is not yet available on the Advertiser’s website but I managed to find this scan from the Tameside Reporter on the “Re-open the Woodhead Tunnel” blog.  


I intend to take regular pictures of whatever development the former museum undergoes and post updates about the progress on here. The building can be seen clearly from Platform 2, on which I stand every morning, so I have no excuse.

Other links that might interest you:


Guide to the Dinting Railway Centre (Publications / 'Bahamas' Locomotive Society)

Woodhead Line: Woodhead Tunnel, Manchester-Sheffield-Wath Electric Railway, Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway