The site of Daybrook Junction

Image: © John Sutton Taken: 18 May 2010

Until 1960, the path straight ahead was the track of the Great Northern Railway's line to Derby, always known as The Back Line as it circled Nottingham to the east, carrying Erewash Valley coal to the marshalling yards at Colwick. The short-lived Nottingham Suburban Railway, whose passenger service lasted only from 1889-1931, but which remained open until 1951 to serve Mapperley brickworks, diverged on an embankment to the right, passing through Woodthorpe Grange Park and serving stations at Sherwood, St Ann's Well and Thorneywood before joining the Grantham line at Trent Lane Junction, trains terminating at London Road. Its course through Woodthorpe is marked by the curve of Worcester Road, while further south the almost appropriately-named Raibank Gardens is built on the trackbed. Daybrook B&Q, behind the camera, stands where the two lines actually joined. Most of the embankment there has been levelled (and the bridge over Mansfield Road removed), so the steps in the foreground lead up to what used to be rail level.

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