IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Towlsons Croft, NOTTINGHAM, NG6 0QS

Currently closed and looking drab on an overcast summer morning.

This cinema was known locally as the Fleapit. It opened on 19 January 1917 and with a balcony added ten years later seated 904. It closed on 2 September 1961 showing Apache starring Burt Lancaster in its final performance. It soon became a bingo hall and in 1975 industrial premises.

A car blocks the drop-kerb on an nasty bit of NCN route 6.

This typical Midland Railway footbridge had to be closed in recent years due to its deteriorating condition, but it has now been rebuilt. In practice it is essentially a replica, only the cast iron pillars surviving and the rest being new construction. Nevertheless attention has been paid to detailed, with domed head bolts being used to look like the old rivets.

This little row of late Victorian shops has seen better days

Panoramic view from the footbridge showing the complexity of the crossing. It comprises a rail crossing, a tram crossing and a normal traffic light controlled crossroads. From a signalling point of view it is probably the most complex road junction in the UK. The normal traffic signals have to be integrated with the railway and the tramway signalling systems, both of which have their own characteristics. As part of the reconstruction of the crossing for the tramway, all the right or left turns at the main road crossing were removed. There is a link road round the back of the red brick building which allows all the necessary manoeuvres to take place, so that the crossroads is very simple. For trains to pass, there are the normal twin flashing red lights as well as the barriers, but additionally the traffic lights are changed to red for the left-right traffic. The stop line to the left is sited far enough away to allow trams also to pass when the road traffic is stopped.The main road traffic retains a green phase for as long as the rail crossing is closed. When the rail barriers are open, the crossing works on a normal phasing pattern. Within this pattern, trams get a proceed signal when the traffic lights are red for the crossing traffic. Nottingham's first generation of electric trams ran along Vernon Road, the main road alongside the railway, later being replaced by trolleybuses. Panoramic view from three separate images.

I was astonishly lucky to get two Robin Hood Line trains actually passing on the crossing, with a tram (yellow roof to the left) picking up passengers as well. Note that the three railway carriages, all belonging to the same operator, East Midlands Trains, have three different liveries, none of which is the new livery of the operator! See also link Image

Ice on the leading end of a tram, at David Lane tram stop.

An interesting combination of rail and tram crossing with a traffic light controlled crossroads. Here the barriers are closed for a train to pass, with the normal twin flashing lights. The ordinary traffic lights control the cross roads which is beyond the crossing, but are also linked to the tram signal system, so it is able to cross (independent of the railway barriers). See Image