IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Chettles Trade Park, Midland Way, NOTTINGHAM, NG7 3AG

The left hand line leads to Trowell Junction on the Erewash Valley Line. Once used by express services between London and Sheffield via Nottingham, it was earmarked for possible closure towards the end of the 20th century. It has revived since then, carrying the Northern Trains local service linking Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds. The line straight ahead is the former Midland Railway Leen Valley line, opened in 1849 to tap the expanding Nottinghamshire coalfield. Passenger services were withdrawn in the 1960s under the Beeching Plan, but were revived in 1993 as the Robin Hood Line, which now operates half-hourly between Nottingham and Mansfield Woodhouse, hourly to Worksop.

New development.

Frosted railings and trackside.

Student accommodation alongside the River Leen in Radford.

After a frosty night the early morning is bright, sunny and very fresh!

Radford Station closed in 1964 when passenger services between Nottingham, Mansfield and Worksop were withdrawn (I was on the last train), only to be reinstated as The Robin Hood Line thirty years later. The small red-brick booking office was at road level, just to the right of the camera position, and wooden covered stairways led down to the platforms. The land to the right of the tracks, now occupied by industrial units and the Opal 1 student flats (Image]) was once a large railway goods yard, from whose sidings Player's cigarettes were despatched in rail containers brought by lorry from the factories on nearby Churchfield Lane and Radford Boulevard. Older Radfordians will remember that the streets to the west of the station (left) were once locally known as Sodom. At Radford Junction, in the middle distance, the Radford-Trowell line swings to the left and the Leen Valley line to Mansfield goes straight on. The Trowell line was opened in 1875 and enabled trains to and from the north to avoid the bottlenecks at Trent and Toton. Until the 1960s it was the route of the Edinburgh to St Pancras Waverley Express. The principal traffic on the Mansfield line, though, was coal from the Leen Valley pits, the first of which was Radford (closed 1961), whose sidings were half a mile to the north, beyond New Bridge.

A 700 bed complex of student apartments alongside the River Leen nears completion. This is just the latest of many in this area, with two more under construction either side of Triumph Road a few hundred metres South.