SideTracked - Chesterfield Traditional Geocache

History

The first line into Chesterfield was the North Midland Railway from Derby to Leeds in 1840. The original station was built in a Jacobean style similar to the one at Ambergate but it was replaced in 1870 by a new one further south in the current location, when the Midland Railway built the "New Road" to Sheffield.

In 1893 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, later to become the Great Central Railway, crossed under the North Midland line 0.5 miles (800 m) south, at Horns Bridge, to a station two hundred yards west of this station. In 1897, the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway arrived, crossing both North Midland and Great Central lines at Horns Bridge with a viaduct seven hundred feet long, leading to a station at West Bars, near the Market Place. The Market Place Line was originally planned to be extended to Manchester, instead of from Dore in South West Sheffield. The line would have gone North of the A619 and somewhere between Holymoorside and Old Brampton, before disappearing into a long tunnel near LadyWood (Chander Hill) and reappearing at Baslow, where it would have presumably followed the valley to the current Hope valley Line.

There is still a tunnel that exists near Hollis Lane which was once part of the Great Central Line, its northern end is now blocked off by a retaining wall on the A61 Chesterfield Bypass. A ladder which was formerly an Air-shaft still exits off Durrant Road.

Map from 1960s

Central Station C1909.

Map of market Station area

South Portal taken in recent times. The entrance is blocked of by a 6 foot high spiky fence.

The line into Market Place station closed to passengers in 1951 due to problems in Bolsover Tunnel, the station remained open for goods traffic until March 1957, when it was closed completely. The station building was demolished in 1972. The Great Central station closed in March 1963 and was demolished in 1973 to make way for the A61. The abandoned trackbed past Horns bridge to Chesterfield is currently being turned into a cycleway as part of the Hipper Valley upgrade from Holymoorside, where cyclists will be able to cycle from the Station, over the A61 and through Queens Park, past Walton Dam and through Greendale Fields to Holymoorside. The trackbed East of Chesterfeild is now part of the A617 to J29.

The Midland station was demolished and rebuilt in 1963. Most of the buildings from 1963 were demolished in the late 90s, shortly after privatisation. Most of the buildings on site now date from then.

Station layout

Entrance to the station is on Crow Lane and includes a car park, taxi rank and bus stop. There is also a small car park on the other side of Crow Lane which does not have a parking charge. The main entrance leads to the station concourse, which is very spacious and was built in the late 1990s. It includes a ticket office, a newsagent, a café and a waiting room. The concourse and the waiting room both have direct access to platform 1. There is also a waiting room on platform 2, which is accessed via a tunnel, using the stairs or lift in the concourse. There is a statue of George Stevenson who lived and died in nearby Tapton House.

Ghost of George Stevenson

George Stevenson, who lived and died in nearby Tapton House, has been seen wandering the station at night and footsteps have been heard on the subway. mild poltergeist activity ha been reported near the ticket office and he is often seen standing on the footbridge half a mile down the line.

Platforms and destinations

class 222 meridian at chesterfield station

The fast lines have two large side platforms, one for each direction. These platforms are covered for around half their length. The goods lines pass around the rear of platform 2, and there is a third large platform here that serves the northbound goods line.

Platform 1 is for northbound trains, calling at stations towards Sheffield, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Liverpool Lime Street, Leeds, York, Doncaster, Newcastle, Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central.

Platform 2 is for southbound trains, calling at stations towards London St Pancras International, Derby, Nottingham, Peterborough, Norwich, Cambridge, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff Central, Bournemouth, Southampton, Plymouth and Penzance.

Platform 3 is bidirectional and was opened in July 2010.  is used during engineering works to reduce dependence on replacement bus services. It is located on the down slow line, backing on to Platform 2, and is long enough to accommodate a 10 car train. Platform 3 had existed in a previous incarnation decades earlier, although it was a bay platform.

The building of platform 3 was originally planned for 2007/8 to go with the East Midlands North Erewash resignalling scheme and would have allowed passenger services to run on the bi-directional down slow line (goods line) from a new Chesterfield South Junction to Tapton Junction during perturbation or engineering work on the fast lines in this area. It would have also facilitated the turn back of trains at Chesterfield during the Bradway Tunnel blockade in 2008/9. Work on the platform actually began in March 2010. There are infrequent services from this platform, normally only around 3 per day. There is normally a Norwich - Liverpool train which stops here at rushour on weekdays. Trains also use this platform during engineering works or when there are shuttle trains to and from Barrow Hill Roundhouse.

The cache

The cache is a small film can just a 30 second walk from the car park. Stealth required due to lots of muggles and cars, please 'tie your laces' when searching. There is no room for swaps or pen BYOP, please replace as found well hidden.

The cache is not on railway property

A lot of effort goes into buying/making, placing and maintaining caches, so please try to put more than just TFTC, nice quick find, Found or just a smiley face when you log our caches, thanks.