Electric locomotives at work on Worsbrough Incline in 1980
The Worsbrough Incline was a notorious steep bank on the Worsbrough Branch of the Great Central Railway (GCR) freight-only line from Wath to Penistone, climbing for 7 miles (11 km), with a stretch of 3 miles (4.8 km) at a nominal gradient of 1 in 40 (2.5%). Sections of this incline also suffered from colliery subsidence, making it infamously difficult to restart a stalled train on these severe sections. The main traffic on the line was loaded trains carrying coal from the southern Yorkshire coalfields to Lancashire via the Woodhead Tunnel. The huge LNER Class U1 ‘Garratt’ 2-8-0+0-8-2 was designed solely for banking trains up the incline on the Worsbrough Branch line prior to the line’s electrification in the early 1950s.
In 1980 with this line being threatened with closure it was time to visit and experience the operation of trains on the incline where four Class 76 electric locomotives were required to move loaded coal trains up. The first visit, shown here, was on 7th July 1980.
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1-of-10) Class 76 electric locomotives 76026 & 76006, with bankers 76029 & 76011, at the rear slowly power a loaded ‘merry-go-round’ coal train up Worsbrough Incline nearing Kendal Green level crossing, 7/7/80.
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2-of-10) Class 76 electric locomotives 76026 & 76006, with bankers 76029 & 76011 at the rear, approach Kendal Green level crossing while slowly powering a loaded ‘merry-go-round’ coal train up Worsbrough Incline , 7/7/80.
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3-of-10) Class 76 electric locomotives 76029 & 76011 bank the loaded ‘merry-go-round’ coal train up Worsbrough Incline at Kendal Green level crossing, 7/7/80.
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7-of-10) Some time later, down at Worsboro Bridge Crossing, the bankers of the ‘merry-go-round’ coal train, 76011 & 76029, were photographed returning down the incline, 7/7/80.
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8-of-10) Exploring further produced this telephoto photograph of the bottom of Worsbrough Incline at Wombwell Main Junction where some electric locomotives were stabled, probably including the pair of bankers 76011 & 76029, 7/7/80.
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9-of-10) The home depot of the class 76 locomotives operating over Worsbrough incline was near the bottom at Wath locomotive depot which was next to Wath marshalling yard. Here class 76 locomotives 76014 & 76027 stand on the electrified lines at the depot, 7/7/80.
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4-of-10) Kendal Green level crossing on the Worsbrough Incline where the previous photographs of the ‘merry-go-round’ coal train were taken, 7/7/80. This view is looking west; the trains had been traveling up hill from left to right.
Although Ordnance Survey maps give this location as Kendal Green Crossing with a single letter ‘l’ the crossing box name board shows ‘Kendall Green Crossing’ with two ‘l’s. Also, although old Ordnance Survey maps refer to this area as Worsborough modern maps label it as Worsbrough.
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5-of-10) Another view of Kendal Green level crossing on the Worsbrough Incline showing the bar with bells which provided an ‘over-height’ warning to road vehicles which might get too close to the overhead electric wires energised at 1,200 volts DC, 7/7/80.
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6-of-10) Inside ‘Kendall Green Crossing’ signal box, 7/7/80.
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10-of-10) A very unusual sight a few months later, on 30/12/80, was that of 76054 piloting 76006 on the L.C.G.B. (North West Branch) 'XMAS Tommy' passenger train up the Worsbrough Incline at Glasshouse Crossing, Worsbrough. Pilot locomotive 76054 was only used up the incline.
This charter train was advertised as the last chance to travel behind ‘class 76’ 1,200V DC electric locomotives on the lines of the Woodhead route. However, another charter passenger train, the ‘L.C.G.B. The Easter Tommy’, ran in April 1981 using class 76 haulage between Guide Bridge - Rotherwood Sidings and vice versa only, and did not go via Worsbrough. Freight operations were to linger on the electrified Woodhead routes for a few months till the summer of 1981.
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