Ex-GCR 0-8-4T shunting engine at Mexborough Loco in April 1949
Mexborough engine shed was an engine shed in Swinton, in South Yorkshire, England. It was built by the Great Central Railway and opened in 1875.[1] The shed was built slightly to the west of the current Mexborough station on land between the River Don and the River Don Navigation. It had 15 dead end roads, and could handle about 150 steam locomotives, mainly for use on freight trains. The London and North Eastern Railway operated the shed from 1923. In 1948, on the formation of British Railways Eastern Region, Mexborough bore the shed code 36B, then 41F from 1958. It closed in February 1964.
Most of the locomotives stabled at Mexborough were used for hauling coal trains. The coal originated from the many collieries in the South Yorkshire coalfield and wagons of coal were despatched to locations all over the country. However, the main destinations were the industries and power stations in Lancashire. With the opening of the Wath marshalling yard in 1907, Mexborough supplied locomotives for collecting wagons from the collieries, for re-marshalling of the wagons at Wath and for hauling coal trains across the steeply-graded "Woodhead" route across the Pennines into Lancashire. In the 1920s, the depot was the stabling point for what was then the most powerful locomotive in the UK, the London & North Eastern Railway's Class U1 Garratt. It was used for banking heavy coal trains up the Worsborough incline on the Woodhead route.[2]
In 1942 during the Second World War, three former Great Eastern Railway LNER J15 locomotives were drafted-in to assist with coal traffic.[3]
In the 1950s, the route from Wath to Manchester was electrified. Consequently, the demand for the steam locomotives from the Mexborough depot reduced. The electric locomotives were stabled at Wath rather than Mexborough. Even the steam shunting engines for the marshalling work at Wath yard were replaced by diesel shunters in 1957.[4] The use of steam locomotives for collecting coal from local collieries was also phased out and the depot closed in 1964. The site of Mexborough depot is now occupied by units in an industrial estate off of Meadow Way in Swinton.
In its heyday, the depot had its own football team, Mexborough Locomotive Works F.C.
Mexboroughengineshed was an engineshed in Swinton, in South Yorkshire, England. It was built by the Great Central Railway and opened in 1875. The shed...
and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "enginesheds" or just "sheds". Facilities are provided for refuelling and the replenishing...
traffic in South Yorkshire with three allocated to Mexboroughengineshed and three to Barnsley engineshed. On 1 January 1948 when British Railways was formed...
1923 grouping. At the time all four locomotives were allocated to Mexboroughengineshed. These were powerful locomotives but even more power was required...
British Railways shed codes were used to identify the enginesheds that its locomotives and multiple units were allocated to for maintenance purposes...
facility had shed code 36A. By the 1950s the shed was allocated around 170–180 locomotives, and had sub-sheds at Mexborough (see Mexboroughshed), Frodingham...
facilities: locomotives were provided by Mexboroughshed. With the coming of the electrification a two-road engineshed was built to the North of the yard adjacent...
was initially allocated to Barnsley shed but due to the restricted layout there was transferred to Mexborough on 17 October 1925. The locomotive was...
provided. This came from Mexborough depot and was usually a J11, N5 or L3 but sometimes a G.C."Fish" engine which was on shed at the time. This locomotive...
moved to Doncaster, and No. 1355 to Mexborough. In 1936, No. 1355 moved to King's Cross to shunt the engineshed for seven weeks, before joining No. 1358...
Sheffield and Mexborough. Most notably, many of them went to Wrexham where they were based successfully until the 1950s. The South Yorkshire engines gradually...
an ex-G.N.R. "Atlantic" locomotive driven by Fred Bagley of Neepsend engineshed. The train was carrying around 800 miners travelling to their work at...
by members of the Railway Club of Wales and is now on display in the Tram Shed alongside the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea's Maritime Quarter. A...
bridge over Glossop Brook. The tram shed contained four pits while the power plant included a high-speed steam engine, made by Belliss and Morcom, with...
eastwards, through the Don Valley, via Penistone, Sheffield, Rotherham, Mexborough, Conisbrough, Doncaster and Stainforth. The river's major tributaries...
Sheffield. The main tram shed was on Park Road, Stalybridge adjacent to the Tame Valley generating station. Smaller tram sheds were also built in Hyde...
urban districts of Adwick le Street, Bentley with Arksey, Conisbrough, Mexborough, Tickhill, the rural districts of Doncaster and Thorne, and (from Nottinghamshire)...
in readiness for the railway's centenary. Also in the depot is a smaller shed which houses the Air Ministry railcars used to access masts at the summit...
The tramway formerly operated a diesel locomotive for works trains. This engine, Ruston and Hornsby 4wDM works number 435398 of 1959, was named Claude....
continuously staffed, was also built by Gill, for £707, next to the car sheds at Pyewipe. It contained three 250 kW Westinghouse rotary converters. One...
with a flow of 1,504 cu ft (42.6 m3) per minute, connected to the generator shed by a horizontal shaft. The electrical generators were two Edison-Hopkinson...
of four new tramcars was put at £2,600, the extension to the sheds was £2,400, an engine and generator for £2,300 and battery for £2,100. The tram service...
closed in 1914, all eight of the trams were sold at an auction. It became a shed, and was rediscovered in 1988, when the lower deck was being used as a cobbler's...
which date both tramway companies went into liquidation. Some of the steam engines and cars from the former tramway companies were hired until the electric...
the depot were expanded. Two new sheds containing a total of six tracks were built at the east end of the original sheds, a new entrance was laid to the...
from the shed at Aberhill, Methil to the power station at Denbeath, which attracted a large crowd. The power station contained two engines of 250 h.p...
Mr K F Campbell. Campbell suggested building a new power station, car sheds and offices at Longroyd Bridge, and this was accepted by the Corporation...
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