The Explosives Train & the Railway GraveYard 

After the Great Central line closed, the site of New Hucknall Sidings was used by the Nottingham Area Civil Engineers Department as a tip for old ballast and sleepers (wood and concrete) which had been dug up from sites which had been re-laid with new track, also rubble from any old buildings which had been demolished in the process such as disused P/Way cabins etc. All the detritus was taken by trainload to Westhouses and then up the Blackwell Branch towards New Hucknall Colliery (which was still open) then the wagons were reversed into the old GC sidings area where they were unloaded by a grab crane and all the spoil was tipped and bulldozed towards the A38 bridge. The tip closed in the early 1980s, perhaps it was decided that it was full by the time the bridge was reached. Incidentally, the A38 was originally just a two lane road, the fact that it's now a dual carriageway explains why half the bridge is of lattice girder construction and the other (newer) half is concrete beams. When you stand under the A38 bridge now, it's hard to believe that dining car expresses to London used to go that way!

Fantastic video Ant. I used to work for a mining company excavating iron ore back in the 1960’s. All the explosives used came from EPC. I used to go to college in the East Midlands and we had trips, one such trip was to EPC. The only place we couldn’t enter was the place where they dealt with the nitro glycerine. That was back in the late 1960’s. Stephen

That was some serious exploration Ant, great find.....

I lived in Alfreton for 3 years and loved hiking and exploring the area :)

What an interesting video love your walks and finds u show its wonderful to hear about the history of Old railway lines

A real graveyard! Like finding fossilised remains in exposed cliff-faces! Thank you!

Great little film makes me wonder what else railway wise there is to see in that area, and it makes me wonder what is buried where colliery sidings remains is dumped.

Amazing finds with the bits of track still in place. Very nice..thank you. All the best.

I remember when they put in those tapered concrete sleepers on the fast lines that ran through Bromley South including Chislehurst Junction and pretty much the whole way down to the coast on the Chatham side. First signs of long sections of welded rail around that time and it did allow the max line speed to rise in many places but they didn't last long from what I remember and they put in the bog standard concrete types in with longer all welded sections which really gave the fast EMU's some beans. I remember in the late eighties or was it early nineties they had to relay the tracks at London Bridge platforms 1-6 as some of the sections had been there before Tooley St box closed down and the wooden sleepers still using the tap and whack wooden blocks in the chairs you could see the wooden sleepers literally rotting in place held in mainly by years of grime as the ballast had long sunk under the muck. In the 70's a EPB at London Bridge ended up on its side along a platform due to a set of rotten wooden sleepers and no one had been checking the chair integrity and so on its departure the outermost rail just folded flat.

What a great explore and findings. Great bridges and tunnels. Although it looked a damp day loved all the mixtures of colours. Great walk. Thank you again Ant for another brilliant video.

The map showing all the small square buildings spread out and separated from each other smacks of a explosives works. Buildings separated in case of blast from one woundnt set of another.

It's so sad Ant all that railway infrastructure gone, with just a bit of history to be found. Good you found what you did. Interesting video Ant look forwards already for the next one. ❤😊

I’ve been over that bridge on the a38 northbound thousands of times and I’d have never imagined it was like that underneath

Another brilliant video matey, just goes to show that if you look hard enough there is still plenty of history still to be discovered. Looking forward to the next one 👍 Wayne

Another great video, Always enjoyable and fascinating, Thanks ant

Fantastic video as usual. I found all that rail stuff very exciting. Thanks for taking me along. Please take care

Another fantastic video Ant. Your enthusiasm is contagious. Thanks for sharing and uncovering history.

You can see an ex explosives railway everyday between Carlisle and Gretna. It leaves the Longmoor depot and goes under the WCML where it would run round into Eastrigg facility and finished munitions would be loaded at the small yard at Eastrigg behind the station to be forwarded on to various naval and army depots back when they all had railways connected e.g. Blandford camp branch. Overseas munitions were sent to Cairnryan whose official Royal Navy address was "1 Davy Jones Locker" to be loaded on for overseas shipments to the empire. The vast munitions complex around Gretna was bigger than some towns, the Longmoor section still around is just a tiny fraction of the huge operation that reached its height during WW2. The Eastrigg section was very useful as it meant you could run off the Dumfries line behind Eastrigg or work round to Admiralty Junction and come onto the main WCML there allowing traffic to work efficiently into the very crowded railways of that time, one particular troop train to Immingham used to run 21+ coaches plus two baggage cars for embarkation at the docks.

Cracking video Ant' the railway "dump" there was one near Selby off a old branch ,and the amount of things that you used to find was amazing,station signs,lamps,old bricks etc'

Another great walking video today. A walk back nine time. Hopefully you are doing well. Enjoy the upcoming weekend, and see you on the next. Cheers Ant! ❤😊

That was a cracking explore and some good finds. Great work

Cracking video, Ant! You have a big like and a new subscriber. Fascinating to study old railways, but quite sad too, realising what we have lost over the years. Great use of maps and drone footage to illustrate the history of the area, too. If you look at the rail chairs or in the web of the rails you find, you may well see the date of manufacture cast into them, which adds a bit more to the interest.

Try looking at the chairs on the sleepers it usually has dates on.

What a treasure trove, great stuff, Ant! 👍😀

Another great historic railway vid Ant thanks for making it.

More HAS BEEN of the uk, we couldn’t make a sandcastle now

It's always great to find old railway track in the ground which has been forgotten about!!! 😉🙂🚂🚂🚂

Great job of detective work again Ant, I’m really interested in the old bricks with names on. I’ve got quite a collection and I’ve used them in my fireplace for a display. Keep up the good work.

Another Great Exploration in an area not too far from me actually but never been

Amazing stuff

Nicely found and explored Ant, a wealth of goodies👍👍 That's a lot of infill under the A38 bridge!!

That was a really enjoyable video, with a few nice surprises thrown in, well worth the exploration of the waste land...super cool. 🚂🙂

Your videos are fantastic. It’s absolutely incredible how much railway infrastructure has been destroyed in the last 50 or so years. Many thanks for doings these films, they are fascinating especially when you manage to get photos from the past for the then and now👍👍

A proper exploring adventure with the excitement of not quite knowing what you're going to find.. Love it! 😀👍

Some great finds. Only down the road too. Great video.

Those small squares on the map are bunkers for explosive storage. They will have earth bund walls to direct any blast upwards.

Wish i,d taken pictures of how the docks was in goole and all the sidings years ago as its nearly all gone now 😢

A great video of an area i once knew very well. In the early 70s I was a technical representative for an animal feed company and we supplied the farm owned by the company which at that time was Aksa Nobel the explosives expert. On occasional I was let into the area as the sheep and dairy cows were grazing there and saw short trains in those sidings. despite my mega interest in railways i was not allowed to photograph. GFR

My great grandparents and further back lived in that area and some worked in Blackwell colliery. In one census there were seven men and boys in one family working inthe mine. Fascinating to see what is left but if you didn’t know where to look, there is virtually nothing left. Very nostalgic. Thankyou.

The Explosives plant sidings used to have walk boards over that path and i used to sit next to them rusty gates watching Class 20s enter with the Special Wagons in the early 80s. I also used to take HGVs into the plant in the late 90s to pick up Explosive Powder to deliver to various Qaurries. Even then there was a couple of abandoned freight trucks in there and the lines used to go up to a loading platform at the site of a small warehouse. The grass obscures the tracks in the plant, with just a short section visible by drone. The 2 , through, freight lines that were lifted in late 60s/early 70s were reduced to a single line with a buffer to approach and reverse into the plant. Im not sure if the buffer and spur still exists as i think this line remained operational for quiet a while as a loop and also to serve an opencast loading point when the area around Westhouses was again Outcropped in recent times. That path from Alfreton Station is usually a complete swamp, unless the Council have improved it.

The bwinning branch off the Geat Central was a waste tip when the main line closed, and recently has been recycled again,also on footpath 41 to cartwright Lane up short wooden steps you can see the foundations off the lattice footbridge,also as you walk along the old main line to where it ends meeting the Blackwell Trail,where the viaduct was,known as the 4 arches. In this area there was a short branch heading towards see RMOL Blackwell Road Huthwaite ,there was mining at the bottom of Blackwell Road,the now closed pub was the miners Arms, there was also a trackway from Blackwell Road pit to Pinxton canal (mellors trackway)nothing remains of this

Very interesting and a good watch thanks

another piece of sheer Ant brilliance

You missed the bridge butts as it crossed the train line. There also used to be a path under the new hucknall link where you fininshed

Look up fauld just outside burton there’s still lines on the industrial estate connected with an old bomb storage area before it blew up

Excellent, thank you!

Absolutely fantastic mate 👌

I've just subscribed after watching your recent twin viaduct video. Disused railways fascinate me, even the sections from recent years. Keep up the great content.

Would love to find out some information and possibly see some photos of the old railway that ran under brook hill lane, pinxton ! Its the railway abit further on from where you were stood that you mentioned i believe ! The tree line/track bed is clearly visible on good maps and goes through what is now a working farm and into kirkby in ashfield. A friend of mine actually lives in the station masters house located on Church Hill, kirkby in ashfield

Really good Ant,very well shot and very informative

My 1998 landranger map shows that explo factory branch

Topman love the attention to look and go that extra mile... have you thought of doing a joint trip out with Paul (wobbly runner ) that would be great fo the fans of you both Ant !

so much detail great vid !

21:22 those clips are now obsolete and from 60s I believe. They are referred to as BJB or 'ram horns'

My play area as a child

Hi Ant. Always love your vlogs. Very well explored a nd informative. Lots of history. Might b worthy taking a trowel with you incase you need to look for evidence.

Not sure if you know but from the early sixtyies after the GC mainline was closed verious tunnels and cuttings in the area north of Nottingham where designated as dumping ground for all manner of coal industry waste so not suprising the railways got in on using it for their waste as well, shame they didn't make a proper job and landscape it better but no doubt it was just another thing that was cut back when the budget was cut yet again.

Have you visited the old carriageworks in old whittington..? Your kneck of the woods

Great video Ant, I pass by there every day and always wonder what it looked like back in the day. Have you had chance to check out the branch line that heads upto Mickley through Morton/Stonebroom yet?

Great video Ant, not sure what all those concrete sleepers are , the pictures from the past look to be mainly wooden sleepers. The ones with tapered tops are normally associated with MoD sites Strange you've done this video i was on the northbound tesco train last week and saw that isolated track i didn't realise it for a munitions site Cheers Russ

You made a fascinating discovery, didn't you?

Ant, Scottish Maps should give you a "Bonus" for finding some long lost rails.....

don t forget , you need a guide for wigan mate

I'm wondering if the track into the explosives factory has been deliberately left in situ as a mothballed line allowing it to be dug out and reinstated if required rather than being a disused/abandoned line? Rails are usually removed within a few years for scrap. As you suggested Ant there may still be a connection hidden from view via the very rusty track alongside the active running lines.

I believe i know. But can you give me your definition of sleepers . .......

Any thing to do with the secrets list ?? Mmmm

Hi Ant Just come across your site and like everyone else loving it. In this video you mention not being able to find the works on maps. It is surprising the amount of censorship re "national defence" sites went on in OS maps (they aren't a Government agency for nothing) and the Mapmen have made a video about it ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_bqzwsM6eoQ.html Your comment prompted me to look at my Rail Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland (Baker) as I have several editions. Second edition just shows it as a "works". Fourth edition shows it and names it "Explosives and Chem Prods" and the sixth edition names it in full "Alfreton Explosives and Chem Prods" plus disused I also looked at the London Midland Quail track plans - first edition (1990) shows and names the connection whereas the second edition (2005) shows a connection disused. Later editions don't show the connection remaining as they won't show disconnected rails in the ground. I hope this has been of interest

That’s just poor excavation work under the supervision of a bone idle supervisor …. I wouldn’t stand for that on my sites Ant.

Why would it be on Scottish maps lol 😂