Was this Railway a Waste of Time and Money? #disused #railway 

I was a train spotter in my youth and then drifted away. These videos have rekindled my love for the old railways and the history around them. All thanks to you, Ant. Don't forget the old incline railway at Derwent. I don't know how much if any is left, but I did message you on Instagram about it. Thanks for sharing, Ant. I really enjoy your videos.

Having followed you for 3-4 years now, and also being local to the area; I can honestly say that’s one of your best walks.

I'm getting over exited sums up the enthusiasm of these series

Another great video with historical pictures old and new maps excellent research drone photography that really shows the old railway tracks your graphics add to the presentation and no overpowering music While I am getting to grips with your videos I am in Thailand taking in the scenery and relaxing at the same time

Excellent and interesting, as always. I will send you another of my musical offerings (this time written by me!). I agree with you - music is essential!

Graet stuff man . Years ago back in about 1980 me and a friend walked this route from wellow to farnsfield actually walked all the way on the trackbed thier was still track most of the way back then . Thanks mate 👍

Fascinating and informative as always Ant..

I followed your route as best as I could in my copy of a 1956 Ian Allen publication titled "Pre-grouping railways atlas and gazetteer". It doesn't show any of the sidings of course, only running lines but gives me a good idea of the railway network as it was before 1923 and really brings home how much we have lost starting as early as the closures in the 1930s 😢

Great video, I've been waiting for this one as I've explored this line over the last couple of years whilst the family was staying at the nearby Center Parcs. I did manage to get onto the trackbed (in early spring) and force my way along but it was very boggy in places and I had to scramble up the steep bank at several points which wasn't straightforward.

Another great video, Ant, informative, well put together, you clearly have a love of your subject. Inspiring

Excellent walk and vid Ant , was quite an epic one . Always fascinating to see all the old pit related lines around that area . It's not an area I know , so is totally enlightening.

You certainly know how to put together excellent videos. The amount of homework that goes into every one of your videos shows how much you are so keen on what you do. The way you respect private property is a rarity these days. Keep enjoying making them as your followers love them too.

I currently live on Newark road and as a child remember the bridges and the tracks in the 80s. Watching your video I would guess your from edwinstowe area

Have to admire your choice of music - excellent Ant!

Thank you for the video today. A lengthy one! Will be communicating with you soon. Always a great video to view. Hoping your new year is going great. See you on the next. Cheers Ant! 🇬🇧👍🙂🇺🇸

Absolutely loved this one, I went to school here and you managed to capture my old school grounds in your drone footage, I remember being told about this line amongst many local stories. Definitely one of the best you have done, thank you

Ant, I keep repeating myself but your videos are top notch as for topics, history and cinematography 👌 Well done 😀

Hi Ant. I'm a regular user of cycle routes from Vicar Water to Bilsthorpe, then across Eakring Rd to roundabout and Forest Link, to Farnsfield, Southwell, Rolleston (Racecourse) then Fiskerton and beyond. From 1961 to 1965, I lived in Bilsthorpe on Eakring Rd near the GCR bridge. Daily watched the steam trains return/collect wagons at the colliery via GCR/Clipstone line, then onto embankment parallel with Eakring Rd. Each year, in summer holidays, would spend a day on pit shunter around pit yard (could do that today age 7 with present day H&S). Would sometimes go to Brail Wood walking alongside the brickwork line. Every week the pit shunter would take a single wagon of coal and return the empty. I don't recall much activity on Mid Notts at this time, maybe some Oil wagons? Also, around 1963, I think their was a seaside outing (Bilsthorpe Pit) via Farnsfield/ Southwell and recall seeing a platform constructed out of sleepers where Forest Link houses are today - maybe the last passenger carrying service?

Your boundless energy and enthusiasm is infectious. Your knowledge and the way you present the subject is second to none . I honestly think you have a way of making all of your content so watchable time after time . I have learnt so much about where my family worked and lived on and around these railway lines .

One of your best vids Ant. I love how the track despite being massively overgrown for the most part kept revealing itself. Drone footage was excellent.

Excellent video. Cery interesting. I love learning about old railways.

Lots a things the railway did were either a waste of money or came too late to be effective or both !! The Fly over at Bletchley being one example . The most recent ones being the connection or flyover at Nuneaton and the fly under at Werrington Peterborough !! Either unused or not used at all !!

I can't say anything beyond previous comments. So interesting, informative and made with such enthusiasm. Many thanks from an 80 year old train spotter who's seen a few changes.over the years.. Brilliant stuff.

I enjoy your vids Ant, covering the railways of long ago. The colliery lines of Yorks, Notts and Derbys need to be shown as you are doing. My Mrs uses the steep steps for elevation training, up and down like a yo-yo 😂

Thanks Ant, great drone shots, l do like the perspective it gives also very informative to, happy new year👍

Excellent content as usual Ant, thanks.

Id love you to revisit some of the older ones as a rewalk

Another cracking vid can’t get enough of these mate

As always brilliant explore. Filming and drone excellent. Your enthusiasm is catching. Very enjoyable walk. Not many people about to enjoy the pathways which is sad. Still you had the peace and quiet to enjoy all the more and share with us. Thank you Ant.

I love your unintentional Elton John references.. "Still Standing" "Shine a light" 😂 I'll get my coat... Great video as normal Ant.

Yes Music is extremely powerful

What a great walk you had, so much beauty to see -- nature at her best. Also, outstanding drone work.......

Brilliant Ant

The tracks might be lifted but the beds are a stark reminder of how much the railways have shaped the landscape and the country as a whole.

What a lovely walk even though I've not been to Clipstone or Bilsthorpe before its amazing how you point out when the old railway used to be well done again 👏☺☺

So much information in your video's Ant, absolutely brilliant, thanks for taking the time and the effort in making them so interesting and informative

I'm a local man from ollerton we had five bridges on Newark road now we got one the test track 😢 me, my sister and mom walk along rufford lane in the early to mid 90's before the train tracks where removed, I often wonder what it was like back then.

Fantastic video thanks Ant. Absolutely loved it. Love everything to do with the rails.. you now have over 22.000 subs remember how excited you were when you got 1.000. Not surprised your videos are always excellent. Please take care

another captivating episode ant thanks

My absolute favourite kind of video, Darren used to cover stuff like this. I’m from West Yorkshire so there’s plenty of disused abandoned rail/canal round here. Nice work mate

Very good Ant - Thanks for sharing!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂

Quality work Ant.thanks

Hi Ant , you put a lot in to making this excellent video , it was nice to see the English summer at the start again in deep dark January ! .

Thanks as always Ant.😊

By default anything that was built to interface with the Great Central was a waste of money, because despite all the rose tinted mythology around it, the Great Central was a financial disaster earning it the popular name in Edwardian urban culture of the Gone Completely Railway for what it did to its investors. Also something that was built with in its day to serve mines, oil terminals and power stations and still could not be made to be financially viable, shows there simply was not the traffic to make it work. Great Video by the way.

Thanks Ant, quality stuff again.

The collieries needed these railway lines, up and till the sixties everything went by train. Sadly Beeching did one thing wrong and that was to allow companies to build on the track bed, rather than keep them free of being demolished. Sadly when the railways saved the nation from the harsh 62-63 three month long winter, with blizzards and nationwide snow drifts. That did not save them, however some lines were unprofitable, and had to be closed but not in the manner they were.

Music is important to everyone

Very interesting. Your video presents a vivid picture of the immense changes wrought by colliery and rail closures and the transition to solar and wind power. The tree-lined former trackbeds are one illustration of the greening of the post-fossil fuel economy.

I've often wondered if there was any rail connection to the Eakring oil wells. I remember there being a nodding donkey pumping oil there in my younger days. Also often saw coal trains crossing the bridge over the A614 near Ollerton. The collieries looked quite new in those days yet all have now been gone for many years. Great video, thanks for the memories!

Lucky enough to have signalled a train or two down that test track. Great video and history

Amazing video, Ant. I like the way they have become green corridors. In the sixties in the school combined cadet force, we went to dukeries army camp, and I remember the name ollerton, and I think we went to a church service at wellow.

Great video, an area I have a huge interest in around Clipstone, i have looked at the lines around Ollerton on Google Maps before, and now you have done a video to fill in the blanks, I also paused the video a few times and looked at the maps to see where you were, it's great that you tell us where you are so people like me can track the way you are walking...superb as ever old friend 😊

That was an epic walk full of interest - shame all those bridges are so "modern". I also noticed the third rail but it had disappeared later on so thought it a bit unusual to have a "Southern" system test track up there? Nice one Ant👍👍👍👍

The graffiti about the music was done by Bill Drummond from the KLF I think. He did the same piece on Barford railway bridge over the A6003, just outside Corby, Northants a few years back. Be too much of a coincidence other wise.

As a general rule of thumb, the later a railway built, the less use it was.

Another great video giving fascinating historic details of the old tracks on my doorstep. The section between Boughton and Eakring is a regular dog walk for me including both lots of steep steps into the cutting near Wellow. Unfortunately the path/'bridleway' you were on and the bridges you crossed over the cutting between Ollerton and Eakring side of Wellow are all private - owned by farmers and the riding school. There are often 'private land - no trespassing' warning signs along these areas adjacent to the cutting when game birds are being raised by the landowners. It's a great shame as this old track bed would make a superb connection for the National Cycle Route or a well needed extension to the Robin Hood Line. I regularly walked the old track spurs and over the two bridges that crossed Newark Road at Ollerton (going towards the Colliery site) up until the bridges were demolished around 2005ish. The unused bridges were demolished to make way for what are now housing estates, the crematorium and the expansion of Murphy's HQ. After the bridges were demolished the track beds became more overgrown as less people walked them.

2:15 Note that the nearside test track is fitted with non-energised third-rail for test purposes.

You need to get down to south wales and the valleys on their former coal fields… plenty of walks and stunning scenery 👍

Building on the former Bilsthorpe Colliery site is grade II listed, is a pump house as you stated, don’t think it serves a purpose at this moment in time. I Remember many a times during my childhood playing on the site once the pit buildings were sadly demolished. living in Bilsthorpe during my childhood I’ve been intrigued on the line from Ollerton to Eakring but always sempt impassable! Cracking video - hopefully there’s a second installment? Not that there’s much left towards Southwell or Mansfield once you get to Farnsfield 😕

If network rail won't open these closed down railway lines, then it's perfect for heritage and narrow gauge railway companies to take these disused lines over for their pleasures 🙏 ☺️ 😊 🤗 🙄 😒

It should be noted that after the line closed and track recovery began. BR had just latched onto the idea that recovering thousands of tonnes of ballast was a lucrative earner for them so when you look at the swampy nature of the cuttings and chopped-down embankments this is the reason why. it also explains why when you approach road crossings you often find yourself several feet below the normal ground level the ballast having been scooped out piecemeal.

Interesting video Ant. I first became aware of this line about ten years ago when doing some work on the test track It wasn't finished how it was originally intended, that was a joint LMS/ LNER line from Bestwood park to a junction on Worksop Retford line to give a connection to the east coast. Obviously was slimmed right down with a single line. You've done a great video on it Do you think that building at Bilsthorpe has a shaft inside it as they really don't want people in. A look through that hole would be excellent Cheers Russ

Was that a Somerset and Dorset engine at 0'35?

Ant is this the line that goes under the disused bridge after leaving Ollerton I very often travel over going South heading to Newark?

I've been walking the southwell trail most weekends for the last 18 months or so to try and get fit. Occasionaly I do the section up to Bilsthorpe but find that a bit narrow and seems to be very popular with cyclists. That bridge just north of Kirklington Road is Forest Lane which is a public byway at least as far as the bridge. The google street view car has certainly been over it and from the map it looks like you should be able to get to Old Rufford Road but google didn't do that bit. There's no signage to say it's restricted in any way so it should be open to all traffic but that being the case it might be a job for a 4x4 but you certainly shouldn't have any issues going up there. It would be nice if there were more trails like that around but Southwell seems to be particuarly well maintained.

Can you walk along the high marnham line from shirebrook??

Wow, you have a real talent for editing, great job!