Stanton Ironworks Forgotten Railway Walk & Explore

It’s amazing how nature takes over abandoned sites , great video Ant.

I know where I his is because I see it every day

The Widdowson brothers bought the Stanton sidings from the ironworks many years ago...
They 'broke' the place for scrap & timber.. I used to maintain the 22' circular bedsaw for them back then..
They used it for ripping sleepers into fence panels.. The rail & casts were scrapped... They got very rich from this little venture....They also ran a skip company from the site... I also spray painted & maintained the skips for them. The bright yellow & navy blue ones you Used to see on everyone's drive in Nottingham back then....

As a young fitter at Toton TMD, I remember attending to a class 08 shunter that was positioned not far from the end of the line where the broken buffer stops was. I can,t remember the exact reason, but I think it was something to do with topping up the coolant, as the loco had failed. It was on a pipe train as the author has correctly described. Great video.

Another wonderful trip down memory lane from the Ilkeston area. I remember Stanton Ironworks well. We used to cycle through the site from Crompton Street (Ilkeston) towards Toton engine sheds in the 1960's when the place was a hive of activity. Indeed, I recall the old furnaces when they were active not too far from the current Seven Oaks pub on Lows Lane, opposite side of the road. Also when cycling along Crompton Street you had to keep an eye open for a process nearby which I believe the locals used to call 'Duckhams'.... boy did it stink when the cloud of gas came over. How the people managed to live down there I do not know. Does anyone know what that was? As a matter of interest, the railway line that forked to the left used to serve a coal loading point between Mapperley/West Hallam until the 1980/1990's. I remember playing golf on the Peewit course (Ilkeston) when a class 56 engine passed by with loaded coal trucks in that period.

Some one has pinched the old point leaver, bit gutted know

Was literally walking along the tracks today glad to find this video

What's the music at 10.38
Nice video BTW

I as a railway guard used to work the Stanton Gate-Stanton ironworks branch and also the branch up to West Hallam opencast coal site

Some of the track where the West Transport now stands was purchased by Peak Rail in mid / late 1980’s at auction. The buildings were camouflaged in khaki green etc

This was uploaded a while ago but I've just seen it. From what I remember as a lad (c.1980s), the lower of the two lines you were talking about on the map, I remember being a series of sidings that almost joined in the middle, I didn't think it was one complete line, unless it was before or after that time. We used to spend a lot of time riding bikes down there, back when 'Westies' (West Transport) was a small yard near the top of Nottingham Road, Ilkeston. We'd ride along the lines from Manner Floods through Stanton to the Erewash Canal and then out of town, we got as far as Donnington once :) The Nutbrook Canal would be a good trek, a lot of it was still intact through Manner Floods and on to the mine water reed beds just before Shipley Lake.

Thank you for this video. As a child in the 60s, I remember lying in bed listening to the sound of the shunting engines in the distance. We lived within sight and smell of the iron works, you could never hang washing out on a Sunday, as this was the day they cleaned out the Coke ovens, covering everything in Black/Grey dust, so much that we had to sweep it off the garden path. Fond memories indeed.

Brings back memories. My grandad used to make casting moulds at Stanton. As a kid in the 70's, I remember steam trains (which looking back now was surprising) running through the works and diesel shunters carrying the huge containers of molten steel from the blast furnaces. Still red hot. The site was still huge then. As a kid my family used to go to the seven oaks pub. There was the fire station next door, and I was allowd to get into the engines, start the lights and sirens...even got to wear some kit and and jump down the fire mans pole. Lots of very fond memories of the area. Mountain biking down or walking down the Nutbrooke trail and Erewash Canal. Great video. When you coinsider how heavily industrialised the area was with the steel works (17k emplyees ant Stanton and Staveley), pits and Toton Sidings (largest railway siding in Europe with 400 steam engines at its peak ), it makes me shake my head in disbelief that some folk are opposing the HS2 line. Good to hear the local accent again! I've been living in South Wales for sometime now and they "dunna talk rate dow'n ere!" :D

Great video! I rewalked this line today, but from the other direction. The trailers and dirt mounds have all been moved quite far off the track and separated with a new fence. The track at this end was still overgrown but not quite as bad as in this video, suggesting Network Rail may have cleared it between then and now. There's also what looks like a new green fence down by the Erewash canal which made leaving the track at that point challenging, more so as I had my dog with me! Perhaps all this points to potential reuse for the small section of track leading up to the abandoned buildings.

Hi Ant. Great video 👍🏻 I remember it working in the late 70s when I visited Toton sheds train spotting 🤣 What a great opportunity to reinstate it and build some modern warehouses say for amazon rail connected instead of building them on green belt land for lorries only drrrrrrrrr 🙄

Love your vids, these deserted places are both fascinating and eerie in equal measures.

I spent quite a few years happily driving the shunting locos at Stanton. Only down side was the fatal accident that cost friends their lives.

This line is currently being worked on to allow trains to run again for Wards. There are some old wagons that they want to move out along the line.

The branch has been opened to serve Wards recycling.

The old playhouse may be the Stanton Cinema, which was part of the Stanton Ironworks exhibition centrer.

They are building a rail freight hub in stanton got sold off this week ,work starts in 2021 January 👍

A test train ran along this line in December 2020. It’s going to be reopened for nearby Wards recycling for scrap metal trains.

Great video, As a Driver based at Toton I used to work up the branch to stanton. At the end of its life we used to work up to collect pipes. I have a few photo's taken in 1999 when we went to the top end (through the locked gates) and up to the loading dock with overhead gantry. The 2 roads were used to run-round the wagons an propel them into the dead end, under the gantry. The photo`s I have show working up with 08776 and also 58007.
I have a few photo`s of 56047 underneath the old signal gantry on the canal bridge just before the motorway bridge.
Keep up the great work.

Hello Anthony,
It's Mike Wood (Devon Boy) from Chesterfield here, just thought I'd let you know a bit of interesting news that you might want to know.
Unless you already know yourself?
Brought myself a railway magazine on Monday 11th January 2021 it's called: The Railway Magazine, January edition, anyway there is a small article about the old Stanton Railway Sidings, and it states that network rail are thinking of re-opening part of the line again for storage of scrap wagons, in the near future.
There's a photo of a GBRf class 66 on part of the line, and it reads "the loco got so far but due to the state of the track, wasn't able to go any further"
Anyway hope this news maybe of interest to you mate?

Loved the video that you did here too.

All the best from. Mike.

Do we make anything in The UK any more? Sad to see so much industry gone.

This line has been cleared from stanton Gate Junction right upto the level Crossing at lows Lane opposite the Sevenoaks pub

I was on a rail tour called 'The Pye Bridge Pieman' some years back. We went around as much as we could of Toton depot, and went along the old ironworks track. We kept stopping, I found out later from the travelling tech with the front loco (56312) that it was to clear odd bits of rubbish from in front of the train. We got as far as a set of gates. Guess it was the same gates as in the video. We had a 92 on the rear to pull us back.

Wow ant awesome another one of your videos I've ticked of the list great video can't believe the track work still there and beautiful pictures of the place in it's day and what a fantastic shot of class 58047 in one of my favourite liverys EWS just one of many liverys the 58s carried In there short lifes of services. Take care mate 👍

There is a picture of the first train on the branch.

Very good - pity the line got forgotten 🤔🚂🚂🚂

Hi Ant, last Summer we cycled around where you walked after seeing the video so we thank you for that... The points lever had gone so hopefully that's been saved/restored somewhere? One day we'll cross paths for sure.. Cheers Chris, Derby UK..

Great stuff again Ant

This brings back some nice memories,I used to love sitting on the backgarden wall at my grannies house on Moorbridge lane looking over towards the 2 blast furnace's at the side of the canal.I used to love the glow in the sky when it was dark ,I would of been about 10-11 years old (1965-66).

Hi, I walked around this area last Mon, Jan 3rd. There isn't a single tree left. you can see across the whole site no matter which boundary you are on.
Last March me and my lady got as far as the Exhibition building on the rail line before being caught. It was a lady security guard with the biggest dog I have ever seen. she was ok and told us to keep safe and enjoy our walk. Twenty minutes later a bloke in a van was waiting at the crossing lights and although he could see why we were exploring he said we had to leave the site there and then.

A few months later the engine house caught fire at Stanton Recycling on the northern side. I got up there first thing the following morning and the fire brigade were damping down. Since then, what was left of the building has been demolished and it looks like a new canopy has been erected.

There is still quite a bit to see on the south of Lows Road. The pump house is still there with equipment in situ. I was on there one evening last summer when a security guard drew up in his van. A pleasant chat ensued and he said " I'm the only one on site tonight and as far as I'm concerned I haven't seen you. Take as many photo's as you want." A result or what ?

Only just found you, enjoying your explores.

Ben, now residing in Nottingham.

This lines got traffic again. Not sure how far up it’s going, but somethings utilising it.

Scrap metal. There’s a video on Facebook. Up to the old level crossing at least

Thanks for the walk through today and the chat. Cheers buddy.

I lived in kirkhallam from 1973 to 1997 and it looks a lot different now walking that route every day for years how things change 😳

You wouldn’t believe what has happened to the site now. It’s fenced off, trees and vegetation cleared out(very open now), and lots of cars and construction vehicles parked up. Me and my friend got on the site after 5pm on a Sunday when no security is there. We got in those two buildings as they are still standing and sat in a bull dozer.

Originally opened to make bombs for the war effort

i seem to remember a level crossing across lows lane just west of the fire station and the seven oaks pub, then another further along the road towards kirk hallam near wfp fabrications

make a great heritage setup, especially with some revenue customers

Just started watching

i used to work there years ago and was always overawed by the almost volcanic forces full of smoke and streaming molten liquid which I felt surely must last forever - and yet I am still here and that era has all vanished. The real invisible powers are actually the ever-changing economic forces which continue unabated, only now it is technological forces that prevail. I used to work on the railway as well as a trackman. Great changes have taken place there as well; steam is now a relic of the past and who remembers that now? All that power gone in the blink of an eye - sometimes it feels like everything in life is just a dream!

I worked for a company in sheffield what repaired electric arc furnaces in the 90s we used to go there and repair thres when ever it broke down if i remember right it was in that building to the right on the picture you posted with the loco. The was not that much left of the place when we used to go back then.

Two of my uncle's worked at Stanton during WW2 all three of thier sister's did too including my mum...after the war my other uncle worked at Stanton until he retired in the late 70's.

Unfortunately this site is no longer accessible lots of work is being done on it and those two buildings are now demolished. I did get onto the site during early stages of the development but got caught by security.

We pulled many loads of ductile product for Keetch Haulage in the seventies