Trains at Rotherham Central (DeVL, WL) - 04/04/2024

The 218th video of my train spotting adventures.
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This video follows on from our time at Meadowhall, moving one station up on a small branch off the mainline to Rotherham Central railway station. A small, 2-platform category E "small staffed" station, it's actually the 4th overall station to be built in the region. The first was constructed in 1868 as a temporary station on the line, which was once part of the line out of the closed Sheffield Victoria station. A line between Mexborough and Rotherham was opened in 1871, though the services continued to use the temporary stop until in 1874 when the permanent Rotherham Central station was opened, with elongated platforms and stone buildings roughly where the modern day Rotherham Police Station now stands.
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In January 1889 the station was renamed Rotherham and Masborough; it came under the ownership of the Great Central Railway (GCR) in 1897, whom anticipated the extension of their line to London Marylebone from Rotherham and beyond. After this, the GCR would be amalgamated into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, and then onto being part of British Railways in 1948. The station was renamed Rotherham Central in 1950, though the station was then closed in 1966 and demolished soon after.
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Nationalisation and subsequent rationalisation of the railways paved the way for Sheffield services to be concentrated solely around Sheffield Midland railway station (todays main Sheffield station), which involved a major junction north of Rotherham being constructed for Sheffield to Doncaster trains to be diverted to the Midland station and not the eventually demolished Victoria station. Instead of using the old Rotherham Masborough station on the mainline, which closed in 1988 due to its design being a hinderance for rail services, a new station was eventually constructed on the old Great Central line through Rotherham, using a new chord from the Midland line called "The Holmes Chord".
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This new station was opened in 1987, costing roughly £2.4 million (approx £8.5 million today). For a long time it had been branded one of the worst stations around so, in 2010, Northern announced refurbishments at roughly £8.5 million. Included in this was a new station building or "travel centre", new platform canopies, lifts and CCTV. A redesigned carpark was also included; after many delays the station was fully refurbished by 2012. Later on in 2018 the Sheffield Supertram network extended its services to Rotherham Central, when the station was electrified (only the trams use the overhead wires currently). These tram-train services use specially built low-level platforms immediately south of the mainline station, with ramps connecting them.
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Filmed on the:
Dearne Valley Line
Wakefield Line
Great Central Railway (old segment of historic line)
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Services seen:
NT) Services towards Meadowhall, Sheffield, Worksop, Retford, Lincoln, Swinton, Moorthorpe, Wakefield Westgate, Leeds, York, Doncaster and other destinations in Northern England.
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SYST) Services towards Rotherham Parkgate, and south to central Sheffield.
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Trains seen:
NT) Class 150 Sprinter, Class 158 Express Sprinter
SYST) Class 399 Citylink
FL) Class 66
GBRf) Class 66
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