021 Disused Railways, Halifax and Ovenden Line.
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- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
- A walk along the Halifax and Ovenden railway, from Holmfield through Ovenden, North Bridge and Halifax main station, West Yorkshire, full of history and memories of times gone by.
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Info from
www.disused-stations.org.uk
www.railmaponline.com
and Wikipedia
Connected video. Halifax High Level Railway.
• 004 (Disused) Halifax ...
Many thanks for the old pictures go to ….
Malcolm Bull www.calderdalecompanion.co.uk
Pennine Horizons www.penninehorizons.org
Graham Yarker
Andrew Booth
Margaret Horner
Music - Light Expanse by Unicorn Heads (CZcams free music collection).
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Thank you for taking me back 40 years. I went to JH Whitley school which was just above from where you started. I have walked that route many a time. Cheers
As an outsider I've always been aware that Halifax has some remarkable green spaces and wildlife corridors. I never realised just how extensive they are until watching your films. I think I will have to persuade the wife that she doesn't really want to head for open countryside but wants to head for deepest urban Halifax!
nice 😀🤳
Did an explore in the Lee bank tunnel it’s quite warm in there ! Nice to see more of the line tho ! Great video
So much around Holmfield and Ovenden that you just dont realise is part of the railway line.
The sheer amount of work to build all the bridges and stations is mind blowing. Wonder what it was cost in todays money without all the plant thats is available now days.
Isn’t Lee Bank Tunnel a restricted area?
I come from Halifax, yet hardly know any of its history. So much there to explore lol
Thank you for this, as you took me back in time, when Ovenden Station, was closed but there was still lots to see.
Been a pleasure Nigel if you ever need any more information about the Halifax lines please ask
amazing Nigel !
Doing a good job there Nigel, I really appreciate the trouble you take to explore all these old railways. All the more so as I am not in a position to do it myself. Thanks
At around 5 mins you walked past what I think is the only remaining part of Holmfield station. It’s a metal arch at the side of the bridge and looks like it had steps and may have held a lamp so seems to have been an entrance to the station, perhaps to one of the platforms. It’s pretty well hidden by foliage. Also, there wasn’t a trackbed below the footbridge off Old Lane (next to the Atlas Garage) because the tunnel from Ovenden came out below Lee Mount (now part of the dual carriageway to Halifax) across a viaduct, demolished when the flyover was built) and into the tunnel below Woodside. Very interesting video👍
Hi Nigel when you are on the bridge at Atlas Garage the portal to Woodside Tunnel is elevated above the bridge you were on during Autumn it is possible to see the portal to Woodside Tunnel at the Ovenden End or at least the last Remnant of the Viaduct leading up to it.
Thanks for the info.
Another great piece of work Nigel,you put a lot of time and effort in,well done mate.Keep them coming.
Thanks Chris 😎
Thank you! :)
You're welcome Sean.
Lived around here nearly 15yr and have driven them roads loads of times but have never gone down the side streets etc to see remains of the line. There is a trainsim of holmfield to st pauls and your spot on shay lane where the abutment is. I was suprised out of all these videos to learn how deep the cutting was upto wheatley tunnel. I kid you not from living next to the tunnel vent shaft on cousin lane many people have heard the sound of a train horn including myself!
@@seany84uk Absolutely I thought it was only me that has heard the train horn.
Very interesting amble. 99.9% of folk wouldn`t even know what you were looking for and at, takes a trained eye (sorry for the pun). I think I`d have been knackered before you were, too much age.
I was totally knackered Hazel and losing my voice 😁
Love this video, this makes me wish I could travel back in time when Ovenden line was used from Queensbury to Halifax North Bridge😢
It’s Ovenden Brook no Hebble Brook. It runs at the back of my cottage and the steam trains the other side of the Brook. Wish I could go back in time.
Yeah, learnt that since the video.
Colin Isles Ontario, Canada.
Thankyou Nigel for this wonderful piece of work taking me back to my boyhood growing up in Ovenden aronnd 1945. I took a keen interest in the train traffic mainly around the Churn Milk Lane bridge. So sad to see the loss of this engineering marvel but pleased to know that some structures still remain.
Many many thanks 😊
Very interesting, never knew there were quite si many railways round Halifax. If we still had them would be much less road traffic.
You asked for comments. At minute 42:40 you correctly identified that you were stood next to the end of Halifax Platform 4. The signal box (Halifax East) you would have seen to your left sat on the end of Platform 3/4. Platforms 1-4 were the original L&YR platforms; 1/2 for trains heading to Manchester, 3/4 for trains heading to Bradford and later Leeds. When the GNR built the Queensbury lines from Bradford (in conjunction with the L&YR between Halifax and Holmfield) an additional 2 platforms were built - Platforms 5 and 6. There were 2 separate booking offices under the canopy at the end of Station Approach, one for each railway company; L&YR customers either went down a set of steps to Platforms 3/4, or crossed the still existing footbridge to Platforms 1/2 (the currently in use platforms). The currently unused but still existing main L&YR station buildings are on Platforms 3/4. A second footbridge was bolted to the side of the existing stonework to take GNR customers to/from Platforms 5/6. Passenger services to North Bridge station and beyond ceased in the 1950s, prior to which Platforms 1/2/4 were the Up lines heading to Dryclough Jct, and Platforms 3/5/6 were the Down lines to Lightcliffe and North Bridge (there was no track from Platform 3 to the North Bridge down line, only from Platforms 5/6). After North Bridge passenger services ceased, Platforms 5/6 were just used for parcel traffic, with the platform buildings/canopies being demolished in the 1950s, Platform 6 track being lifted in the mid-60s, and Platform 5 track lifted in the early 70s. I'm not sure when Platforms 5/6 were eventually demolished but I think it must have been the late 70s or early 80s (the viaduct to North Bridge was demolished in 1981).
I wish I'd had that info before I filmed, very interesting, many thanks David.
A further comment. At minute 39:14 you show the arched brickwork as seen from the car park of Mulcture House, but superimpose a B&W photo of the Gas Works/Halifax to North Bridge viaduct (I understood the viaduct was called the Charlestown Road viaduct as it runs parallel with the length of Charlestown Road from Bank Bottom towards North Bridge). The arches in your video are an extension of the viaduct but their purpose was as a retaining wall built between the Hebble Brook and Charlestown Road; the retaining wall allowed the land on the top side to be filled in and levelled off to carry the lines from Halifax as they started to split to provide the multiple lines used by North Bridge Goods Shed and the coal lines for the power station that stood where Sainsburys is now. All the viaduct arches shown in your B&W photo are of course long gone when the viaduct was demolished in 1981.
If I may make a minor correction - platform 4 was the GN Up platform, it wouldn't have existed in the original L&Y setup as that would have been the original entrance to the station via the 1855 building. While I'm here, if I may pinpoint some dates; the track to platform 6 was lifted in March 1963 and the tracks to platform 3 & 5 were lifted when the station was remodelled around March 1969. The lines that joined the GN side to the L&Y side by the East signal box were also lifted at this time, leaving access to the goods yard and North Bridge only possible from the west. After the line to North Bridge was closed in 1974 the only lines left on the GN side were the former down goods and the line through platform 4 which formed a D-shape joined together near a headshunt right by where the GN viaduct started. This arrangement served the coal yard until that closed in 1980. To the best of my knowledge the platform 5/6 island was then demolished in 1981 and I think all of the remaining tracks on the GN side were lifted as part of the same works.
@@edmorris631 I would question what you say about Platform 4 being the GNR's Up platform. There was no track access from Platforms 1-3 to the Charlestown Road viaduct, so the L&YR trains to Holmfield had to arrive at Platform 4 (though I accept that the GNR's trains from Queensbury must also have arrived at Platform 4). I do have photos that show that Platform 4 had starter signals at both ends, so some trains must have departed northwards from Platform 4 (Platforms 5 and 6 only had starter signals at the north end). Also, I have a photo (taken in 1963, though the date is not relevant) taken from Platform 5 looking north under the Station Approach overbridge; the photo clearly shows the coal drop lines and the lines from Platforms 4 and 5 and the former Berry Lane grain warehouse. There is no way that the coal drops could be accessed from either Platform 4 or 5; the coal drop tracks clearly pass to the west of Platform 5. Moreover, the coal drops could not be accessed from Platform 6, as the photo clearly shows the junction of the Platform 5 and 6 tracks. All the track diagrams I have pre-1960s show that the coal drops could only be accessed from the goods loop. I have another aerial photo taken sometime in the 1970s (cannot be more specific unfortunately) that shows the initial post-1969 track lifting; the photo shows that the tracks serving Platforms 4-6 have all been lifted. The up? line to the Charlestown Road viaduct has also been lifted but the down? line remains in place; also there are remnants of the Berry Lane grain warehouse siding visible, but it is not connected to anything. The three lines running to the coal drops are still in place, but the head shunt track has been lifted; there are no mineral wagons on the coal drops but there are vehicles in the coal yard below the drops. There are 5 mineral sidings still in place some with wagons. The 3 sidings running under the gantry crane and the 3 sidings to the west between the gantry and the School Lane retaining wall are all still in place; there are goods vans on the gantry sidings but not the others. The tracks into the GNR goods shed and the adjacent covered open shed have all been lifted except for the eastern-most (running to the internal curved platform - there is a goods van in the doorway). The external siding on that curved side of the shed could have been lifted - it is difficult to tell as the photo gets very grainy and there are piles of 'stuff' where the track is/was. Only a single goods line from Shaw Syke is still in place (there is what looks like a Class 08 near the GNR shed) - only the curved part of the D you refer to - providing the only connection to the lines mentioned above.
@@davidhowes5403 I have no disagreement with any of that. It's just that your original comment may have been interpreted that GN trains were entirely excluded from the use of platform 4. Clearly, any L&Y or GN trains to/from Holmfield or beyond both had use of the platform 4 for arrivals and any of platforms 4-6 for departures. Whether the L&Y trains were only allowed use of platform 4 for departures is an interesting question. It would seem to be an inconvenience to the arrival of "up" trains if it were true. Where an arriving train will form the next departure and will depart before the next arrival, it is more convenient to depart from platform 4 so I imagine that is what was done regardless of company.
Access the coal drops was indeed only available from the down goods line. I didn't intend to say anything that contradicts that. (It's an interesting point to note that the up goods line was only accessible to "through" trains, and so starts to look a little overgrown in some photos from the 60s).
I wonder if we have the same aerial 1970s photo? Your description seems very similar to mine but yours seems to have more peripheral details. In mine, as far as I can tell, none of lines to the GN warehouse have been lifted and the shunter next to it is a Class 03. I'm not sure when the goods yard fell out of use. It was still being used in July 1972 but by 1977 it was full of buses although at least some of the tracks were still in place.
Best wishes -Ed
I'm sure that there was another line that went from Halifax to Holmfield and it went over the bottom end of Boy Lane in Wheatley
Do you mean the Halifax High Level Railway, if so, that's one of my earlier videos, video number 004.
@NigglePics at 18:40 you say there was and still is some remains of another station just by Old Lane bridge. I have maps as far back as the late 1800s, but see no mention of a station here. Please could you give more info?
My bad, I think I was confused, many apologies.
Not sure, I'll check it out, I just know it ran through Pellon and Wheatley
Yep that's Halifax High Level, it ran ro King Cross where the station was called St Paul's.
Fantastic video. Just one more correction for you - starting at around 11 mins - nope it's not the Hebble Brook (that runs through the Wheatley valley) - it's the Ovenden Brook :)
Did I refer to the Hebble Brook in the Wheatley Valley (Halifax High Level )video, I don't remember, but if I did, whoops, many apologies.
@@NigglePics Think you missread @dingbat2177 's comment. The brook in THIS video is Ovenden Brook, the one that runs through Wheatley and on to Mixenden is Hebble Brook. Dingbat was pointing out the slight mistake in this video, not the other :) Great work BTW
such a shame they built that awful flyover and the massive road, it destroyed so much including north bridge station. you can't even get a good view of north bridge because of the flyover. :(
Your not far from the KWVR, did this line join it near Keighley.
I think it possibly did.
No it did not once at Queensbury triangular station the tracks split of either to Bradford or Skipton which went through Thornton on to Cullingworth and dropped down to Damems and then Keighley. The Kwvr was a branch line from Keighley to oxenhope that line existed because of the needs of the mill owners in the Worth Valley
To clarify my comment a bit once leaving Halifax station heading across to North Bridge the line went on to Ovenden, Holmfield (where incidentally the high level line joined about a 1/4 mile prior to Holmfield) the to Queensbury where the line divided through Queensbury to Keighley or Bradford. The KWVR line went from Keighley to Oxenhope so is considered to not be part of the Queensbury Lines. As a aside the KWVR was built due to pressure from the mill owners around the Keighley/Oxenhope areas.
Question for you, where does Wheatley tunnel end and is the air shaft on Cusion Lane part of the tunnel ?
I'm afraid I couldn't find the tunnel's end, which highly disappointed me, and I don't know of the air shaft to which you refer.
Yes the air shaft on Cousin Lane is for the Wheatley tunnel - you can get into the tunnel from somewhere along Wheatley lane I think - the entrance isn't far from the viaduct?
Yes but where would the tunnel end if you walked from the Wheatley opening? It must be fairly long with the air shaft being on Cousin lane.
If you enter Wheatley Tunnel and walk to the end it is bricked up with a ladder set into a wall taking you up to somewhere near the bottom illingworth Road the Tunnel did not extend all the way to Holmfield. On Holmfield Road their are the remnants of the road bridge which is where the Pelion line joined the Ovenden Line that is the correct alignment.
Home field is spelt holmfield 👍
That's why it's spelt Holmfield on my title page.