Anyone know where this is?

Railways, trams, buses, etc.
polos
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue 02 Dec, 2014 5:37 am

Anyone know where this is?

Post by polos »

Hiya whilst browsing leodis image across this and wondered where it would be in today's terms don't suppose anyone knows http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... SPLAY=FULL

rikj
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Joined: Tue 20 Feb, 2007 4:59 pm

Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by rikj »

The Lost Railways of West Yorkshire website refers to an extension of the East & West Yorkshire Union Railway, from Rothwell to Stourton, as the South Leeds Junction Railway. The dates match, but leodis also calls it the South Leeds railway junction, which could be a different thing all together.

Would take a bit of poring over old maps to take a guess at the location of that cutting.

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by jim »

E&WYUR cutting probably in the John O' Gaunts area. Leaving Stourton the line climbed and then turned through nearly 180 degrees to run alongside Bullough Lane, under the A639, and alongside Styebank Lane, where some of the course is still there as a footpath. Still curving the line passed alongside The Paddock, across Wood Lane on an overbridge, entering Rothwell Station just south of Pasture View Road. The continuation of the line to Robin Hood and eventually to the old Lofthouse Colliery site where it met the GNR Leeds -Wakefield line can mostly be traced as footpaths as far as the M1/M62 junction beyond where the motorway works have obliterated practically all trace of the line. The cutting shown in the Leodis image is almost certainly in the area of the bridge under the A639, to the best of my knowledge there were no other substantial cuttings on the line or its several branches, except one which passed under the A642 somewhere around the M62 Junction 30, and which was more a colliery branch than part of the E&WYUR, so is probably not the site depicted.. That railway is excellently and fully described in a slim volume entitled "The East and West Yorkshire Union Railway" published by Turntable Publications run by my old friend Ken Mellor who operated for some years a transport bookshop (The Turntable) on Wade Street, now vanished under the St John's Centre.

See also my post below to straighten out misunderstanding!
Last edited by jim on Wed 17 Jan, 2018 4:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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tyke bhoy
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Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by tyke bhoy »

If you look at this
http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co ... kshire.htm
the spur from the GNR mainline (still the Doncaster> London line) was completed in 1898 and was to the Hunslet Goods Yard originally incorporated in 1893 and taken over by GNR. Your photo looks like early days of the construction which may have taken a couple of years.

The map isn’t all that easy to decipher but the yellow line heading east cutting through the end of the word Churwell. Id therefore suspect the Junction, which is what the image claims to be, is somewhere on the side of the hill up to Middleton overlooking Dewsbury Road and the White Rose (Park Wood estate). I seem to recall that the line went under Middleton Ring Road adjacent to the old Rex cinema just off Dewsbury Road http://www.secretleeds.com/viewtopic.php?t=945
living a stones throw from the Leeds MDC border at Lofthousehttp://tykebhoy.wordpress.com/

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by jim »

Oops! You are absolutely right tyke bhoy. I failed to view the link on polos' post, and replied to rikj's comment. Your first link will however give context to my post on the very interesting E&WYUR if scrolled down to "Colliery Railways" where a further link will be found to a useful map and a multitude of pictures of the current status of many sites on the line including the cutting at John O'Gaunt. Needless to say it also does the same for the GNR Hunslet East branch.

jim
Posts: 1895
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Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by jim »

Here's a turn up for the books. On researching both the Lofthouse - Robin Hood - Stourton (and branches) railway and the Beeston - Hunslet East railway, it becomes apparent that my "off the top of my head" comments were correct all along. Both railways were built following Acts of Parliament of 1893. The Beeston - Hunslet East line was officially the "Hunslet Railway", and the extension of the E&WYUR line from Robin Hood to Stourton was officially the "South Leeds Junction Railway", a separate company until 1896 when a further Act of Parliament vested it in the E&WYUR. After (finally) locating the E&WYUR book I mention above, the self same picture that is shown in polos' link at the head of this thread appears on p14 and is described as being of the cutting approaching the Leeds Pontefract Road. There is a further picture on p11 (taken at the time the line was being dismantled) showing the cutting with the bridge itself visible. These pictures may be from opposite sides of the bridge (or its site), but it is not easy to tell.

dogduke
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Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by dogduke »

I worked at Hunslet East(twice) and Robin Hood circa 1961-1963.
Robin Hood as a "station" was a dump merely a base for a station master,handy for box visits and paying the wages.
The clerical work was boring,NCB collieries sent their coal declarations of wagons loaded that day and I invoiced them to the destination station.
I remember going on the bus with the S.M. to a bank in Rothwell for the weekly wages for staff and I think a lot of the signal boxes were reached by bus.
Every week or two I used to walk down the track to Rothwell to collect the rents from some railway owned houses and pay into the bank

In the BR modernisation plan for marshalling yards I seem to remember it was the intention to have two modern yards in West Yorkshire, at Healey Mills for east-west traffic and one at Stourton for north-south traffic.
In the end the new yard at Stourton was not built,they did however I think strengthen some bridges on the EWYU route for the increased axle weights of newer types of wagon to access the Doncaster line at Lofthouse.
No doubt Jim will know if this is correct.
Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by jim »

Your comments on the abortive plan for the new yard are absolutely correct dogduke. They also apparently eased gradients and curves along the E&WYUR all to no avail, and the line itself was closed only two or three years later.

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buffaloskinner
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Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by buffaloskinner »

:?:
Does this help to jog any more memories from you two Jim and Dogduke?

:arrow:
Attachments
1905 Rail Sidings.jpg
1905 Rail Sidings.jpg (538.28 KiB) Viewed 11376 times
Is this the end of the story ...or the beginning of a legend?

jim
Posts: 1895
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Re: Anyone know where this is?

Post by jim »

The first one reminds me of the many times I worked at Stourton engine shed and at the wagon repair works to the North East of it, of the home of one of my fellow apprentices on Queen Street, and (not shown but remembered) of the Queen pub and the transport cafe adjacent to the railway North east of the Wakefield road bridge - fine bacon and tomato sandwiches! The second reminds me of the remains of the inclined plane railway running down to Pontefract road from the old tram sheds near the whalebones, which I often promised myself I would walk down one day - no chance now as much of it it has disappeared by being cut away by the freightliner depot and its industrial estate. The last reminds me of a day spent walking the then recently closed tracks shown back in the mid to late 60s, and including the lines further North to the remains of the E&WYUR engine shed and Rothwell Station and along the branches towards Thorpe Lane and to the brickworks to the North of Ardsley. Definitely memories buffaloskinner.

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