Railway Station Lost Entrances

[Bramley4woods]

BLAKEY wrote: Bramley4woods wrote: Cooper Bridge Station has a bricked up doorway that can be seen from the A64, just past The Three Nuns public house. I've never been much good with geography, but should that be A 62 ??     Only kiddin' .     Yes it should.Never noticed that, but I always assumed the A64 came in from York, went straight through the middle of Leeds and went out as the A64 to Manchester.Presumably both the A62, and A64 end in the middle of Leeds.I'm gobsmacked ! I live on Churwell Hill, once lived in York, and went to college in Manchester ! Presumably I've only ever "seen" what I was expecting to see for over forty years! By way of mitigation could I plead that when I came back to Leeds in 1976 the M62 was close to opening and prior to it opening the A62 was rarely the best way over the Pennines, especially in the bad winters we used to have, regular travellers found alternatives as I did. Mine was very close to the route the M62 eventually took.

[chameleon]

Bramley4woods wrote: BLAKEY wrote: Bramley4woods wrote: Cooper Bridge Station has a bricked up doorway that can be seen from the A64, just past The Three Nuns public house. I've never been much good with geography, but should that be A 62 ??     Only kiddin' .     Yes it should.Never noticed that, but I always assumed the A64 came in from York, went straight through the middle of Leeds and went out as the A64 to Manchester.Presumably both the A62, and A64 end in the middle of Leeds.I'm gobsmacked ! I live on Churwell Hill, once lived in York, and went to college in Manchester ! Presumably I've only ever "seen" what I was expecting to see for over forty years! By way of mitigation could I plead that when I came back to Leeds in 1976 the M62 was close to opening and prior to it opening the A62 was rarely the best way over the Pennines, especially in the bad winters we used to have, regular travellers found alternatives as I did. Mine was very close to the route the M62 eventually took. Just to confuse things even more, A64 becomes A58 in the middle of Leeds!

[big_rob2004]

chameleon wrote: Just to confuse things even more, A64 becomes A58 in the middle of Leeds! and in turn the A58 is the Transpennine trunk route to Liverpool

[Phill_dvsn]

I've just photographed the rather nice, elaborate blocked off entrance to Cooper bridge station here Rob.http://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/3321920199/

[BIG N]

Nice piccy of Cooper bridge enterance there mate, I know we are moving further afield but there is one of these abandoned enterances I would love to be able to get into and thats at the old Longwood and Milnsbridge station on the other side of huddersfield.I remember as a young un when they closed this station, the enterance was up a ramp from street level and the booking office etc was in the subway, they just bulldozed rubble into the subway stairwells from above and bricked the enterance up from the street - would be interesting to see whats left behind the wall, much as I dare say it would be at Cooper Bridge.

[The Doggers]

I used to drive past the entrance to Cooper Bridge station every day and always thought "the Secret Leeds folk would like this" lol. I still work nearby, actually in a building that was originally railway cottages beside the Spen Valley line and one of our warehouse buildings is an old train shed. A quote from a website: Quote: The Spen Valley Greenway is a green corridor that follows the route of the old Spen Valley Rail Line between Bradford Low Moor and Dewsbury. The Greenway forms part of the National Cycle Network Route 66 which will eventually connect Hull and Manchester via York Leeds and Bradford. I find it fascinating out this way, as there are lots of old remnants of the old line that ran out here. I did read up on it some time ago, but have since forgotten most of the information! My memory's terrible though, so there you go!Driving along the A644, you can see now disconnected sections of old railway viaduct, one with units built into the remaining arches, another couple of sections laying further from the road. There's then the bits where the road now passes through and you can see remnants of the railways on the other side, behind where houses now stand. In Huddersfield up the road, there is a bit just after the Mercedes garage on the way into the town centre, where you can see the remains of a bridge, and there's also Bradley Viaduct, which was part of a goods line built by Midland Railways IIRC. I'm not entirely sure which bits near Huddersfield Road are from the spen valley line and which bits are from the old Midland goods line, or if indeed the old Midland line even came down this far. But I like looking at stuff and trying to imagine how it was....

[BIG N]

The Doggers wrote: I still work nearby, actually in a building that was originally railway cottages beside the Spen Valley line and one of our warehouse buildings is an old train shed. Driving along the A644, you can see now disconnected sections of old railway viaduct, one with units built into the remaining arches, another couple of sections laying further from the road. There's then the bits where the road now passes through and you can see remnants of the railways on the other side, behind where houses now stand. In Huddersfield up the road, there is a bit just after the Mercedes garage on the way into the town centre, where you can see the remains of a bridge, and there's also Bradley Viaduct, which was part of a goods line built by Midland Railways IIRC. Lets see if I can help you a little -Firstly the remains of the viaduct across the A644 -If you are leaving Mirfield towards Huddersfield take a look at the side of the viaduct over the top of the units, you will see some pretty hefty brackets sticking out of the wall, I think there are still a couple on the otherside too. These brackets supported the platforms of what was Battyeford station, the platforms actually being built out onto the viaduct, the station buildings were up on the right behind the row of stone cottages, the goods yard for this station ran alongside the A644 towards Mirfield in the area that is now called the Maltings and between Huddersfield Rd and Nettleton Rd, reaching almost to the Railway pub.Looking to the left, the first gap is where a section of the viaduct was pulled down but the second, bigger gap, in the distance is where the railway crossed the river on a massive girder bridge.Neither of the old railway remains you can see on Leeds Rd heading into Huddersfield are connected with the Spen Valley line ( or Leeds New Line to give it it's more common name), this line joined the London and North Western line towards huddersfield after crossing under the Calder Valley line at Cooper bridge. the first bridge abutment you come to is the remains of the line leading to the Midland Railways Newtown goods depot and is the same line that crossed the viaduct that still remains crossing the river and canal, this ran all the way to Huddersfield without connecting into the London and North Western line that still exists today, if you go on Bradford Rd out of Huddersfield there is a great deal of cutting and bridge work still left from this in the Fartown area.The second set of abutments, almost at Whittiker St lights are from the branch line that left the L.N.W.R. line at Deighton station and curved tightly round to cross the Leeds Huddersfield Rd before heading round the back of I.C.I. and heading off to Kirkburton.Its also worth noting that as you go through the lights at Bradley where the White Cross pub is on your right, you are crossing another railway line that is still in use, this is the Bradley curve and allows trains from the Huddersfield direction to head towards Brighouse on the Calder Valley line, it runs in a tunnel right under the road junction and if you go into the White Cross car park you are on top of a cutting at the rear of the pub.