LAST TRAIN TO KIRKSTALL ABBEY

Brunel · Post by **Brunel** » Sun 24 Mar, 2013 9:39 pm

ABBEY LIGHT RAILWAYPeter Lowe, its proprietor, died in October, and the railway hasn’t operated since. The lease on the land had run out some time ago and Peter had been unable to persuade Leeds City Council to renew it. Attempts by his son Craig met with similar lack of success. The Railway Inspectorate was insisting on extensive, and expensive, remedial works, yet the income from fares had been barely enough to cover the public liability insurance.In short, the railway was Peter’s hobby and he bankrolled it. Without him it could not continue and the support team who had helped him run the line were left without a railway to support. Unscrupulous individuals had been seen lurking round and items were beginning to disappear.A chance meeting (on the No.6 bus) between Craig and local Welsh Highland Railway member John Holmes (Peter was also a WHR member) led to a rescue plan being hatched. John liaised with WHR colleagues and a deal was struck with Peter’s family. The WHR would purchase all the railway’s surviving assets, including Peter’s wonderful collection of locomotives and rolling stock. These would be taken to safekeeping on other railways and the track would be removed as required by the lease. An outstanding bill for parts for a loco under restoration would be settled.Starting on Friday 15 February, Welsh Highland members from Yorkshire and the Midlands gathered at the Bridge Road depot. A team from Hampshire appeared with lorries and tools to start lifting the rails for another private railway. All the stock was taken out of the sheds and work started to clear unwanted items and machinery. Representatives from the Middleton and Festiniog Railways and others came to look at equipment that they might be able to use and hard decisions were made as to what would be kept and what sold to finance the project. Several lorry loads of unwanted metal went off to the scrapyard.During the following week, a locomotive on loan from Yorkshire Water departed for Embsay and others went to the Poppleton Community Nursery Railway at York and the Ripon & District Light Railway. The coaches went off to the North Ings Farm Museum line in Lincolnshire. On the Friday morning a trio of lorries arrived from Wales, lifted the remaining locomotives, some machines and the turntable over the fence into the BHS (ex-Clover, ex-Thrift Stores) car park and took them off to safety, arriving at Porthmadog on the Saturday morning.Into the second week and, the track having been cleared as far as the depot, the bridge over the Goit was taken out and started its long journey to China. The Hampshire team returned and lifted the rest of the track, and a posting on Freecycle resulted in crowds of local people and gardeners collecting scrap sleepers for new uses or firewood (out of the whole railway barely a dozen sleepers were re-usable).The third and final week saw a team from Brotherton’s (scrap merchants) dismantle the big shed which had been unable to find a new owner; by the end of the week nothing remained but a few sleepers and the shed foundations.So ended one of Leeds’s hidden transport gems. Or did it? You can still ride on the coaches, travel behind the locomotives and marvel at Peter Lowe’s restoration skills. The May Gala at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway will see many of the locos running again before some of them head off to pastures new and form a continuing memorial to a skilled and wonderful man. And who knows? Maybe some day someone else will have a vision of a little railway in the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey. Stranger things have happened.

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sun 24 Mar, 2013 11:07 pm

Thanks for your post Brunel what a shame it could not be kept going but then the council would rather spend 50,000 pounds on artwork for Trinity Centre as if it needed it. But thats only my point of view for what its worth.

BIG N · Post by **BIG N** » Thu 04 Apr, 2013 12:29 am

Thanks for that Final update Brunel A sad end to the memory of one mans dream and all he did to realise it, I have many fond memories of taking my, then very young, daughters to the Abbey and having a ride on the railway, a good excuse for me to enjoy it lol.Not totally sure about the location of Ripon & District Light Railway and I've never heard of North Ings Farm Museum railway but I am a big fan of the Welsh Highland so will look out for the Abbey locos next time over that way.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Thu 04 Apr, 2013 2:22 am

A list with details and photos of the UK & Ireland Heritage Railways can be seen herehttp://www.heritage-railways.com/nings.php

Riponian · Post by **Riponian** » Thu 04 Apr, 2013 11:15 am

The Ripon & District Light Railway is tucked at the side of the canal next to the Boroughbridge Rd roundabout on the bypass, back of the Acorn Industrial Estate.

Brunel · Post by **Brunel** » Thu 04 Apr, 2013 11:29 am

The Ripon & District Light Railway

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Thu 04 Apr, 2013 9:59 pm

Thats a real shame, I didnt even know it had closed. I went on the train a few times as a kiddy. I'm surprised there wasnt a dedicated band of steam obsessed enthusiasts who kept it going by applying for lottery funding etc as you find with all the other heritage railways. Does anyone remember the little railway they used to have at Roundhay Park? Also I can remember when I was about 8 years old my friends and I were exploring the woods around the Howden Clough area inbetween Morley and Birstall and we came across a private steam railway and locomotive complete with tracks / signals etc in the large gardens of a house which was adjacent to the woodland. I wonder how many other lost steam railways there have been in Leeds?

Richard A Thackeray · Post by **Richard A Thackeray** » Sat 06 Apr, 2013 9:44 pm

Every year we get an invite up to East Ardsley to the private minature railway at BlackGatesIt's just a circular track, with a cutting, tunnel (under access to the centre) & a station.https://sites.google.com/a/wrsls.com/www/home

Post by **Croggy1** » Sun 07 Apr, 2013 2:34 am

[quotenick="jonleeds"Does anyone remember the little railway they used to have at Roundhay Park? Also I can remember when I was about 8 years old my friends and I were exploring the woods around the Howden Clough area inbetween Morley and Birstall and we came across a private steam railway and locomotive complete with tracks / signals etc in the large gardens of a house which was adjacent to the woodland. I wonder how many other lost steam railways there have been in Leeds? There used to be one at Temple Newsam, too.

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sun 07 Apr, 2013 8:04 am

There was one in private grounds near me phill took photographs of it. He had it in a were is this post I don't know if anybody got it so I will not give the place were it is away.