Rodley/Calverley Station

[GlennDun]

Found this picture that shows the station platforms and buildings a lot better.

[socistep]

I live in Rodley and was interested by these pictures so went down to have a look today, I knew there was a station there but didn't realise that the platforms were north of the calverley lane bridge.Looking at the old pictures it is clear that on the bridge over the railway the buildings for tickets etc. were located on a bridge parallel to the road and that you went down from there to the platforms of which there were 4, there was also a building on the river side of the station shown herehttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Calverley_%26_Rodley_Station_geograph-2197387.jpgThe buildings, platforms and one set of lines were removed post 1965, this is an interesting set of pictures as they show a before 65, just with the bridge buildings gone however the platform and lines remain and then one recently how it is todaybefore 65 http://www.davidheyscollection.com/USER ... .jpgcouple of years after?few years ago - (EDIT - for some reason the 2 links above won't display when i post, they are in the edited post though, bit strange! However for the couple of years after one please type http://www.derbysulzers.com/ then 108calverlybw.jpg into your browser then for the 'few years ago' one type calverley2006.jpg after the /)Someone above said that the bridge went post 1965 but I don't think that is true - the section on which the buildings were located was removed and the abutments are still there today, the road part stayed and was raised to support electrification as shown on the last link above.This happened at sometime post 1985 as this pictures shows the same bridge arrangement as in the 60shttp://www.flickr.com/photos/feversham/5042306385/So that covers the Station buildings and the bridge, as people have mentioned the Pub and station masters house remains, the pub was Paris and now 'Il Migliore' Italian restaurant, also the goods building is still there as part of a more modern warehouse which took up land to the left of the original 2 photos where the 'fast' line, the sidings & the signal box were, the sidings where the carriages were are now reclaimed into land.I took some pictures today of what its like now so will add them in.To be honest I can understand why it shut in the 60s, rodley and caverley were a walk away and located on main road/bus routes into Leeds, as was Horsforth on the other side, apart from Sandos/Clariant factory (now closed) there isn't a lot around there. However given how busy the ring road is you could see a case in that today it would make an excellent location for a park and ride station into Leeds and Bradford. Today it is hard to imagine that it was actually a station at one point.I also wandered up to where the gasometers were, as someone mentioned there is a fenced/walled area which nature has now taken over, quite interested to find out what company owned this etc.Hope that helps other people looking for information, I may be wrong on some things so please let me know if anything wrong.ian    

[socistep]

.    

[trophy]

as avid trainspotters we would walk down the station fields to catch the train to leeds.but our parents certainly woudnt with a bus at the end of the street.but excursions to morecambe,blackpool.and scarboro were quite well used with up to a dozen people walking up the fields to calverley. after aday out that was a long walk i could not see people doing that now.

[Uno Hoo]

The station was also handy after a "late" night in Leeds, as the last bus for Calverley (WYRCC 31 Leeds-Keighley) left Vicar Lane bus station at 22.50, which could be too early to allow seeing the end of a film. But there was at least one later train from Leeds City, so the walk up the station fields footpath (gaslit) was better than the six mile walk home from Leeds (which I did more than once), particularly after the street lights went out at midnight.

[socistep]

Uno Hoo wrote: The station was also handy after a "late" night in Leeds, as the last bus for Calverley (WYRCC 31 Leeds-Keighley) left Vicar Lane bus station at 22.50, which could be too early to allow seeing the end of a film. But there was at least one later train from Leeds City, so the walk up the station fields footpath (gaslit) was better than the six mile walk home from Leeds (which I did more than once), particularly after the street lights went out at midnight. I still employ a similar practise now, the last bus back to Rodley leaves Wellington street at 1045pm so a lot of times I'll get one a later bus (1140pm) to new road side and walk down the ring road, allows for an extra pint or two!