SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

This might be of interest to Secret Leeds folk:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qyfq8 Quote: Documentary following the staff, passengers and police officers on the railways in and around Leeds during summer. This is the most challenging season for staff, when binge drinkers, cable thieves and trespassers all threaten to delay the trains.For driver Jason, driving the trains on the 'Real Ale Trail', a pub crawl by train, is the most dreaded shift of the week as drunken party-goers fill his carriages and begin to stumble across the tracks to catch their trains but the real- alers think of it all as harmless fun.Elsewhere, when a teenager is killed after trespassing on the track, British Transport Police officer Craig has the difficult task of breaking the news to the boy's mother.To add to the challenges for the staff running the trains in and out of Leeds, it is the wettest summer in a century and flooding brings the network to a standstill. With costly fines for every minute of delay, just one day of flooding costs the industry over a million pounds and ruins thousands of passengers' days. ? Show less

on a similar vein, i just read this in YEP online.A VOLUNTEER-RUN railway, which was once the pride and joy of a late Leeds engineer, is being dismantled and moved just months after his death.The Abbey Light Railway, which ran from Kirkstall Abbey to Bridge Road, in Kirkstall, Leeds, was the realisation of a childhood dream for Peter Lowe, who lectured in engineering at what is now Leeds Technology College.But after the 77-year-old’s death in October, the quarter mile narrow gauge railway closed and after a failed bid from volunteers to keep it going, the railway was sold. Everything from the track, sleepers, railway bridge, turntable and shed are being dismantled before the railway’s 12 locomotives are taken down to the Welsh Highland Railway, in Porthmadog, on Friday.Peter’s widow Jean, 77, from Cookridge, said: “It holds fond memories for me, it was Peter’s dream and we all fell in with it.”She said the family’s “hands were tied” at having to sell up as it needed a lot of work and the insurance was up for renewal.The railway, opened in 1976, used to run on Sundays and bank holiday Mondays all year round.Gerald Barker, 60, who has volunteered at the railway for 27 years, said: “It was an incredible experience, the chap who ran the railway was a wonderful guy and an excellent engineer.”He said the volunteers were initially told the railway would reopen in the spring but that never materialised.A small team of volunteers has run the railway for decades.

Thanks for that Grumpytramp.I'll have to check that out.I think the beerex trains mentioned will be the diesel galas held at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. I'm sorry to hear about Peter at the Kirkstall Light railway Jane. I never knew he had died, although I have a facebook friend of one of the lads who volunteered there. I never saw him mention it.It's a real shame it has to leave Leeds. Couldn't the council have stepped in to help/take it over? If run properly they could really have made Kirkstall Abbey a family day out. Advertise it properly, and have events for the kids like Thomas the tank and things, have one of the old buses from the Keighley bus museum out running e.t.c.    

That is a shame about the Kirkstall railway, and the owner's death. Condolences to Peter's family and friends.As Phill says, it could be run properly by LCC, and add to the attractions of the park. We always intended to go on the train but it was never running on the days we visited.    

Croggy1 wrote: As Phill says, it could be run properly by LCC, and add to the attractions of the park. We always intended to go on the train but it was never running on the days we visited.     Only yesterday M. Houlden said this on the S.L facebook group...........................................................*How about a *proper* tourist bus? The last one was a failure because it only went round part of the city centre, but I think if we had one that called at Kirkstall Abbey, Armley industrial museum, Thwaite Mills, Temple Newsam, Roundhay Park and Middleton Railway it would be a lot more popular*......................................................That with the Kirkstall Abbey railway as well, there are countless possibilities this Council could do. It seems to me that not only can they not attract new things to the City, they can't keep the ones they do have. The rides at Roundhay Park gone, Granary Wharf under the dark arches was really popular, always busy, that part of the river could have been a great area. The Abbey railway just another attraction to go

Here's a few of my photos of the railway. My facebook friend Dave in hi-viz It was really a nice scenic little railway.    

Phill_dvsn wrote: Couldn't the council have stepped in to help/take it over? If run properly they could really have made Kirkstall Abbey a family day out.      Phill - Leeds City Council and Run properly in concecutive sentences - really ??

BIG N wrote: Phill_dvsn wrote: Couldn't the council have stepped in to help/take it over? If run properly they could really have made Kirkstall Abbey a family day out.      Phill - Leeds City Council and Run properly in concecutive sentences - really ?? As csnosi says..Don't get me started

Most of the items have been passed to other railways all over the country, even Poppleton have been given an engine. http://www.poppletonrailwaynursery.co.u ... aynursery/

Oh, what a shame and such a great loss –both of the railway and of Peter Lowe himself.I was lucky enough to have had Peter as one of my lecturers when I was at college. He was a smashing chap and what he didn’t know probably wasn’t worth knowing.I hope somebody names a loco in his honour.