Railways in Leeds

[The Parksider]

Phill_dvsn wrote: This cracking aerial shot should answer all your question Parksider http://snipurl.com/ufgpr Your a very kind fella to put up all those wonderful photos and map Phil thank you.....The tall narrow angled archway you photographed that cut through the viaduct at Bath Road was interesting. It carried a footpath from Bridge Road all the way through to David Street.I have looked on the pre-viaduct 1854 OS map to see why such a footpath existed to no avail. I see no reason why they nedeed to keept such a footpath angling through Holbeck on that line when if you wanted to walk from Bridge Road to David Street you could just as easily walk along the footpaths by the roads??On the 1854 map benyon beck winds it's way towards the Hol Beck in the Marshall Street area, seemingly filling a couple of resevoirs in the area!!! That's another natural stream that has been culverted and buried years ago - but that's another thread!

[Phill_dvsn]

You mean this archway Parksider?http://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/289656711/

[The Parksider]

Phill_dvsn wrote: You mean this archway Parksider?http://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/289656711/ Yes Phil. What on earth was the point?From Bridge Road you can walk along sweet street and take any turning up into Holbeck, e.g. Bath road, Marshall Street or David Street.This footpath from bridge Street cut north east from sweet street through that archway to where David Street cafe is/was today. Much of the footpath is still there now.To accomodate the continuation of this footpath the Railway company went to the expense of designing and building that angled tunnel through the viaduct.I suppose it could have been an ancient "right of way" but did they give a damn about that sort of thing then??

[Phill_dvsn]

I don't really know to be honest. I know back to back houses were near there at one time. I think they got flattened in the 60's.It's an impressive arch, so yes, your right, they wouldn't have gone to the trouble if it didn't need to be there. There's a gap of 28 years from your 1854 map to the building of the viaduct, i guess anything could have been built in that time.    

[Phill_dvsn]

These are the back to backs that were near the Holbeck viaduct, I forget the street names now.http://snipurl.com/ug0mrThe tall arch and ginnel runs at the back of them.    

[The Parksider]

Phill_dvsn wrote: These are the back to backs that were near the Holbeck viaduct, I forget the street names now.http://snipurl.com/ug0mrThe tall arch and ginnel runs at the back of them.     If that's the Midlend Line with the Leeds/Wortley line on the bridge over, then those are the "Weston" back to backs and that is the old Foundry that's still there today in the background. Great Piccy as always sir!

[Trojan]

The Parksider wrote: Phill_dvsn wrote: These are the back to backs that were near the Holbeck viaduct, I forget the street names now.http://snipurl.com/ug0mrThe tall arch and ginnel runs at the back of them.     If that's the Midlend Line with the Leeds/Wortley line on the bridge over, then those are the "Weston" back to backs and that is the old Foundry that's still there today in the background. Great Piccy as always sir! It's the midland line that runs under Meadow Lane isn't it? Certainly when I was a kid and trespassing at Holbeck, you could see the midland St Pancras bound expresses passing.It says on the video that it was the LNWR line which means it must have been the Manchester line. This line now passes the back of the Copley Hill Trading Estate. Of course in the past Copley Hill was an East Coast Locoshed, but when Leeds City was revamped in the sixties presumably the layout of the lines was also altered. Leeds locosheds: 50B Neville Hill                             55A Holbeck                             55B Stourton                             55C Farnley Junction                             56C Copley Hill

[tilly]

When i did the black dog walk last year we were told this was the site of the medieval path from Holbeck to Leeds could this be the reason for going to so much trouble with this right of way?

[Phill_dvsn]

Yes it's the ex Midland line that passes Holbeck shed Trojan. It was later extended into the city from the original station where Crown point retail park now stands. It's the bridge of the LNWR viaduct on the top left of the shot i was pointing out to Parksider-regarding the back to back (The Westons we now know ;-)Here's a cracking shot overlooking Holbeck shed, and the viaduct from the high rise flats on Holbeck moor.It shows how curved both lines werehttp://snipurl.com/ugbt5The LNWR viaduct line did go to Huddersfield and Manchester prior to the new station in 1967, it crossed under the ex Great Northern line to London, via Wakefield around the Copley hill area. They introduced a steep curve to connect it to the Leeds-London line in 1967. The bridge was filled in, Symphony kitchens now stands on the old trackbed today.The course of the old line can be seen on this picture here, i'm interested to know what the significant brickwork is to the left of the picture.http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co ... est.jpgThe bank carries the Leeds-London line above, a bridge would have been under carrying the viaduct line prior to 1967.This is the same Leeds-London line a little further down, You can see quite a climb to the embankement picture above. The line coming in from the left is the altered viaduct linehttp://snipurl.com/ugbu7It was quite steep and had a sharp curve to it.That served all London trains from 1967-1988, today of course it is abandoned.**You can see the tall red building on both pictures to get your bearings**A good detail of the trackwork can be seen herehttp://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/ima ... st%205.jpg                        

[Trojan]

I thought so. The bridge that carried the LNWR line over the GNR line is what we used to call "the tin bridge". The original line into Leeds from Manchester, on the Leeds and Manchester (forerunner of the L&YR) was down the Calder Valley to Normanton and then into Leeds via the Midland's line.The LNWR built Standege Tunnel, and thus gained access to Yorkshire through Huddersfield, and then ran down the Calder Valley as far as Mirfield where it branched off to Dewsbury, they then constructed Morley Tunnel to gain access to Leeds via Farnley and the Holbeck Viaduct. The 4-15pm from Leeds to Liverpool Lime Street was a train I used to catch in my long ago trainspotting days. "Calling at Morley Low, Batley, Dewsbury, Ravensthorpe, Mirfield, Deighton, Huddersfield, Marsden, Staleybridge, etc etc" and all stations to Liverpool Lime Street. Passengers for Morley should occupy the rear x coaches of this train. (because it was so long the front ones would be in the tunnel) It must have taken forever to get to Liverpool.