Old Railway from Thorpe Park to Leeds?

patter · Post by **patter** » Fri 18 Jun, 2010 9:46 pm

I've been looking through Google Earth recently, for other ways to get to work & noticed that there's traces of a line from behind McDonalds by Thorpe Park, heading North to oin the main line to Leeds near the old Vickers plant.am I right? what did it use to serve?

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 18 Jun, 2010 11:02 pm

patter wrote: I've been looking through Google Earth recently, for other ways to get to work & noticed that there's traces of a line from behind McDonalds by Thorpe Park, heading North to oin the main line to Leeds near the old Vickers plant.am I right? what did it use to serve? You are probably looking at the line of the track which served the Yorkshire/Brown Moor collieries - have a look at the mining in East Leeds and related threads for more info.

buffaloskinner · Post by **buffaloskinner** » Fri 18 Jun, 2010 11:08 pm

Dont believe it is an old track, have alook at this old rail map, It could have been the old road from Colton.http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co ... kshire.htm

Post by **chameleon** » Sat 19 Jun, 2010 9:04 am

PARKSIDER-----This is probably freher in your mind than mine, can you elucidate on what we learned for our good friend here??

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sat 19 Jun, 2010 4:52 pm

chameleon wrote: PARKSIDER-----This is probably freher in your mind than mine, can you elucidate on what we learned for our good friend here?? If you go to the West Yorkshire Colliery round the back you can pick up the raised trackbed of the railway line down to the main line. There was also a line to Brown Moor, but Brown Moor Colliery is obliterated, so the clearest still showing on google earth coal mine branch line round there is 100% West Yorks Colliery.The Colliery has the shaft head and brick lining showing and in the garden next to the woo it is in is I think the ruins of the winding house. Possibly the best preserved of the Leeds Coal Mines??Go onto Old Maps and you can see the layouts for these branch lines as they were when they were working......

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sat 19 Jun, 2010 5:04 pm

chameleon wrote: PARKSIDER-----This is probably freher in your mind than mine, can you elucidate on what we learned for our good friend here?? The WY colliery line was a branch from the Brown Moor line in that they converged and jointly dropped to the main line. There's still a bit of the Brown Moor line running into the WY line easy to spot on Google earth as the lines are bounded by bushes and trees.on old-maps.co.uk the 1854 map is pre WY and the 1892 is after both collieries closures but the layouts are still there with the collieries named as abandoned.Bits of old colliery lines can be found elsewhere, like a short stretch for the Gipton Pit and the line that linked collieries near the Dragon Bridge like the busk pit. Osmondthorpe Collieries line is a ginnel through the estate now and one of the ponte lane lines still has it's trackbed cutting between two factories.Good old anorak fun looking up the old lines and going to see if you can still find some of the trackbed.