Old railway bridge near Thwaite Mills??

Phill_d · Post by **Phill_d** » Sat 08 Dec, 2007 7:31 pm

It would be good if you could find the map jf.. I've seen them myself but can't think were it was.. It's a good bet it was changed when the bridge was built so the railway had no option but to build the bridge and giving some credability to the canal companys boast of tall ships into Leeds.

w41tzer · Post by **w41tzer** » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 4:48 am

id have to say phil is right, this was a simply massive bridge and as far as i know the only thing now missing down there is the metal bits and ballast, i watched it come down over the weeks as i passed to work, amazing to think it moved on just that round column, thank god it didnt open often,

jim · Post by **jim** » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 10:02 am

During my railway service I visited the water hydraulic plant at Hunslet East Goods Yard on quite a few occasions. The Fitter-in-Charge there told me that the hydraulic plant was intended to work the Thwaite Gate bridge, along with the yard machinery, but that the bridge was a never-needed "white elephant", and that as Phill said on the first page of this thread, it was only tried once and subsided under it's own weight. It was returned to it's closed position - with some difficulty! - and never opened again. The actual mechanism was removed so many years previously that nobody could then ( 1958 ) remember it. The hydraulic main and return pipes still at that time headed off down the yard underground towards Thwaite Gate with no other identifiable purpose.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 11:26 am

jim wrote: During my railway service I visited the water hydraulic plant at Hunslet East Goods Yard on quite a few occasions. The Fitter-in-Charge there told me that the hydraulic plant was intended to work the Thwaite Gate bridge, along with the yard machinery, but that the bridge was a never-needed "white elephant", and that as Phill said on the first page of this thread, it was only tried once and subsided under it's own weight. It was returned to it's closed position - with some difficulty! - and never opened again. The actual mechanism was removed so many years previously that nobody could then ( 1958 ) remember it. The hydraulic main and return pipes still at that time headed off down the yard underground towards Thwaite Gate with no other identifiable purpose. I think i found your underground hyrdraulic pipe system a few years ago as well Jim when i was looking around the site of Hunslet goods yard. I hadn't realised what it was until you've put this. I never took more than a curious glimpse down a steep set of ladders, which i know went down at least four levels. Going on what you've said this underground pipe ducting/tunnel (should) travel right under the River Aire to work the far side of the swing bridge. I certainly need to look down that manhole i found again methinks

jim · Post by **jim** » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 2:33 pm

It sounds like your kind of thing Phill! If there are indeed hydraulic mains down there, what you should see is two pipes, usually stacked one on top of the other. The top pipe would be in nine foot lengths, at least six inches outside diameter. It would have enormously thick integrally cast flanges at each end of each pipe, and they would be fastened together with two 7/8" or 1" square headed bolts to each joint. This pipe would have carried the pressure supply at around 760 lbs psi.The bottom pipe would be slightly larger in diameter, but with standard drainpipe or sewer leaded joints, and this would have been the return main to the pump header tank. If the water had gone to waste, there would have been an enormous consumption. I recall the Hunslet Lane system in 1963 loosing over 100,000 gallons a week just in leakage. The fitter there didn't take it too kindly when we suggested he was filling the canal locks when no-one was looking.

The Doggers · Post by **The Doggers** » Thu 09 Dec, 2010 5:11 pm

Hi folks. It was me that started this thread three years ago (bloody hell!), but I forgot my login details as Bluesmoke! It's really funny, all that debate as I tried to work out where the bridge originally sat.... When I look at the photos today I can completely see where it went. Funny that eh? I believe where the path was on one of my photos, one of the bridge uprights once stood. I never realised the first time around, but the reason I couldn't work out where the bridge had originally stood was because the photo with the river drained was obviously taken from the opposite side to where I'd been looking from!