GNR Halifax - Queensbury - Keighley. The Alpine Route. Yorkshires Lost Railway.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- A trip along the GNR & LYR line from Halifax to Keighley passing North Bridge, Ovenden, Queensbury, Thornton, Denholme, Walsden, Cullingworth and Ingrow East stations. A very challenging but picturesque route.
A brief History.....
The Queensbury lines was the name given to a number of railway lines in West Yorkshire, England, that linked Bradford, Halifax and Keighley via Queensbury. All the lines were either solely owned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) or jointly by the GNR and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR). The terrain was extremely challenging for railway construction, and the lines were very expensive to build. The lines were the Halifax and Ovenden Junction Railway, opened from 1874;
the Halifax, Thornton and Keighley Railway from Holmfield to Queensbury and from Thornton to Keighley, opened in stages from 1878.
The lines were marked with a number of major civil engineering works including several viaducts and tunnels. A feature of the line was the unusual station at Queensbury, which was on a triangular track layout, with two platforms on each of the three chords.
In 1880, the GNR applied for Parliamentary sanction to reduce its financial liability for the Thornton to Keighley line on which work was about to begin. It approached the Midland Railway with a proposal to make a joint station at Keighley, to be used by the Midland Railway main line trains, the Worth Valley line trains, and the GNR. The Midland Railway were amenable to this, and the Midland granted the GNR the necessary running powers, and agreed to make a new junction station. The agreement was in exchange for the Midland getting running powers to Halifax. The northernmost part of the Worth Valley branch was relaid and doubled; the agreement marked the start of a more amicable relationship between the GNR and the Midland. Although agreement had been reached about a shared station, goods facilities at Keighley were kept entirely separate: the GNR built a spur line off the Worth Valley route just outside Keighley station; the spur crossed under and entered its own goods yard.
At first the GNR provided the fastest service from Keighley to London in 4 hours 55 minutes by a Keighley-Bradford train, stopping only at St Dunstan's to connect with a King's Cross express. A service from Halifax avoided St Dunstan's by using the Leeds curve to connect with London trains at Laisterdyke. After a brief heyday the routes settled down to concentrate on purely local traffic, and even this diminished when trams started running from both Bradford and Halifax to Queensbury in 1901. Buses caused a further reduction in traffic in the late 1920s and Sunday trains were withdrawn in December 1938, but by 1946 the service was still surprisingly lavish with one through coach working to King's Cross, running from Halifax to Bradford in 22 minutes.
In 1950 the timetable was recast to give a better peak-hour service but with fewer off-peak trains and a reduction in direct trains between Halifax and Keighley. In 1955 the entire passenger service was withdrawn. In May 1956 the sections between Queensbury and Holmfield and between Cullingworth and Ingrow were closed to all traffic. This saved the cost of maintaining Queensbury and Lees Moor Tunnels and divided the route into three separate branch lines which were then operated with reduced signalling. The remaining operation was progressively cut back over the next 18 years. Holmfield and the High Level closed in 1960, Cullingworth in 1963, Thornton and Ingrow in 1965. Halifax to North Bridge coal yard closed in 1974.
There are current plans to reopen the line to walkers and cyclists with an ambitious plan to reopen the Queensbury Tunnel.
Such a shame the tunnels and bridges didn't survive. Nice to see what survives but it's sad they didn't turn the whole thing into a cycle trail. Another great video. Thank you
What a shame all this was destroyed at a whim.
This line as a heritage railway would bring a lot of much needed cash into the area.
The Line having some spectacular viaducts from Queensbury , the Thornton viaduct into the Denholme tunnel then the Shorter Cullingworth, and the beautiful curved Hewden viaduct all of which are still standing today.
I'm sure that with larger populations & much stronger rolling stock, some passenger services might be viable.
Very interesting video. It would be a useful and scenic railway if it was still open. Happy New Year!
A great addition to the history of the Railway building mania.
Denholme grew around the great mills that finally shut down about 10 years ago.
There were three huge mills connected by overhead walkways.
Station site was a timber company last time I was there.
Why are dissused railways so magical..one of the best books I ever owned was called passengers no more by Ian Allen,this book showed every line and station which had closed..
There are two books called ‘Great Northern Outpost’ by Alan Whitaker & Jan Rapacz. Part 1 covers the Bradford - Thornton Railway & Part 2 the Halifax - Thornton - Keighley line. Well worth getting, as they are both packed with photos during & after the lines operational life.
The yard at Denholme was a timber importers and merchants, [C R Taylor] and I worked for them upto the 'crash' in 2009. The old railway goods buildings were still there then and used as part of the mill complex. The address was known as Station Road !. The old abutment for the footbridges were still also in situ. Following the closure of the company and a subsequent fire, the whole site has now been cleared for housing.
Can remember my first trip to the worth valley railway bloody enjoyed me self was big jim on front of train even had photo in cab going again in about a weeks time cant wait 😁😁😁😁
Great interesting video, I had no idea there was a line between Halifax and Keighley, Britain really was like a web of railways at one time, many of which have now vanished into a distant memory.
Love the look of that Steam railway at Keighley, looks a proper visit to the railways heyday.
Thanks again.
this line actually branched off at Queensbury station to Keighly AND Bradford so was a major junction to change trains or GET A DIRECT train between Halifax, Keighly, and Bradford at the time!
Now sadly NO direct route between the 3 of them, you have to travel from Halifax through Bradford and onto Keighley whereas in the past you could get a train to Keighley from Halifax bypassing Bradford now you have to go to all 3 towns, not sure if journey times were quicker (being the age of steam) but it surely must have been?
There are two books called ‘Great Northern Outpost’ by Alan Whitaker & Jan Rapacz. Part 1 covers the Bradford - Thornton Railway & Part 2 the Halifax - Thornton - Keighley line. Well worth getting, as they are both packed with photos during & after the lines operational life.
Absolutely BRILLIANT video. Thank you for going out and making this - your efforts are greatly appreciated!
A tremendous job, doing the whole route, thanks😁
From being born in oldham and now living in halifax its great to see these lost routes being covered :) i live next to the old high level line too.
It was good to see Keighley again, as I was last there in 1992!
Very interesting video. I live close to the Ovenden station. Well done for getting to such seemingly inaccessible places.
Well done for stating where the actual filled in tunnel portal is for the goods line, lots of people think it went under the road. The tunnel at approx 19.00 is well heads tunnel, too many tunnels in Denholme your right. The big impressive viaduct is Hewenden Viaduct and is truly amazing! Like someone else pointed out is Lees Moor Tunnel not Ingrow. It's built on a constant curve so you entered heading south and left heading east going Halifax bound. The Keighley portal used to be used to store caravans. Well done for finding the Cullingworth portal!
Superb Allen keep them coming the tunnel brings back memories used to drive through it from Keighley end and tip waste to fill cutting at cullingworth end early 90s
Very interesting I am watching you from halifax
Excellent film, I have often see bits of this line. I will now be able to spot more of it on my travels well done.
Fantastic a great revelation, I did explore Denholme station when the wood yard was there. Loved the whole explore, looking forward to more.😎
There is a saying, "All roads lead to Rome". No roads lead to Keighley, one road leaves it in 2 directions. Great video, cheers.
I'm from Queensbury what a fantastic video thanks for sharing
Thanks for the video and the effort that you put in to cover the route. I first became aware of it back in the early 70s as a boy when my father took me on a walk along the old track bed from Damens to the Lees moor tunnel entrance. Back then it still looked like a railway route as it wasn't that overgrown, there was no caravan park and there was still a lot of ballast there. I have since then always been fascinated by it and wish at least some of it had been saved as so much engineering went into it with all the tunnels and viaducts. I do actually have the route on MSTS on an old computer which is very basic but still gives a good idea of the layout.
Great video, nice to see more of the trackbed. Just a few points, the portal to the second tunnel you tried to find is definately under the road, the galvanised can at 21:56 is what is used in loco sheds to fill up sanders on engines, possibly other things too. At 39 you were looking at the foundations of 'Keighley G. N Junction' signal box, the name boards are in the Vintage Carriage Trust Museum at Ingrow. Oh and you somehow managed to miss the orignal Cullingworth concrete station nameboard that is propped up outside Cullingworth school adjacent to the disused site you entered through the fence. Great video, thanks for filming.
Fantastic video. Well done! Really enjoyed it.
Excellent explore, I like your enthusiasm.
Very interesting. Thanks for the video 👍
Abersoley brilliant video! Thanks for your hard work
Great video!!
brilliant video thanks!
Fabulous ....👏👏👏
enjoyed thankyou
Brilliant-brought back many memories of the line thank you.
Brilliant video. I’ve walked from the cullingworth end up to the point of 23:21 (the leaves got too much up to the tunnels!!) really fascinating, didn’t know if you knew this, but around the point of 24:30, there’s an abandoned quarry bearish to where you were. Unfortunately lots of people dive in it however it used to have a few sidings for stone until 1965 when road traffic took over
Excellent
Cool interesting am learning here.
Great video
its so sad all them places i remember
I grew up near them first 2 tunnels in Halifax and I used to walk through them 25 years ago as a kid. We used to call it tramps tunnel.
excellent video well done in doing this trip👍 shame that some of it remains some don't i wonder it would be successful today it's gone beyond making it a railway again built on in some places very sad this happened
Brilliant video. Just like to add that although wilsden station is no longer there the goods shed is. The goods yard has been owned by a plant hire firm since 1970 and the goods shed was extended and half is a house and the other half a garage. I know this because I work there and my place of work is right inside the original goods shed. Even the original sliding door is still inside although it's not visible from the outside. Also the the goods office building is still very much used as storage and a meeting room.
I used to work at Taylors yard at Denholme in about 99
Very interesting mate.Have walked bits of this line,the Queensbury bit and over all the viaducts and down to where the Cullingworth station board is in the school.Only stayed on the cycle trail so may have missed bits of the original line.
Near Keighley it looks like you are trackside of the main Worth Valley line.Also seen the Queensbury tunnel but only one of the portals.
The wooden base at the junction with the Worth Valley Railway was the site of Keighley GN Junction signal box
my dad was from Middlesborough, when I started working had a chap giving me a hard time, He came off with a line...From Hell, Hull and Halifax, lord god deliver us.
Went to “The Queensbury Lines” in 2000 with my late brother after reading about them in Steam Days magazine 1990. Did all the tunnels except Parkwood Street ( to Keighley goods yard) Old Lane and Lea bank. Check out the books : Great Northern outpost vols 1
,2 &3 by Jan Rapecz and Alan Whitaker . Fabulous pictures and text in them. These lines always fascinated me. Oh also did Wheatley Tunnel & viaduct on the Pelion branch
the mill at 6:56 has a preservation order after it was decided it had architectural merit.
It's been derelict 20 years or so.
That bridge served the Thornton Fireclay Works. A good source of information is the National Library of Scotland's online collection of maps.
The bridge abutments between the branch junction and Ingrow can be seen from a passing K&WVR train.
Are you going to do the section between Queensbury and Bradford Exchange sometime?
Watch this space Stephen....
@@onemanc I hope you do! ( i know I'm replying 2 yrs later so will check lol) as I have mentioned in a comment above THIS is I think the 1st time I have seen someone do the bit from Halifax to Queensbury ( but I may be wrong) as I only follow a few of you on YT that do disused lines (and as I said adventure me is great on YT if you want to look him up as he gets access / special permission to stuff others dont!) BY the way i'm from your next-door neighbor town Ashton Under Lyne BUT have Lived in Bristol for the past 18 yrs ......If you ever get a chance to be down this way the old Bristol Temple meads to Bath green park station old midland railway route is a good one to do ..its NOW a Sustrans cycleway for most of it BUT there are still bits you can pick up at the start and end that you can do by foot (ain't they all these days?) But it has a LOT of preserved stuff and demolished station ruins including a fully opened tunnel! PLUS part of it is the Avon and Somerset railway heritage line so some surviving stations and as a bonus the cycle track runs parallel to the heritage railway! www.sustrans.org.uk/find-a-route-on-the-national-cycle-network/bristol-and-bath-railway-path/
A correction, the last tunnel before Keighley, you called Ingrow Tunnel, is actually Lee’s Moor Tunnel. Sorry for being pedantic…😁
Thanks, was at Wilsden the other day and going back to check that (made navigating the Cullingworth area easier).
Good to see someone's cleared up halifax station, the last time I went there on a train it was a dreadful decaying mess. And is this the line which passed through the filled in bridges in the pellon lane area? Or is that another one, or a branch off it?
So there are two Thorntons! I've come here from your Fleetwood video.
Yes I think they changed the Blackpool one to Thornton for Cleveleys when they all merged…
If only it had never closed! Such a shocking waste!
A line so useful that the passenger service didn't even get to face the Beeching Axe. Queensbury station was a mile from the village along a dimly lit path, no wonder people went by bus.
There were 6 stations in Halifax at one time.
Thornton had coal mines and fireclay works and the textile mills to provide trade for the railways.
If you do this again take me. My brain is scrambled trying to picture. I'll buy you some dinner and a pint.
The triangular station is far from unique, there's one still active in west yorkshire at shipley, and there's another elsewhere at dinting, and there's a grand viaduct there still in use.
Isn’t that Tunnel near Ovenden bus station restricted?
The amazing stonework still there, which nowadays would be concrete ! 🤔
9>04 the old Ovenden station was where Mixenden teenagers would get the train into Halifax for a night boozing and chasing the girls back in the 50's/60's.
23.22 brick chimney stack for a wooden plate layers hut
You didn’t show the old coal drops at Halifax which were still there the last time I looked, a couple of years ago.
There’s a campaign to have Queensbury Tunnel opened up for cyclists.
Go online and make your objections to the planning. You need to reject the plan to abandon it.
@@hoppinonabronzeleg9477 coal drops are still there opposite Matalan, they’re a preserved monument? Probably not the correct term.
is that: Keighley with 3 F's???
Where did they find an american steam loco that fits within the UK loading gauge? So many american loco's are far bigger than ours and won't fit through the clearances on our lines.
That loco was built for D-Day, first arrived In the Uk which is why it fits out loading gauge
I'm enough of a nerd that I know what is considered American narrow gauge is our standard gauge. So an American would think the Ffestinog's gauge really small.
GWRTOTNES TORQUAY TREVOR HARRIS
Rather a lot of panning and bumping around of your camera made me feel sea sick😮 However, I watched your great film in bite sized bits.
Queensbury station wasn't that unusual as Shipley was exactly the same.
Not at the same time. Shipley did not originally have platforms on the Leeds - Skipton side. First one platform was added on this side, and then the other, but neither of these platforms existed when Queensbury station existed.
At Queensbury the inner platforms met an the corners while at Shipley the new platforms on the Leeds - Skipton are some distance from the original station, across the car park. There is now only one platform and track on the Bradford - Skipton side. I think the reason for the singling of this section was to somewhat reduce the very tight curve, and therefore the gap between platform and train.
With triangular stations being so rare it’s strange that two should have been as close as Shipley and Queensbury.
One of the biggest crimes/frauds was perpetrated on the British people, was closing these railways. They could have been so useful today