Sowerby Bridge

[RogerB]

Had a day out in Sowerby Bridge - used my bus pass to get to Huddersfield then bought a day return to Sowerby Bridge.

The last train was a Northern Trains torture chamber, stinking hot, noisy and rattled like a bag of bolts; the sooner they get hybrid technology into these DMUs the better.

Don't the tracks at Halifax make a funny noise?

Isn't Brockholes station nice? The side where the track has been dug up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brockholes_Station,_Honley_-_geograph.org.uk_-_85970.jpg

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Brockholes was opened in 1850 as a two-platform station and was the junction for the short branch line to Holmfirth that was closed to passengers in 1959, when I was 14 years of age.

There has only been the one platform in use there since the section of the route was singled in 1989, but the original station buildings, as is the case on many other similar stations, have been given over to private ownership.

 

[RogerB]

I'd love to live in an old station on a steam line!

It's nice to see Brockholes station still retaining its original features. As an estate agent would say, des. res. with long garden, convenient for local transport links.

 

[Welshman]

Sadly, Sowerby Bridge [along with so many stations], is now only a shadow of its former self.

There used to be a down bay for trains departing to Wakefield Kirkgate, an up loop which was sometimes used for overtaking slower trains, the branch up the Ryburn Valley to Ripponden[planned originally as a shorter route into Rochdale & Manchester] and associated sidings [trains had to reverse out of the station to gain the branch]; a yard [now occupied by the inevitable supermarket [Tesco's], and, on the opposite side of the track to the yard, the mpd.

I remember being taken by my father there on a Sunday morning when there was no-one around, and being invited on to the footplate of a W.D. 2-8-0 by a friendly fireman.

I seem to remember the old station buildings were destroyed by fire in the late 1970s. Many memories!

 

[RogerB]

What's an MPD?

I last visited Sowerby Bridge station in the late '60s. IIRC there was a platform outside the main station building, which now appears to be the station buffet.

I also noticed a yard called "The Old Coal Droppings", from what remains of a bridge-like structure I guess this is where the coal waggons were emptied.

Halifax Station is very sad now, what a superb original main building, now replaced by a glass porch.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What's an MPD?

Motive power depot.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I also noticed a yard called "The Old Coal Droppings", from what remains of a bridge-like structure I guess this is where the coal waggons were emptied.

Halifax Station is very sad now, what a superb original main building, now replaced by a glass porch.

If you are referring to those coal drops in the Halifax area, these are Grade II listed and were constructed in 1874 for the Halifax and Ovenden Junction Railway.

 

[RogerB]

Thanks - that'll be engine shed to us mortals.

The coal drops I referred to were next to Sowerby Bridge station.

 

[Welshman]

Yes - there were some coal drops at Sowerby Bridge on a siding alongside the up loop I mentioned ["up" being the Manchester direction here], between the station and the bridge over the A58. Local coal merchants used to have a bagging and weighing office on the adjacent road.

By the way, if you're interested in Halifax station in its former glory, may I suggest you look here:-


http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~calderdalecompanion/ph79.html#1

Despite the caption on the last of that excellent collection of photographs, the final view is actually of Sowerby Bridge, with a train leaving in the Manchester direction. You can see the station in the background, and the engine shed to which I referred on the left.

 

[RogerB]

Thanks for those links - Malcolm Bull's Calderdale is an epic site, I use it quite a lot as I'm into genealogy and local history, which is why I was in Sowerby Bridge in the first place.

I did take some photos, I'll put them on my Flickr site shortly.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I've added my latest photos to the "Railway" set on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtbcomp/sets/72157634639372600/

 

[9K43]

Brockholes was opened in 1850 as a two-platform station and was the junction for the short branch line to Holmfirth that was closed to passengers in 1959, when I was 14 years of age.

There has only been the one platform in use there since the section of the route was singled in 1989, but the original station buildings, as is the case on many other similar stations, have been given over to private ownership.

On passing out as a guard in 1981 this route was the first routeI signed.
At this time this railway was double track, as far as Clayton West junction.At this junction the line carried on to Penistone and down to Clayton West.
At this time Skelmanthorpe Screens were still rail linked and coal came out of Park Mill screens on a regular basis..
Now the coal yard is run by Kirklees Light Railway.
If you want more of this just say so.

 

[Welshman]

On passing out as a guard in 1981 this route was the first routeI signed.
At this time this railway was double track, as far as Clayton West junction.At this junction the line carried on to Penistone and down to Clayton West.
At this time Skelmanthorpe Screens were still rail linked and coal came out of Park Mill screens on a regular basis..
Now the coal yard is run by Kirklees Light Railway.
If you want more of this just say so.

Yes, please.

 

[9K43]

[/FONT
In the winter of 1988, quite a lot of tunnels were pointed and around Huddersfield.
For this job, BR had a bogie bolster kitted out with a roof, and generators to power lights and cement mixers for pointing the brick works within the the tunnels as water was dripping through the roofs of these tunnels.
At Huddersfield the down goods yard was where these trains were stabled.
This was because the siding was able to accomodate motor vehicles to bring in cement and othe such stuff.
When required to be used, the pointing train was available for road access and railway access to bring out the train for use.
In March 1988 I was booked on to go light engine upto Huddersfield Goods Yard to bring out the PT to go up onto the Penistone Line.
When on platform 4 you could run round the train and cross over onto the up main and reach Springwood Junction by a main to main Xover.(This was before the upmain was lifted and turned into a platform.)
The PT had brake vans on either end.
The engine we used was a class 31, which had the muckiest exhaust I have ever seen.
As we were proppeling this train, I rode in the leading BV and and used my bardic to signal to the driver along the route to Brockholes Station.
This was in the days where the train I had was composed of un braked rolling stock.
Once we got to Brockholes the PT train was shoved into the work site about 10 yards inside.
The PIC told me what we were going to do, and what time we would be finished. He measured the time in mixes of boggo for the tunnel roof.
As a result of the I secured the PT hooked of and sent the 31 out of the tunnel to roost on the Station Platform. The PIC said if he wanted to move the train he would come down from the tunnel and tellus where to go.
There was on big problem, the 31 was dishing out clag and engine noise on the Station so the engine went down to the Huddersfield end of the platform out of the way.
I was relieved at 03:30 by another guard, who would take this train back to Huddersfield.
This happened all week till Friday.
In all HM crews did Halifax/Standage/Cumberworth/and both tunnels at Huddersfield.
At this time, there was up and down lines on the Penistone Line right upto
Clayton West Junction , where the line went into single railway.

 

[Welshman]

That's fascinating - thank you.

When I first started riding the Penistone line in the 1960s - usually from the front seat of a Cl.101 dmu - it was double-track throughout to Penistone station and on to the GC at Huddersfield Junction down to Sheffield Victoria.

Thurstonland tunnel, in particular, always seemed wet - the dmu driver having to use his wipers on leaving the tunnel regardless of the weather outside - I presume that's why your work was so necessary in the 1980s.

There are some magnificent viaducts on that line - Lockwood, Denby Dale & Penistone [as far as I know,the first two managing to stay up so far!]