Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961Don Winter

Crewe, ?? 1960?Peter Brumby and I have decided to visit Crewe to get a look at the operations of this world-fa-mous junction on the West Coast Main Line in the final days before the start of electrically-op-erated train services. To maximize our time at Crewe, we take an early-morning service to Leeds, there to connect with an ongoing train to Manchester. I join the train in Hull, its origina-tion point, while Peter joins me in Brough after all the aircraft company workers have left. Nearer to Leeds, the train is again full of people commuting to their jobs, from outlying towns like Garforth to job in Leeds.

In Leeds (City) station, we espy ex-LNER A3 4-6-2 60086 Gainsborough, preparing to depart for York, Edinburgh and Glasgow with the North Briton, the only northbound named train originating in Yorkshire. We have time to walk over and look at Gainsborough, and Peter takes my photograph standing next to her. Then we head to the platform from which our train to Manchester (Exchange) leaves.

Trans-Pennine trains in the 1950s and early 1960s depart Leeds over the viaduct line that curves away to the southwest, just west of the station itself that was built by the LNWR to per-mit its trains to avoid the busy Holbeck junc-tions. The viaduct line rejoins the original LNWR entry that uses the lines on the north side of Whitehall triangle and a line diverging south-west near Holbeck (Low-level) station, at Farn-ley Junction, several miles to the west. This is also the location of the engine shed for this route. By this time, the line has already started its climb into the hills. As on the way to Ilkley, these hills are covered in houses and other urban buildings.

Nearing the end of the climb, the train enters the long Morley tunnel, from which it exits into Batley and then Dewsbury. Batley and Dews-bury are both West Riding woolen mill towns, full of the industrial and urban fabric of the nine-teenth century industrial expansion, now starting to fade. Beyond Dewsbury, the ex-LNWR line joins the former L&YR Calder Valley line for a

stretch of four tracks, from Thornhill Junction through Mirfield to Heaton Lodge Junction. This stretch of track caters not only to the passenger services from Leeds to Manchester (Exchange) and from York to Manchester (Victoria), but also to an endless process of coal trains clanking along on the way from Barnsley and Cudworth, and other places in the South Yorkshire coal-field, to destinations in the Todmorden area and all of industrial Lancashire. These trains com-prise unfitted wagons (i.e. braked only by man-ual application at each wagon) that were once hauled by ex-LMS 4F 0-6-0s, but are latterly more likely to be hauled by WD 2-8-0s.

Turning left at Heaton Lodge Junction, the ex-LNWR line starts to climb into the Pennines once more. Before it gets too far into them, how-ever, it encounters Huddersfield, where even ex-press trains stop. Restarting from Huddersfield, the line enters a tunnel, then exist briefly for the junction with the line to Penistone at Spring-wood Junction, then enters another tunnel. After more climbing, the line reaches Marsden, then

1 05/06/23The author stands next to the nameplate of A3 Pacific 60086 Gainsborough of 50B Neville Hill, in Leeds (City) station on the occasion of the trip to Crewe described in the text. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961

crosses over a Leeds trans-Pennine Canal that has its own tunnel through the mountains, and enters the long Standedge tunnel. It emerges from the tunnel at Diggle, where the Micklehurst Loop separates from the main line, two tracks following each side of the valley as far as Staly-bridge. Our train remains on the main lines down the north side of the valley. The weather was fine and sunny to the east of the Pennines, but now we’re on the west of the mountains, it has turned overcast and quite gloomy. Nonetheless, Peter keeps taking photographs from the train as we travel along.

Beyond Stalybridge, the line is onto the urban fabric of greater Manchester. Lines to the left go to Guide Bridge, on the former GCR, to Belle-vue, on the former Midland, and eventually to Stockport, on the former LNWR line south from Manchester to Crewe. We continue on the ex-L&YR line over which the LNWR had running powers through Ashton-under-Lyne and Droyls-den to Miles Platting, where we again join the ex-L&YR (original Manchester & Leeds) line

from Rochdale and Todmorden, coming in from the right. As we near Manchester, we start to see engines, such as L&Y or GC types that are unfa-miliar to us from our usual haunts in Yorkshire. There are now four lines and more down the steep Miles Platting Bank to the former L&YR station at Manchester (Victoria). Our train passes through Victoria on one of the center tracks, then cuts over to the left to stop at the main west-bound platform in Manchester (Exchange). This platform is continuous with the main westbound platform at Victoria, forming the longest plat-form in the British Isles.

Manchester (Exchange) is a large station with a triple barrel overall roof. It comprises one main platform set on the south side (the westbound main) and an island platform set, including at least one through platform, used for eastbound trains. The main platform set has a number of stub-end platforms (they’re too long to be called ‘bays’) at the western end. The through plat-forms are used by the trans-Pennine expresses between Liverpool (Lime Street) and Leeds/

Hull/York/New

castle, while the terminal platforms are used for local services to Liverpool and the longer-dis-tance services to Chester and North Wales.

Here we leave the train and cross the centre of Manchester to London Road station (to be re-named Piccadilly when the electric service to Crewe starts in a few weeks). Manchester owes its present size to the rapid expansion it experi-enced as centre of the textile traded in the early 19th-century. The centre of Manchester is replete with mid-Victorian era buildings erected with money made in the textile trade at that time, of-ten cheek-by-jowl with recent concrete-and-glass monstrosities erected top replace buildings de-stroyed in the blitz. The street arrangement seems still to be that extant before the erection of the textile-era civic and governmental buildings began; there seems to be no direct way to get from a point on one side of the town centre to a point on the other side. The route from Manches-ter (Exchange) to Manchester (London Road) is a case in point.

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Robinson J11 0-6-0 64341 of 9G Gorton at Stalybridge, taken from the train on the way to Crewe. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961Manchester (London Road) station is built

upon an undercroft comprising an array of brick arches, designed to put track level where it needs to be to align with the railway across the urban area to the south. The station itself is at the top of a ramp that leaves the southern edge of city center at the point where Piccadilly become Lon-don Road. At the top of the ramp is a vehicle cir-culation area, and then the station building, of-fices and passenger concourse, behind which are the stub end platforms. These are covered by a number of barrel-shaped arches comprising the overall roof, just like so many other major rail-way stations in England. To the east are three platforms used by trains on the former GCR lines, then a number of platforms used by termi-nating or originating trains on the former LNWR route to Crewe, and at the far west side, a couple of through platforms on the line to Oxford Road.

We walk to the end of the platforms, observe that the train to Crewe we’re about to board is headed by a rebuilt ‘Patriot’ 4-6-0, and board our train. Signs of the electrification are everywhere, with both catenary and signaling changes now complete. (London Road has a couple of plat-forms wired for the much older 1500 volt DC

electrification of the former LNER/GCR Wood-head route to Sheffield, but the new works are to the 25Kv AC standard adopted by BR for all new electrification outside the Southern Region. On the way to Crewe we observe a number of the new blue electric locomotives on running-in and operational trials.

The former LNWR (original Manchester & Birmingham) line from Manchester to Crewe has to fit a large number of trains and light-engine movements (to and from Longsight shed) into a very cramped layout, the first few miles from London Road station. The lines from Oxford Road join the formation from the west, and those to Miles Platting (former L&YR) and Guide Bridge (former GCR) leave to the right. A for-mation comprising four basic tracks continues south, past Longsight shed on the east side of the formation. The Styal line departs to the west and at Heaton Norris a line from Droylsden and Stalybridge enters from the east. Then the line runs across the majestic viaduct over the Mersey (with the line through Stockport (Tiviot Dale) alongside the river, far below) into Stockport (Edgeley) station. The four tracks continue to Cheadle Hulme where the line to Macclesfield

and Stoke-on-Trent diverges to the east, after which just two tracks continue the rest of the way through Wilmslow, where the Styal line re-joins from the west, into Crewe. Our train stops only at Stockport (Edgeley) before reaching Crewe, where we alight.

Crewe is the major junction of the railways in the area, with lines heading for three major desti-nations to the north, and three major destinations to the south. Since the goods lines bypass the passenger station on their own avoiding lines in a cutting to the immediate west of the station, avoiding both the North Junction (by burrowing) and the main formation of the South Junction, nowhere in the area do all trains pass through the same spot. To the North, lines head for Man-chester to the northeast, Liverpool and Preston to the north (these lines diverge at Weaver Junc-tion, further north), and Chester to the northwest. Crewe North shed is in the vee of the Preston and Chester lines, with the famous Crewe Loco-motive Works beyond it on the north side of the Chester line.

South of the passenger station, there is a ma-jor goods yard to the west of the passenger lines, with Crewe South shed at the south end of the

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Aspinall 3F 0-6-0 52270 of 26A Netwon Heath, at Miles Platting, taken from the train on the way to Crewe. Photograph Pe-ter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961yard, just north of Crewe South Junction. At the latter, lines head southeast to Stoke-on-Trent, south to Stafford and then Birmingham or Lon-don, and southwest to Shrewsbury or Welling-ton. The line to the latter is ex-GWR, and there is a small ex-GWR shed providing engines for

services on that line.Crewe station, itself, is an eclectic mix of

styles and facilities, looking every bit the way it ‘just grew’ over time as services expanded and traffic increased. Most of the platforms are cov-ered by a varied group of overall shed-like roofs, with curtain walls to the east and west and, it ap-pears, at least one platform outside the overall roof. Platforms are of widely differing lengths, some partitioned off by interior curtain walls separating platforms under cover from tracks and platforms that are not. There are a number of through tracks at apparently odd places in the overall formation, plus shorter tracks for holding engines awaiting motive power changes on arriv-ing trains that will continue with different power.

The signaling for all this is quite complex, with no real way for the casual observer to know which signals apply to which tracks. Adding to all of this is the newly constructed overhead catenary for the Manchester and Liverpool elec-trification, built without concomitant changes to

the infrastructure, layout, or facilities in the pas-senger station.

There are several buffets among the groups of buildings on each major platform complex, along with offices for crew, shunters, etc. So we are provided with facilities for refreshment even as we try to puzzle out where might be the best place to sit to observe the proceedings. Our de-liberations are complicated by the weather, which has degraded to the point where it will soon inhibit photography, if not actual observa-tion of engine numbers. We settle on the north end of the longest platform, if only because all light engine movements intended for passenger trains (except those heading for the ex-GWR line) must pass the north end, but not necessarily

the south, and we have already recorded all of the engines already in the vicinity of the station.

At Crewe, we see Stanier Pacifics, of both Princess and Duchess classes, Royal Scot, Pa-triot, Jubilee and Black 5 4-6-0s, 8F 2-8-0s, and various kinds of passenger tank engines, on a va-

ri-ety of

trains including the down Royal Scot and ex-presses between London (Euston) and Liverpool, Manchester, Holyhead, Blackpool and Scotland, and between Birmingham (New Street) and points in Scotland.

We have planned a little over four hours here, during which we also want to see if we can get a look into the shed (north shed, that is) and works. It is clear that the official entry to North Shed is across that spindly-looking footbridge that spans the tracks and platforms at the north end of the station, but we don’t fancy a direct ap-proach across that bridge because it is so out in the open. So, when traffic seems to have dropped off, mid-afternoon, we try to find ways to ap-proach these facilities from the town streets,

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Rebuilt Patriot 7P 4-6-0 45531 Sir Frederick Harrison of 8A Edge Hill, ready to leave Manchester (London Road) with our train to Crewe. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961reaching dead-ends several times. (This was a ‘planned-community’ back when these streets were built for the L&NWR’s workers moving here in the 1840s.) Eventually, we find a wall that we can scale to get a look into the shed, and

are rewarded with a magnificent view of Stanier Pacific Duchess of Sutherland. That seems to be the limit of what we can observe, however, so we return to the station, and at the appointed time or a little afterwards leave on our return train to Manchester. (This has come from some-where down south, and is a bit tardy by the time it reaches Crewe.)

We retrace our steps to Manchester (London Road). We both conclude that time is short until our planned train back across the Pennines, so we run along the city streets across the town cen-tre back to Manchester (Exchange) station. When we get there, I stop to check on the exact platform and departure time for our train, while Peter continues along. It takes awhile before we locate each other again, but we do so before our train arrives.

We pass through Victoria and climb the steep Miles Platting bank, then go through Stalybridge and across the Pennines on the Standedge route through Diggle, retracing our steps of this morn-ing. On the east side of the mountains, after pass-

ing though Huddersfield, we again drop down into the Calder Valley, then climb up to Morley tunnel and down again to Leeds (City), entering by the viaduct line from Farnley Junction. From Leeds (City) we’re on familiar territory on the rest of the way back to Brough and Hull.London (Old Oak Com-mon, Nine Elms, Liverpool Street, Euston), May 1960One of my schoolmates has noticed an advertise-ment in the Hull Daily Mail for a full day excur-sion fare to London on a weekend in April. He proposes that he and I should use that fare to spend a Saturday in London. Both sets of parents agree, so we write off to the appropriate BR au-thorities for permits to visit Old Oak Common

(on the former GWR) and Nine Elms sheds (the latter on the former SR/L&SWR out of Water-loo), as these cover the BR regions whose en-gines we never see in the north of England. We will be returning in the small hours of a Sunday

morning, when the trolleybuses to his house will be running, but not the buses I would have to take home. So, I arrange to ride my bicycle over to his house on the Saturday morning so I can ride home from there on the Sunday morning.

We take the first train of the day heading in the London direction, and early morning train going to Sheffield (Victoria) via Doncaster. This comprises two two-car Metropolitan-Cammell Diesel multiple-units (DMUs). They are ar-ranged the correct way around, so we are able to sit at the front, right behind the driver, for the trip as far as Doncaster. This not only provides us with a view of the line that neither of us has had before, but also makes it easier to see which engines are on Hull (Dairycoates) shed as we go by. It’s still a bit foggy as we run along the Humber foreshore towards Brough. Since it is

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Fairburn Class 4 2-6-4T 42675 of 9E Trafford Park, at Crewe on the occasion of the visit described in the text. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961Saturday, there are no workmen traveling to Brough on this train, today.

The view from the front of the train gives us a good view of the overall roof of Goole station as we arrive there, but unfortunately does not help with the view of the engines on Goole shed, which remain just out of sight. Soon enough, we arrive in Platform 1 at Doncaster (the eastern-most platform, adjacent to the retaining wall), where we alight and the DMU continues on its way to Sheffield. Our connecting train from Leeds (Central) to King’s Cross arrives in Plat-form 4, hauled by an English-Electric Type 4 diesel locomotive that will take us on to London. This train comprises recent Mark 1 stock that is newer than either of us has ridden in before.

We take seats in an open saloon that has the usual groups of four seats around a table that ex-actly matches the window pattern. We choose a table on the right side of the train, drop off our bags, and immediately repair to the left side of the train to do our best at recording which en-gines are on Doncaster Carr engine shed today. That done, we take our seats for the trip up the East Coast Main Line. We also try to record as

many as possible of the engines on Grantham shed as we pass it.

Going down Stoke Bank, we both remark on the speed that this diesel-hauled train is achiev-ing, compared to the steam-hauled trains we’ve been on previously down this famous slope. The speed limit along here in normal operations is 90 mph (set by the signal spacing and stopping dis-tances), and we seem to be doing every bit of it. In fact, our inaccurate speed estimates using the second hand of a watch with the other person calling out the quarter mileposts suggest that we’re closer to 100 mph than to 90!

At the bottom of Stoke Bank, we again move to the left side of the train to get a better view of the engines on shed at New England, then retake our seats as the train stops at Peterborough. Dur-ing the remaining 90 minutes of our trip to King’s Cross, we plan our activities for the twelve hours or so we will have in London. We use the instructions for getting to the engine sheds contained in Aidan Fuller’s book to decide how we should get to them and between them.

Arriving at the arrival side at King’s Cross, we head directly to the UndergrounD station,

taking the Circle Line to Baker Street and then the Bakerloo Line to Willesden Junction. At Queen’s Park, the Bakerloo line surfaces in the centre of the station, between the BR London Midland Region “DC Lines” from Euston to Watford Junction, alongside the West Coast Main Line. Alighting at Willesden Junction, we follow Aidan Fuller’s instructions for getting to Old Oak Common, only to find ourselves walk-ing right past the main street entrance to Willes-den Junction shed. Not having realized this was going to happen, we have no permit for Willes-den Junction, so we don’t go in. I later hear that the gaffers at Willesden Junction will usually let visitors in just for the asking, but we didn’t know that then.

Continuing on down Old Oak Lane, across the canal, we reach the street entrance to Old Oak Common shed, go in and present our permit to the foreman’s office. We’re then permitted to go around the innards of the shed, and the shed yard, with a very casual escort. Old Oak Com-mon’s main shed building has four internal roundhouses, arranged as a square, with two of them having entrances from the shed yard adja-

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Stanier Duchess class 8P 4-6-2 46245 City of London, formerly of 1B Camden, inside its new home of the roundhouse at 1A Willesden. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961cent to the east. Inside the shed, and in the yard, we find number of former GWR 4-6-0s of the King, Castle, and Hall classes, along with ex-GWR Moguls and large Prairie tank engines, with even a 2-8-0 in the yard. For both of us, ev-ery single one of these is new to us. While we’re here, we also see a couple of the Warship class Type 4 Diesel-Hydraulics that are rapidly replac-ing the former GWR engines on the principal services out of Paddington.

Once we’ve exhausted the possibilities at 81A, we leave the way we came, and head for

Nine Elms. We take a Bakerloo line train to Wa-terloo, where we connect to a Northern Line train heading for Morden in south London. Alighting from this train short of Morden (??), we head north and then east, following Aidan Fuller’s directions, to the street entrance of Nine Elms shed, where we again go in and present our permit.

Whereas Old Oak was the model of effi-ciency (so far as that is possible for a steam shed), Nine Elms appears to be a model of con-fusion and disorganization. The shed building was built at two different times, but looks like more due to damage incurred in the blitz that has never been repaired. The result is a shed building

that looks like it just grew, being assembled from junk materials along the way. Another peculiar-ity of this shed is that the open end of the shed building faces away from the main line, being accessed from an adjacent shed yard by means of a turntable (even though the shed has straight parallel tracks within it located up against the wall next to the road, right by the street entrance. Of course, all of the coaling, watering, and other service facilities (ash pits and the like) are in the open-air yard.

At Nine Elms we see Bulleid Pacifics of all

types (rebuilt Merchant Navy, rebuilt West Country or Battle of Britain, and unrebuilt exam-ples of the latter, Lord Nelsons, BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0s with Arthurian names inherited from withdrawn King Arthurs, and a variety of smaller engines including M7 tanks for carriage switching purposes. From Nine Elms, we can’t really see the traffic passing on the main line outside, but most of that seems to be EMUs any-way.

When we leave 71A, we retrace our steps to the Northern Line and take a train via the City Branch to London Bridge. Here we exit to visit the BR station, above. London bridge station has two parts to it: a terminal station built by the

LB&SCR, and a through station on the lines to/from Charing Cross or Cannon Street, on the original South Eastern Railway line from Lon-don, shared with several suburban lines that were later absorbed by the SER. The through SER tracks are at a higher level than the stub LB&SCR tracks. The latter have an arched over-all roof that has seen better days, while the for-mer are mainly covered by individual platform canopies.

There are no evident non-electric services us-ing the LB&SCR part of London Bridge on this

spring Saturday afternoon, so we concentrate on the high-level through platforms. The Kent Coast services along these tracks have not yet been electrified, so we see several varieties of ex-Southern Moguls (classes U, U1, N and N1), along with Schools 4-4-0s and more Bulleid Pacifics (as well as suburban EMUs). When en-gines we saw coming into London start leaving outbound, we decide we’ve spent enough time at London Bridge. So, we return to the Northern Line and take a train a couple of station further north, to Liverpool Street station, on the one time Great Eastern railway, later LNER, lines to the northeast suburbs and East Anglia.

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Collett Castle class 4-6-0 7003 Elmsley Castle of 82A Bristol (Bath Road) after arrival at Paddington with an express from the west. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961Liverpool Street is a large terminal station

with many platforms that is again divided into two separate parts. The reason for this is not as evident from history here, as for London Bridge and Victoria, say, but there is quite a gap even in the concourse that must inhibit efficient passage of rush hour crowds at this station. The overall glass roofs were painted over during the blitz, and have never been cleaned or replaced, so the whole place is dark and gloomy even on this sunny spring afternoon.. Most of the one-time fa-mous steam suburban service (the ‘Jazz’ service) is electrified now, and EE Type 4s are starting to replace steam on the longer-distance trains, but we still see a couple of Sandringham class 4-6-0s and a couple of Britannia class BR Standard

Pacifics, as well as the beautifully-painted class N7 station pilot in GER blue.

We leave the platforms at Liverpool Street in search of something to eat, since it has been more than six hours since we ate our packed lunches before arrival at King’s Cross. We then take the UndergrounD over to the vicinity of Eu-ston and walk to that station. Here, where I had

seen Princess and Duchess class pacific on ar-rival from the north just two years previously, we find a very early Red Rose headed by yet an-other EE Type 4 diesel. (The timings now allow for delays due to the engineering work in con-nection with the electrification of the WCML, which in conjunction with the use of diesels on schedules set for steam results in very early ar-rivals when no engineering work is encoun-tered.) The outer end of the platforms provide no greater amount of steam than do the buffer stops of the Arrivals platforms, so we leave and walk to St. Pancras. At the latter, which is hosting Manchester trains during the WCML electrifica-tion work (as Paddington is hosting extra Birm-ingham trains), we find a Royal Scot and a Ju-

bilee 4-6-0, the former from Manchester the lat-ter one we have seen previously at Leeds (City).

We watch operations at St. Pancras for awhile, then return to King’s cross where we watch operations from the outer end of Platform 10 until it is time to board the 11:55 pm newspa-per train for the north, including through coaches to Hull. It’s been a long and interesting day, so

we fall asleep on the train, not even awaking when our through coaches change trains. In Hull, it’s getting light on this May morning as we take the trolleybus to my friend’s home where we grab several more hours sleep before I cycle home. At home, Mum wants to know why I didn’t cycle home as soon as I got there! Sigh! I’m here for Sunday dinner (1 pm), so why is she complaining? Bigger sigh!

West Riding on “Diesel Dayline Ticket”, July 1961BR (North Eastern Region) is offering a “Day-line Diesel Ticket” that covers many parts of the West Riding and East Riding that have recently

introduced Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) replace-ments for traditional steam hauled carriages, of-ten dating from the pre-grouping era. The area covered by this ticket covers many lines I’ve never ridden on and rail facilities I’ve never seen, so I elect to spend a day in the West Riding using one of these tickets. To get to the area I want to visit, I take the early morning train to

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Bulleid rebuilt Merchant Navy class 4-6-2 35012 United States Lines of 70A Nine Elms heads the down Bournemouth belle Pullman-car train through Wimbledon. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961Leeds and the connection onwards to Hudders-field, the same services traveling by the same routes that we took on our Crewe excursion the year before.

This gives me a mid-morning arrival in Hud-dersfield, with almost an hour until the next train that I want to take, so I spend 45 minutes looking around the town. The civic and governmental buildings in Huddersfield were built in the mid 19th-century using money made in the woolen trade based on the mills in the Calder valley and other places around.

I return to the station in time to find and board a train for Bradford (Exchange) via Hali-fax. This train comprises non-corridor stock headed by one of Huddersfield’s Fowler Class 4 2-6-4 Tanks. Huddersfield station has one of those overall roofs that were painted black dur-ing the WWII blackout, and seemingly have never been returned to clear glass, so the interior of this major station is quite dark even at mid-morning on a sunny spring day. The Bradford train is waiting in one of the east-end bay plat-forms adjacent to the down (eastbound) through platform, and is timed to connect out of a train from Liverpool (Lime Street) and Manchester (Exchange).

Starting away from Huddersfield, the train heads back the way I had come, but instead of taking the east leg of the triangle towards Heaton Lodge Junction, at Bradley Junction, it takes the north leg to the Bradley West Junctions, onto the

Calder Valley line heading northwest (at this point), towards Todmorden and Lancashire. This is a double track mainline, the original Manches-ter & Leeds railway, which in 1961 carries much more coal traffic and other goods trains than pas-senger traffic, although the service of express trains between York (and further north on the ECML), to the east and Manchester (Victoria) and Liverpool (Exchange) to the west still re-mains. My train stops at Brighouse, a basic two-platform station with, it happens, a bay at the northern end off the track we’re on, and dis-charges a small number of passengers. Then it pulls forward and backs into that bay platform.

A few minutes later, along comas a Wake-field to Manchester/Liverpool ‘Calder Valley’ stopping train, headed by a Black Five, which stops at this small station. What looks like all of the passengers who got off the train from Hud-dersfield board this train, and a number of pas-sengers alight from the train. When the train has left, we pull forward out of the bay and again back into the main platform, where what looks like all of the passengers who got off the train board our train. In this way, a service is provided from Huddersfield to stations along the Calder Valley line towards Manchester, and a service from stations back along the express’s route from Wakefield to Halifax, is provided.

We head off following the express. At Greet-land Junction, we leave the Calder Valley route and turn off onto the ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire

line to Halifax, Low Moor, and Bradford (Ex-change). A couple of miles later, at Dryclough Junction, the line from Milner Royd Junction, further up the Calder Valley line, trails in from the left, forming a large triangle at this location. The line is now in the environs of Halifax, an-other on of those West Yorkshire woolen towns developed in the first blush of the industrial rev-olution, replete with dark satanic mills. In Hali-fax, it is truly the case that the mill workers live(d) down on the valley floor (such as it is), alongside the mills, while the owners and man-agers lived up on the surrounding hills (which here are very much part of the town itself), in the cleaner air. In a few minutes, we stop at Halifax station.

Leaving Halifax, the line climbs through a tunnel and over a ridge to the Spen valley, where it descends to the junction at Low Moor. Here, the ex-L&Y Spen Valley line from Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike, and beyond them Thornhill, joins from the south, and a connecting spur from the ex-Great Northern line to Leeds comes in from the east. Low Moor is also the site of the ex-L&Y engine shed in this area, which still sup-plies the motive power for workings on the for-mer L&Y lines in the area. Low Moor station is between the junction with the Spen Valley line and the junction with the line from Leeds. Fol-lowing the Low Moor station and junctions, the line burrows through another ridge in a tunnel and enters the cutting containing the steep drop

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Gresley A3 60050 Persimmon, of 34F Grantham, with double chimney, passes through the up fast line at Doncaster with an express for King's Cross, on Wednesday April 20th 1960. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961down to Bradford (Exchange) station. Before the station is reached, there are junctions with ex-GN lines from Leeds, to the east, and (now closed) from the Queensbury Triangle routes to Keighley and Halifax to the west, as well as a goods yard on the west side of the line.

Unlike almost every other major town in the West Riding, Bradford is in a bowl surrounded by hills, rather than down in a river valley. This has led to the stations in Bradford all being on the periphery of the town centre, and all being terminal stations with stub-end platforms. Brad-ford (Exchange), a joint station of the L&YR and the GN, and later of the LMS and LNER, has a single barrel-arched roof spanning its half-dozen platforms. At the outer end of the platforms are a few sidings used for temporary storage of rolling stock and engines between trips. At least one platform has a small water tank with downspout at the outer end of the platform. At the inner end of the platforms is a passenger circulation con-course, with the usual booking office(s) (once these were separate for each of the owning rail-ways), refreshment facilities, bookstall and ar-rivals and departure indicators.

The latter shows that it’s only a few more minutes until the train I intend to take to Leeds (Central) will depart, so I neither inspect the sta-tion facilities further, nor step outside into Brad-ford town centre.. Instead, I go back out on the appropriate platform, and board the DMU for Leeds. Note that, although I’m traveling on a “Dayline Diesel” ticket, this is only the second DMU I’ve used today (out of four trains so far), the other being not only loco-hauled, but steam-hauled at that!

The train to Leeds curves away to the east, leaving the line to Low Moor behind, soon after leaving the station. This ex-GN line climbs steeply to Laisterdyke, passing the ex-GN Brad-ford shed, now Hammerton Street DMU depot, on the way, then passes through a number of junctions with a parallel line to Leeds and the lines to Ardsley via Morley Top and back to Low Moor via the connecting line mentioned earlier. The line to Leeds passes along the top of the hills, which hereabouts are covered by houses, not shrubs and trees or heather, through Pudsey and Bramley, then approaches Leeds through Wortley (West Junction) and Holbeck (High-level) on the viaduct over the ex-Midland lines along the Aire Valley, and into Leeds (Cen-tral) station.

Leeds (Central) is a smallish stub-end termi-nus, one storey up from the street, with a simple peaked overall roof. The platform along the right-hand wall has no ticket barrier, so we walk out there to look at the engines on the outer end. Here (and at Copley Hill shed serving the ex-GN lines in this area) there are ex-LNER Pacifics, Gresley A4s or Peppercorn A1s, and J50 tank engines (plus the DMUs on the Bradford stop-ping trains). It is interesting to look down to the right from the upper-level station onto the lower-level goods sheds and goods yards, with their myriad wagon turntables connecting tracks going in all directions. Central is one storey up, be-cause its main access tracks cross the ex-Mid-

land lines below on a sturdy bridge connecting to stretches of brick arch viaduct. On the upper

level of this bridge is Holbeck (High-level) sta-tion, directly above Holbeck (Low-level) on the Midland lines, below. Turning north on leaving Central station is the curve down to the ex-North Eastern lines to Bramhope and Harrogate, paral-lel to the ex-Midland lines, below.

I choose to take a train via Wakefield to Don-caster. This train comprises recent Mark 1 stock, and is headed by an A1 Pacific. I take a seat in an open saloon. The train starts out the way I had just come in, but after passing Holbeck it turns south, passing Copley Hill engine shed and car-riage sidings, to reach Wortley (South Junction), then passes the ex-LNWR lines between Leeds (City) and Farnley Junction, first the original line and then the later “Viaduct” line that I had tra-versed earlier in the day. A few miles to the south, a line towards Morley Top goes off to the west, then we pass through Ardsley Tunnels and reach Ardsley station, where the line from Brad-ford via Morley Top trails in from the west, and Ardsley engine shed. At the Lofthouse Junctions, a number of lines serving coalmines intersect with the West Riding & Grimsby Joint Line (ex-GN and ex-GC joint) we’re traveling on. Follow-ing additional junctions with lines from Dews-bury and Batley coming in from the west, we reach Wakefield (Westgate) station, with its prominent clock tower, preceded by a number of sidings, some of which used to be an engine shed to the east side of the line.

Restarting from the Westgate stop, I’m sur-prised that the train doesn’t head out across the viaduct over the Calder Valley, but instead drops down the steep eastward curve to the Calder val-

ley line (again, ex-L&YR, the same line I had been on earlier, much further up the valley) and

makes a stop at Wakefield (Kirkgate) station, presumably to provide a London connection from towns along the ex-L&Y lines. Leaving Kirkgate, we make a big turn to the south, pass-ing the Wakefield engine shed and Oakenshaw goods sidings, pass under the Midland main line and through the junction with the tracks to Goole leaving to the east, and then climbing back up to the WR&G at Hare Park.. At Nostell, a line leaves to the south to serve Barnsley. At South Kirkby, there are connection to the Swinton & Knottingley Joint line, which passes below. We then pass through South Elmsall, Ardwick Junc-tion where the line to Stainforth & Hatfield, avoiding Doncaster leaves to the east, then through Doncaster North Junction onto the East Coast Main Line and on into Doncaster, crossing the River Don and passing the junction with the line from Hull, just before arrival.

Doncaster is familiar territory, but familiarity isn’t the goal, today. So next, I get on a down ECML train to ride the ECML from Doncaster to York. Again, this is recent Mark 1 stock, hauled by an ex-LNER Pacific, and I ride in an open sa-loon. At Shaftholme Junction an ex-L&Y line goes off to the west to reach Knottingley, and we pass from ex-GN track to ex-North Eastern Rail-way track.. A couple of lines cross the ECML but don’t join (the ex-Hull & Barnsley line that also crossed the WR&G, then the ex-L&Y Goole line, both built for hauling coal to an east coast port), then we pass through the Brayton Junc-tions where the Selby to Goole lines heads east, and through the Selby West Junctions (with the Leeds-Selby line), and into Selby station. We

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Figure 1 Thompson A1/1 4-6-2 60113Great Northern of 36A Doncaster hauls the Anglo-Scottish Car Carrier nothwards near York. Photograph Peter Brumby

Further Afield by Ourselves: Trips by Train 1960-1961pass through the station without stopping (unlike 7:40 this morning, on the way from Hull to Leeds), cross the swing bridge across the Ouse, pass the BOCM factory along the river bank in Barlby, and turn north at Selby East Junction,

leaving the line to Hull off to the east. At Naburn, we cross the Ouse again on another swing bridge, apparently identical to the one at Selby, then pass through Chaloners’ Whin Junc-tion where the line from Leeds and Pontefract trails in from the west, pass the racetrack and then go under the massive Holgate Bridge, and enter York station from the south.

York again is familiar territory. However, I’m running out of traveling ideas, so I take an up ECML train back to Doncaster, then another prosaic DMU (only the third of the day, out of eight total trains) back to Hull.

In retrospect, I should have been more adven-turous after arriving at York. It would have made more sense, in terms of traveling on routes I had never been on, to have gone from York to Leeds (City), then via Wakefield (Kirkgate) to Goole, and then back to Hull. As it happens, I have yet

to travel on the line between Wakefield and Goole.

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Gresley A3 4-6-2 60050 Persimmon, now with German-style smoke deflectors, storms away southbound under Holgate bridge, York. Photograph Peter Brumby