West Yorkshire railways map

Here a better map showing the Dudley Hill

Low Moor line and many others

A GN and L&Y bill was deposited in 1883 for new junctions between the two systems, at Dewsbury and Low Moor. Work on these connections did not begin until 1890. The Dewsbury connection running from a point 0.5 miles south-east of Dewsbury to the L&Y Thornhill-Dewsbury branch at Headfield Junction and was a rather costly affair. It incurred building a 300 yard long masonry viaduct from the Gn Bradford-Wakefield  line, a substantial cantilever bridge across the River Calder, a girder road bridge and finally a smaller edition of the river bridge across a cul-de-sac of the Calder and Hebble Navigation Canal. The Low Moor connection to Dudley Hill involved earthworks and road bridges only and was nearly two miles in length.

When these lines were completed in 1893 the GNR was able to advertise a circular passenger service from Leeds Central station through Tingley and Dewsbury via Thornhill to Dudley Hill, and then back to Leeds through Pudsey. Sadly the public did not show any enthusiasm for the new route and the service was withdrawn some twenty years after its opening. The Low Moor to Dudley Hill branch closed in 1917 and track later taken up.

Dudley Hill Station was described in the 1960’s as: ‘Grass sprouts on the four platforms as the station was closed on April 7^th 1952. The two eastern faces are even more decrepit, for they have not been used since the withdrawal of passenger services between Dudley Hill and Low Moor in 1917. This branch, the earthworks of which are still to be seen, descended to pass beneath the parent line some 300 yards south of the station and turned south-westward towards Low Moor.’