North Yorkshire Moors Railway Happy Birthday

Happy birthday fifty years on

 

 

As you all know Pickering is one of my fav stations

 

Sadly I couldn't be there today but from the news

clip it looked like Thompson's and the LNER 

were in charge.

 

Great Northern Railway The Queensbury lines Inrow East

Here Ingrow East in its working days

 

 

Sadly derelict and abandoned

 

Great Central Railway and look around Loughborough

I had a great day at the Great Central

 

Skipton and the Thames Clyde Express

The Thames Clyde Express was one of the most

famous northern expresses as it traversed the Settle

and Carlisle. Skipton station was designed by

Charles Trubshaw who was also the designer of

Bradford new Midland Station and Hotel. 

 His early work for the Midland include

the new Skipton Station, opened April 30,

 1876 which coincided with the opening of the

Midland Railway’s Settle-Carlisle Line which made

  Skipton a station on the London, St Pancreas to Glasgow

 main line. Hellifield Station, opened on June 1, 1880

was also the work of Trubshaw.

 

 

My thanks to Ben Brooksbank for this superb picture

of the Thames Clyde arriving at Skipton en route to

Glasgow. I well remember catching this train a time

or two when joining or leaving Ships in Glasgow.

Being a Bradford lad I had to catch it in Bingley

where it had it's first stop out of Leeds and it was

pulled by a class 37.  

Skipton Station

Skipton has always been an important staging post

on the railway system, especially for Scottish trains.

This was often the watering stop for many on route

North.  

 

 

The line running across the bottom in the rt hand

corner is the line from the now Yorkshire Dales

Railway and one we soon hope to see back in

service. The main traffic ran north to settle and

Settle and Carlisle and south to Leeds and Bradford

 

A very period picture probably 1920's

Thornton station Great Northern Railway

Here a very rare and somewhat faded view of my

own home village station at Thornton

 

 

There were significant good traffic as well as the

passenger traffic for Bradford, Halifax and

Keighley

Cutlers Junction Bradford.

Here a not often seen view of Cutlers junction

 

 

The line running to the left of the junction ran along

a ridge bypassing Laisterdyke and running on to

Dudley Hill and Morley then on to Wakefield. The

line running off to the right is the main Leeds Bradford

line which from Cutlers junction ran through

Quarry gap and Laisterdyke then down the grade

into Bradford Exchange station

 

At Dudley Hill there was a further junction with a

line to Low Moor. In this way Leeds could be approached

from the Manchester lines (L&Y) without taking the

run through Bowling tunnel and then the Bradford

avoiding line at Bowling Junction which only

joined the Leeds line on the western side of

Laisterdyke and the Quarry Gap.