Black Five 44806 at Pickering on the North Yorks Moors Railway

We have a few black fives preserved and in steam

thank goodness

 

 

Here 44806 arrives at Pickering

 

Ian Riley is building quite a stable of these engines

Queensbury tunnel and Strines cutting at the southern end

Strines cutting then, I well remember it always

seemed deep and sinister in some way

 

 

Now it is even more so as of course there is serious

danger

 

Though the tunnel entrance has been filled to some

degree it is nevertheless quite deep

 

Lets hope something comes of the work which is

projected.

 

Many thanks the The Chairman 8 for the above colour pictures

the b&w is from the John Alsop collection

Queensbury tunnel and possible reopening

 

Queensbury tunnel (2501yds) is one of the longest and deepest railway tunnels in England.
Queensbury was on the G.N.R line serving the Northern industrial towns of Bradford, Halifax & Keighley. It was built in 1879, passenger services ceased in 1955.
A big problem in the tunnel's history was giant icicles forming on cold winter nights. A steam engine used to be parked here overnight to prevent this in later years. The line used to be known as the Alpine route due to its hilly nature.

 

 

 

Many thanks to phild for the pictures of the inside

of the tunnel.

 

 

Once again thanks to phild for the above pictures.

 

Queensbury tunnel to be drained and inspected

WORK to drain a flooded tunnel in Queensbur would be the first stage of an ambitious project to create a new underground cycleway.

Proposals to turn the disused railway tunnel into a mile and a half long cycleway date back well over a year, but plans were stalled by the fact that part of the tunnel has been flooded for several years.
Early next month Highways England, responsible for the upkeep of the tunnel, will set up a pumping station on its south side, an area called Strines Cutting, to drain water from the site.
Once the water is gone, officers will be able to access the tunnel and examine its condition ahead of emergency repairs later this year and a decision over its future. It is thought that parts of it have collapsed.
The Queensbury Community Heritage Action Partnership has ambitious plans to make the tunnel, which closed 50 years ago, into a major cycling attraction that will link Halifax with Bradford and Cullingworth. Cycling group Sustrans has already backed the plans.
Highways England has a duty to make the tunnel safe, and QCHAP has lobbied for it to do this by repairing it, rather than filling it with concrete.
Norah McWilliam, one of the founders of QCHAP, said: "This is the next step for us. Things are finally getting somewhere.
"It will be quite a dramatic site once Strines Cutting reappears after being underwater for so long."
She said that despite delays in the project, the Queensbury community was still behind the scheme.
A Highways England spokesman said: “We plan to commence work on Thursday, May 7 to set up a pumping station on land on the south side of Queensbury tunnel which will allow water to be drained from the site.
“Once it has been emptied of water we will be able to examine the condition of the tunnel lining which will inform the ongoing feasibility study. We know that a large section of the lining is in very poor condition and that parts have collapsed.
“We plan to undertake some emergency repairs this year to make the structure safe for future inspections by our contractors. At this point our contractors will be able to undertake a more through survey in respect of the tunnels potential future and the likely estimate of associated costs.

“As with all of the structures maintained by our Historical Railways Estate team on behalf of the Secretary of State, any plans to reopen one as a public asset would firstly involve transferring its responsibility to a statutory body, which would take on the structure and its future maintenance.”

Many thanks Bradford Telegraph and Argus for the above.

Visit the whole article at http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/12914742.Work_to_drain_flooded_cutting_is__next_step__in_plan_to_create_underground_cycleway/

Riddles standard class 4 75078 draws its train out of the carriage shed

See what I mean about the rain I got soaked

 

 

Lovely engine though and newly out of the workshops

Thanks to all the volunteers at Haworth for the great

work they do.

 

Robert Arthur "Robin" Riddles, CBE, MIMechE, MinstLE (23 May 1892 – 18 June 1983) a British locomotive engineer.

Riddles entered the Crewe Works of the London and North Western Railway as a premium apprentice in 1909, completing his apprenticeship in 1913. While attending the Mechanics Institute classes he took a course in electrical engineering, feeling there would be a future for electric traction. During the 1914–18 Great War he served with the Royal Engineers mainly in France, during which time he was badly wounded.
He returned to the LNWR at Crewe, and in 1920 became the "bricks and mortar assistant" with responsibility for the new erecting shop. When work on this was stopped, Riddles was placed in charge of a small production progress department and was sent to Horwich to study the methods used by the L&Y. From this Riddles gained some backing, and had significant influence in the re-organisation of Crewe which took place between 1925 and 1927. In 1923 the LNWR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway thus on completion of the work at Crewe, Riddles was sent to the ex-Midland Railway works at Derby, now part of the LMS, to initiate a similar arrangement. In this task he had the active support of the then Derby works manager, H. G. Ivatt.
During the General Strike in 1926 Riddles volunteered as a driver, taking trains from Crewe to Manchester and Carlisle. The experience gained made him almost unique among CMEs; Riddles maintained that the practical knowledge of driving a locomotive that he gained was an invaluable aid to his design work.
In 1933 Riddles moved to Euston to become Locomotive Assistant to the new Chief Mechanical Engineer, Sir William Stanier, and in 1935 became Stanier's Principal Assistant. In 1937 Riddles moved to Glasgow as Mechanical & Electrical Engineer - Scotland, the first to combine both engineering disciplines in a single title. However Riddles was disappointed that C. E. Fairburn was at this time appointed as Stanier's Deputy. However much of the design of the Coronation Princess Royal Class was down to Riddles as Stanier was away in India investigating a serious railway accident on behalf of the government.
Upon the creation of the Railway Executive in 1947 in preparation for the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, he was appointed Member of the Railway Executive for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He had two principal assistants, both of whom were also former LMS men: Roland C. Bond, Chief Officer (Locomotive Construction and Maintenance), and E. S. Cox, Executive Officer (Design). The duties of these three effectively covered the old post of Chief Mechanical Engineer; they subsequently oversaw the design of the British Railways (BR) standard classes.

My thanks to Wikipedia for much of the above with some additions from myself

 

http://kwvr.co.uk/

 

 

75078 on a very wet Saturday at Oxenhope K&WVR

See what I mean. I am sure many of our fraternal

friends with cameras at the ready know how I

felt

 

 

It threw it down

Stroudly Terrier and the Bluebell line

Some experimental screen grabs

 

 

Not the usual standard I know

 

The Bluebell line me thinks but could be wrong

 

I know the feelings of damp days, it was chucking

it down at Oxenhope Sat last

 

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/