Horsforth Station Memories
The question most frequently asked by friends is - 'What on earth do you see
in trains?'
It's simple. As a small boy, the fascination for trains was handed down by
one's peers - an older brother, for example, though there were thousands of
boys, myself included, whose penchant for collecting engine numbers came
from the simple pleasure of collecting things, such as stamps, cigarette
cards, and whisper it who dares - even birds' eggs.
I'm harking back to a more innocent age when children were not allowed to
voice an opinion of their own! Indeed, apart from catching sticklebacks in
my local beck (Brookfoot) or playing hopscotch, tiddlywinks and marbles (all
innocent games that toddlers then used to play) there was little else to
stimulate a boy's interest - no television, no computer games, and
definitely no emporium-style toy shops awash with expensive playthings to
pervert a child's sensibilities.
Instead children had to create their own amusement, and since I was born and
raised within sight and sound of the Leeds-Harrogate line, the earliest
childhood memory I have is watching the steady procession of steam trains
from my bedroom window overlooking the valley called Woodside in Horsforth.
However, the best chance of seeing trains at close quarters came on a Sunday
evening when the family took a leisurely stroll through the woods to the Fox
& Hounds pub near Horsforth station. As I played in the pub garden (it had
swings) I remember the two evening expresses (one in each direction) both
headed by the strikingly handsome Class A4s based on Tyneside. The booked
time for the 'down' train was around 7pm which coined its nickname the 7
o'clocker and the 'up' train became known as the 8 o'clocker for the same
reason.
The memories of those two Sunday-night streaks will never go away, for the
sight and sound of an A4 was the defining moment which kick-started my
interest in trains. Better still, being a relative newcomer to the hobby, my
visits to Horsforth station produced a 100% success rate of cops, all of
which were carefully logged in an Ian Allan abc Locospotters Book, costing a
princely sum of 1/3d (6½p) and backed in brown wrapping paper to protect it
from the rigours of a day's spotting.
But it wasn't long before my visits to Horsforth had reached saturation
point and the number of cops began to dry up. Each day seemed to produce the
same old engines and the same old trains; even the more engaging express
trains between Liverpool and Newcastle brought relatively few cops after a
while.
It was time to move on to pastures new. |
Horsforth
station April 1960
 Sadly, by the time I began serious railway photography,
there was no escaping the 1955 modernisation programme altogether - its
influence was everywhere. Visits to the lineside might yield the odd
photograph of steam, but from the early Sixties onwards the new EE Co Type
4s had taken over the majority of express passengers on the line between
Leeds and Harrogate - a route regularly used by Liverpool-Newcastle trains.
Back in those days, Harrogate was an important junction with a direct link
to the north via Ripon and a connection to the ECML at Northallerton. The
sight of a Gresley A3 Pacific powering up 1 in 100 bank from Wortley
Junction in Leeds left an indelible impression on this young spotter in the
Fifties, but by the Sixties the A3s had all but gone and EE Co Type 4
haulage was the order of the day.
Here, EE Co Type 4 No D247 heads through Horsforth station with the '7 o'clocker' in April 1960 (see Horsforth
station memories) on the final leg of the climb to the summit. The Fox and
Hounds pub is on the extreme left. |
Woodside Quarry 1959
 Trawling
through my old railway negatives I came across these two oldies from
1959, both EE Co Type 4s 'whistling' up the bank towards Horsforth with
Liverpool-Newcastle expresses. There is nothing spectacular about these
pictures and they would never have seen the light of day in the normal
way, but the location is the former AR Briggs & Co Ltd quarry in Clayton
Woods, which has been identified for
 redevelopment
by the Burford Group - current owners of the defunct site. Among the
many proposals put forward by Burford is the possible provision of a new
railway station, which (subject to putting in place the necessary
highway infrastructure on the A6120 Ring Road) would offer a wonderful
opportunity for rail commuters. Not only will it alleviate the terrible
road traffic problem at Horsforth station, it clearly demonstrates how
the opening of new railway stations is the best solution in minimising
road congestion in towns and cities. Ironically, the station will occupy
the site of the short-lived Woodside station (1850-1864) which is
remarkable! The words 'rising', 'ashes' and 'phoenix' spring to mind! In
the background, the new Leeds City Council's Fillingfir estate is under
construction. |
 Brookfoot
beck
Looking from the opposite direction, a view of my local beck, Brookfoot - a favourite spot for catching
sticklebacks - which flowed down the valley of Woodside |
 Horsforth station June 1969
I can't quite work out what was achieved by the orgy of
cutbacks in the 1963 Beeching Plan, except that many sizeable towns and
millions of commuters were denied a direct link to the rail network. Even if
a station survived, the demolition of buildings was a deplorable state of
affairs. The cheap bus shelter-style facilities that have been built in
place of waiting rooms, often with a welcoming coal fire, had absolutely
nothing to do with the needs of rail travellers. In this snatched shot from
the road bridge, the demolition crew do their worst at Horsforth station on
the Leeds-Harrogate line in June 1969. |
 Horsforth station 1961 / 1983
Railway books featuring 'now and then' pictures of the
rail network, excellent though they are,
leave me stone cold, because all
too often the trackbed has been replaced
by a supermarket car park in the
latter shot. However, this 1983 view of Black 5 No 5303 heading the
'Scarborough Spa Express'
through Horsforth station on the Leeds-Harrogate line has changed relatively
little
 in the twenty years or so between photographing EE Co Type 3 No D6794
heading a 'down' train comprised of empty coaching stock in 1961. |
Horsforth 1969 PHOTO:
STRICT COPYRIGHT DAVID GREEN.
 Record breakers... In 1969, a new era in air travel arrived when the
Anglo-French prototype super-sonic jet, Concorde made its first test flight,
but it wasn't until 1976 (following a bitter battle for landing rights at
New York) that Concorde began service on the Trans-Atlantic route. The
service gave privileged fare-paying passengers the chance of flying at twice
the speed of sound at the very edge of space, quaffing champagne whilst
viewing the curvature of the Earth. Concorde became the icon of 20th Century
air travel, but the most popular image of the steam age is Gresley's Class
A4 No 4468 Mallard, which still holds the world record for steam - 126mph.
Clever darkroom work by David Green shows Concorde superimposed over his
shot of Mallard heading the Scarborough Spa Express through Horsforth on the
downhill run to Leeds. Concorde was a regular visitor to Leeds & Bradford
airport for short-haul charter flights, but it came nowhere near as close to
the railway as this! |
Horsforth station July 1962
 EE Co Type 4 heads the 1S57 northbound 'Queen of Scots' Pullman
over the summit of Headingley Bank just north of Horsforth station in July
1962. The 'Queen of Scots' was the most luxurious train on the
Leeds-Harrogate line - and what luxury! The carriages even had electric
table lamps, which left an indelible impression on this youngster in the
early Fifties. We lived in a house without electricity until 1954, so there
were no labour-saving devices such as fridge-freezers, vacuum cleaners and
washing machines. Instead the household chores had to be done the hard way -
particularly on washdays. First a peggy tub was filled with hot water from
the gas boiler. Then, as the dirtiest clothes soaked, the more stubborn
stains were removed on a scrubbing board, and after strenuous possing - yes,
possing! - the heavy sheets and towels were rinsed in a stone sink, the
whites soaked in water laced with Dolly Blue. Then, item by item, the
clothes were squeezed through a mangle and 'pegged' out on the washing line
to dry.- what a palaver! 1S57 northbound 'Queen of Scots' For the record,
the train is made up of an almost uniform rake of the new Metro-Cammel
Pullman cars, first introduced on the London-Sheffield 'Master Cutler'
Pullman in September 1960. They appeared on the'Yorkshire Pullman' and
'Tees-Tyne' Pullman duties in January the following year. The 44 vehicles
were used entirely on the East Coast main line services, but as no Pullman
brake cars were built in the same order, the elderly flat-sided Pullman
brakes were utilised. |
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All text & photographs copyrighted © David Hey
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