Whitehall junction July 1962 :
David Hey
 A
Class 8F heads a southbound empty mineral train towards Stourton in July
1962. The train will take the r/h spur (used by goods traffic to avoid Leeds
City and Wellington stations) to Engine Shed Junction at Holbeck. The tracks
bearing left are the ex-MR and NER lines from the north, which connected
with the ex-MR line from the south at Leeds City North Junction. These were
then joined by the ex-LNWR lines which crossed the viaduct from Farnley
Junction to Canal Road Junction on the western approach to Leeds City and
Wellington stations. The apex of the triangular junction (a recessed-wall
area on the rail bridge above Globe Road) was a favourite place for
observing trains, since you could see rail traffic coming and going in all
directions! |
Whitehall junction 1980s : David
Hey
 A
scene now radically transformed with a forest of masts and overhead
catenary spanning the lines from Leeds to Bradford, Ilkley and Skipton
to the left and the Kings Cross route (right foreground) which connects
with the East Coast Main Line at Doncaster. In the left background can
be seen the dust extractor tower (described earlier) which shows the
extent of curvature required to gain access to the new Leeds station
from the north. The eagle-eyed might spot the now-demolished Skelton
Grange Power Station on the horizon in the centre. |
Whitehall junction 'City of Wells' 1980s :
David Hey
 Yorkshire-born
train spotters were brought up on a mix of ex-LMSR 'Royal Scot' and
'Jubilee' classes, together with the prestigious 'A' class Pacifics
belonging to the former LNER, so the Southern Region engines were all
foreign to us. I remember borrowing books of trains from the local
library, and pictures of the Southern Railway's 'Spam Cans' in their
original form (with air-smooth casing) looked strange to me. Odder still,
under the Southern Railway's numbering scheme the Bullied Pacifics carried
a 21C prefix that represented the continental system of wheel arrangement
- the number of axles on the bogie was denoted by a '2', followed by a '1'
for the pony truck, and the six driving wheels were represented by the
letter 'C'. It wasn't until I'd reached my teens in the early 1960s that I
visited the Southern Region. By then, most of the Bullied Pacifics had
been rebuilt - and, whilst not wishing to incur the wrath of SR fans, they
began to look like proper engines with their streamline casings removed.
The Bullied Light Pacific was essentially a scaled-down version of the
earlier 'Merchant Navy' class introduced in 1941. The new engines were
named after cities, towns and tourist spots in south-west England, and
became known as the 'West Country' class, whereas later examples had
wartime commemorative names, mostly taken from RAF Squadrons associated
with the Battle of Britain. Here, 'West Country' class No 34092 City of
Wells (built at Brighton in 1949 - preserved in 1971) heads the
'Scarborough Spa Express' in the 1980s. Today, no fewer than 20 have been
preserved, nine of them in unrebuilt condition, which is a fitting tribute
to Bullied's design. |
Wortley south junction 1963 : David Hey
(PHOTO COPYRIGHT JR CARTER)
 Now
I'm getting older, the wisdom gained from life's ups and downs has led me
to arrive at a wonderful truth! I'm talking about the anorak-bashers in
our society! The reason why train spotting is ridiculed in some circles is
because the po-faced opponents of the hobby underwent emotional by-passes
when they were young, and have no nostalgia reserves of their own from
which to draw. Such is the unforgiving climate nowadays, that to express
one's feelings is to invite ludicrous charges of soppy sentimentality.
Well, excuse me but what makes train spotting so remarkably civilised is
that it embraces every emotion from great joy to deep despair and
unfulfilled hopes. How can anyone fail not to be moved by the sight and
sound of a hard-working steam locomotive? You can almost hear the roar of
Class A4 No 60021 Wild Swan heading past Wortley South Junction with a
train for Kings Cross in 1963. No matter how many times I set eyes on this
classic shot by my good friend, Jim Carter, it always sends shivers down
my spine! |
Leeds
City New 1960s : David Hey
 A scene now radically transformed with the erection of steel
masts and a curtain of overhead wires for the £306 million East Coast Main
Line electrification scheme which connected Leeds with the main line at
Doncaster in 1989. In the 1960s view, a Class V2 reverses past the signal
box on its way to Neville Hill shed, whilst a Stanier tank fusses about with
some parcel vans at the entrance to the former MR (Wellington) station on
the right. In the distance a Metro-Cammel DMU heads past Leeds City East
Junction, formerly Canal Junction, and next to the gas holders on the right
(now the site of the present-day Armley gyratory road system) are the
platforms of Holbeck High Level station on the GN line out of Leeds Central.
The inner-city canal basin on the left has been completely transformed,
whereas the dust extractor tower (a copy of the famous Giotto's campanile at
Florence) remains a familiar Leeds landmark today. |
 Leeds
City New 1980s :
David Hey
Comparisons can be made with the 1980s view, which
captures the exhaust of an 1C125 arriving from London Kings Cross. |
 Leeds
City New 1960s :
David Hey
Colour shot of Leeds taken from the building site of
City House. |
Central station wagon lifts : David Hey (PHOTO COPYRIGHT JR CARTER)
 One of the legacies left by the early railway
builders was their failure to bring all lines to a common terminus in major
cities. During the Sixties BR made radical changes to the rail network with
the complete closure of main line passenger stations. The scheme to combine
rail facilities at Leeds Central into one reconstructed and modernised City
station was a particularly slow affair taking eight years from BR's first
announcement in June 1959. Working with financial expediency in mind, trackwork was replanned to accommodate the newly-installed link from
Whitehall Junction enabling Doncaster and Kings Cross traffic access to the
new station. The old Great Northern Railway Central station on Wellington
Street closed on April 29 1967. In this view, there is no mistaking the
station's GN Railway origin in the shape of the aged yard lamp, water
column, and the upper quadrant semaphores suspended beneath a lattice
gantry. The 'A' signalbox in the background controlled the station's cramped
seven platforms and two bays. After the station was demolished, a Royal
Mail building was built on the site and the only evidence of the Great
Northern Railway is the bridge spanning the canal and river, and the
shell of the wagon hoist building on the left hand side, which once
served the high and low level goods yards. Class B1 No 61129 makes a
spirited exit from Central Station with a parcels train. |
Holbeck
low level station May 1961 : David
Hey
 Class A3 No 60081 Neil Gow passes the
disused platforms at Holbeck Low Level with the 'up' 'Thames Clyde Express'
in May 1961. The lattice signal gantry at Geldard Junction on the right
controlled traffic to Wellington Street Goods Depot and Leeds Central
station. On the left are sidings serving the gasworks, and in the middle
distance the former MR Wortley Junction signalbox. The name Wortley Junction
is now given to the present day divergence of the Harrogate line from the
lines to Skipton and Ilkley near Armley Bridge.
For the record, Holbeck Low
Level station - once a popular haunt for spotters - closed on July 5th 1958. |
 Holbeck
Low Level station September 8th 1951: David Hey (PHOTO COPYRIGHT ER MORTEN)
From David Hey's collection. Scottish-based Class 4F No 44315 (carrying a
68A shed code) heads an empty fruit train through Holbeck Low Level on
September 8th 1951. The eagle-eyed may spot a Leeds tram heading along
Armley Road in the distance. See
also Leeds west |
Farnley junction June 1961 :
David
Hey
 The Swindon-built Trans-Pennine (TOPS Class 124) units
were a stylish addition to the BR fleet, providing 6 trains each way daily
on the Liverpool-Hull service via Standedge. With their 228 tons tare load,
the seventeen 6-car sets
(including a griddle car) necessitated a formidable
1,840 horse power for the steeply-graded route across the Pennines.
The
power/weight ratio made possible substantial acceleration of the service,
and a total running time of 163 minutes was introduced on the 128 mile route
between Hull and Liverpool. A distinctive feature of the Class 124's was the
use of a glass-reinforced plastic for the wrapped round windows on their
driving car ends.
The service began on January 2nd 1961 between Hull, Leeds,
Manchester and Liverpool. Here, a Hull-bound set approaches Farnley (the
shed roof can be seen in the background) in June 1961. |
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All text & photographs copyrighted © David Hey
Reproduction prohibited |
