Secret Old Railway (Crown Point)

Loinerpete · Post by **Loinerpete** » Tue 24 May, 2011 2:41 pm

I would love to have seen crown point station before it became a goods yard, the line in is till there behind mothercare, i think i am right in saying it was called Leeds Midland station and the line went to Derby, i love stuff like this. Great info about the flat iron building, i always thought it was due to the 2 medieval lanes to and from hunslet, can you imagine if the railway had carried on this way? I think the Victorians were superb.

jim · Post by **jim** » Tue 24 May, 2011 2:43 pm

railnut wrote: ...... in fact it's to do with the proposed alignment of the route. Never opened as a hotel though as far as I know. Used to be the offices of Tunstalls.A tunnel was envisaged at some point to go under New Briggate and then pick-up the Meanwood Valley to go north.What a different City we would have if the main railway route was north/south instead of the east/west layout we have today. ............ Fascinating material Railnut, that I can't recall coming across before. Could you let us know of your source for this information on the extension north, and any other related references? I would be very interested in researching this further if it's at all possible.

dogduke · Post by **dogduke** » Tue 24 May, 2011 9:43 pm

I worked at hunslet Lane for about a year in the 60's.Never heard of it referred to as Hunslet West.In the early Beeching days the Transport Act of 196X meant that BR was no longer a common carrier i.e. theydid not have to transport everything offered to them.Beeching etc knew the less than wagon load(or 1 Ton) was a huge loss maker and decided to concentrate on full wagon load and full train load traffic.The BR Sundries division was formed later to become National Carriers Ltd(NCL) and bcome part of the National Freight Corporation(NFC)This resulted in traffic being trunked by road instead of rail for the first time.There is a plaque in Crown Point which refers to it being builtthrough NFC Properties and Norwich Union.NCL was probably the first bit of BR to be privatised all those years ago.I also worked(twice)at Hunslet East on South Accom Road,this dealt only with full wagon loads and offered warehousing facilities to several local firms including Rakusens.

railnut · Post by **railnut** » Wed 25 May, 2011 2:50 pm

jim wrote: railnut wrote: ...... in fact it's to do with the proposed alignment of the route. Never opened as a hotel though as far as I know. Used to be the offices of Tunstalls.A tunnel was envisaged at some point to go under New Briggate and then pick-up the Meanwood Valley to go north.What a different City we would have if the main railway route was north/south instead of the east/west layout we have today. ............ Fascinating material Railnut, that I can't recall coming across before. Could you let us know of your source for this information on the extension north, and any other related references? I would be very interested in researching this further if it's at all possible. Can't remember where I read this but I think it is in the book North Of Leeds by Peter E Baughan which gives a lot of history of the Midland coming/going north around Leeds prior to the S&C being built. I'll have to read the book again as I think that con-man Hudson was involved, like the viaduct across the river at Tadcaster that never carried a train.Meeting up with a friend of mine who knows a bit about the history of Leeds railways, so I'll bring the subject up.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 25 May, 2011 5:06 pm

Somewhere on here someone uploaded a shot of the Goods yard in the 1960's great photo it was too?Old maps online and the Godfreys maps have a great detailed plan of the north midland station down to arrival and departure gates.

jim · Post by **jim** » Wed 25 May, 2011 5:12 pm

Hi Railnut, I can't find a mention in "North of Leeds" (but I scanned quickly through relevant pages and index subjects, so may have missed it) but a very brief reference to an original proposal to continue the North Midland line to a site at Leeds Bridge appears in Joy's "South and West Yorkshire" volume in the Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain series, with a note that strong opposition from the Aire and Calder Navigation stifled it at birth.As to a possible extension up Briggate and a tunnel to the Meawood Valley, is it possible that that was a proposal by the Leeds and Thirsk in it's formative years? If that is the case, perhaps the info is contained in a history of the North Eastern Railway. I'll have a look through what I have, but I have never owned a copy of Tomlinson's book which might be a good source.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Wed 25 May, 2011 7:48 pm

jim wrote: Hi Railnut, I can't find a mention in "North of Leeds" (but I scanned quickly through relevant pages and index subjects, so may have missed it) but a very brief reference to an original proposal to continue the North Midland line to a site at Leeds Bridge appears in Joy's "South and West Yorkshire" volume in the Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain series, with a note that strong opposition from the Aire and Calder Navigation stifled it at birth.As to a possible extension up Briggate and a tunnel to the Meawood Valley, is it possible that that was a proposal by the Leeds and Thirsk in it's formative years? If that is the case, perhaps the info is contained in a history of the North Eastern Railway. I'll have a look through what I have, but I have never owned a copy of Tomlinson's book which might be a good source. Hi Jim and RailnutThis is a fascinating story that has me intrigued. My late dad was something of a railway fanatic and he never mentioned such a plan, which only makes me more interested.At a guess, if the line was to follow the Meanwood Valley, it would presumably head out of the city somewhere around the current site of Golden Acre Park and then head towards Harrogate along a similar path to todays railway from the Arthington / Pool area? Perhaps branching off towards Otley, Ilkley and thence the Settle - Carlisle route?And what of a city centre station (rather than the Hunslet site) - a subterranian station below Briggate? Or would the city centre have expanded in a southerly direction towards Hunslet?I'd love to know more.

Loinerpete · Post by **Loinerpete** » Thu 26 May, 2011 5:36 pm

Fantastic stuff folks, got me lookin for info now, the garden can tend to itself.

railnut · Post by **railnut** » Thu 26 May, 2011 7:12 pm

raveydavey wrote: jim wrote: Hi Railnut, I can't find a mention in "North of Leeds" (but I scanned quickly through relevant pages and index subjects, so may have missed it) but a very brief reference to an original proposal to continue the North Midland line to a site at Leeds Bridge appears in Joy's "South and West Yorkshire" volume in the Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain series, with a note that strong opposition from the Aire and Calder Navigation stifled it at birth.As to a possible extension up Briggate and a tunnel to the Meawood Valley, is it possible that that was a proposal by the Leeds and Thirsk in it's formative years? If that is the case, perhaps the info is contained in a history of the North Eastern Railway. I'll have a look through what I have, but I have never owned a copy of Tomlinson's book which might be a good source. Hi Jim and RailnutThis is a fascinating story that has me intrigued. My late dad was something of a railway fanatic and he never mentioned such a plan, which only makes me more interested.At a guess, if the line was to follow the Meanwood Valley, it would presumably head out of the city somewhere around the current site of Golden Acre Park and then head towards Harrogate along a similar path to todays railway from the Arthington / Pool area? Perhaps branching off towards Otley, Ilkley and thence the Settle - Carlisle route?And what of a city centre station (rather than the Hunslet site) - a subterranian station below Briggate? Or would the city centre have expanded in a southerly direction towards Hunslet?I'd love to know more. Looking back through all my books as to where I found this, but we have to remember that this was in the mania days and many a scheme was a thought but never proceeded. One that got onto paper was the line proposed from Halton Dial via a triangular junction up the Wykebeck Valley to Roundhay Park with a branch from this line to a new station at New Briggate. But this is another thread.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Tue 31 May, 2011 1:15 pm

As good luck would have it I was able to take a walk along the old cutting at the weekend. I'll post a few photos on S.L for the record.The gated entrance to the cutting at the back of the Crown Point retail park.The first time I've got to take a look back the other way. Looking towards the main line underneath the Leathley Road bridge.Looking back towards the Crown point retail park.As far as you can go. The Jack Lane road bridge is obscured by infill and vegetation these days. The last 100 yards of cutting have more or less been lost to undergrowth these days.It looks very different today to how it was in better times.