Halifax-Queensbury railway

A high-angle view of Queensbury's triangular station, captured with its now-disappeared viaduct in the eighties.

The most northerly of Queensbury Tunnel's five ventilation shafts.

The middle three shafts all exceed 300 feet in depth - this is the 324-foot Shaft 2.

The now-infilled Strines cutting and, in the left foreground, the tunnel's most southerly capped shaft where workman Dick Sutcliffe was killed in a construction accident.

A mid-eighties view towards Queensbury Tunnel's southern portal from the aqueduct over the wonderful Strines cutting.

The wooden station building at Ovenden has, somehow, managed to win its battle against time.

The bricked-up northern portal of Lee Bank Tunnel. The other end is now landscaped making future maintenance rather problematic.

The southern end of Old Lane Tunnel - a product of cut-and-cover.

At North Bridge Station, this wonderful cobbled ramp provides access to a bridge over the line.

The huge retaining wall for the goods yard at the north end of North Bridge Viaduct incorporates a number of arches. These extend off the picture to the left whilst the viaduct's abutment is on the right.

A stub at the southern end is all that remains of the former 1,440-foot North Bridge Viaduct, which boasted 35 masonry arches before it was demolished during the eighties.

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A high-angle view of Queensbury's triangular station, captured with its now-disappeared viaduct in the eighties.

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The Halifax & Ovenden Junction Railway Act was passed in 1864 but it was not until 1874 that the two-and-a-half mile line opened to freight. The route, which was backed jointly by the Great Northern and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways, included a substantial viaduct of 35 arches at its southernmost end and two tunnels.

Four years later, the GN opened an extension of a little over two miles from Holmfield to Queensbury via a 59 feet deep cutting at Strines – around 1000 yards in length – and a tunnel of 2501 yards, climbing a 1 in 100 gradient in the process.

Withdrawn in 1955, the passenger service operated to and from Bradford but connections to Keighley were available at Queensbury’s triangular station. Goods traffic over the northern part of the route survived for another year and continued as far as Holmfield until 1960, serving the high level branch to St Pauls. Freight services between North Bridge and Halifax’s GN/L&Y joint station continued until April 1974.

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Halifax-Queensbury railway

Halifax-Queensbury railway

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