City Road Goods Branch

City Road Goods Branch
Aerial view of the City Road goods branch curving around the old City Stadium, c. 1950
General information
Location	Bradford, City of Bradford England
Coordinates	53°47′55″N1°46′45″W / 53.79851°N 1.77903°W / 53.79851; -1.77903
Grid reference	SE146336
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Pre-grouping	Great Northern Railway

v t e Bradford Lines
Legend
Leeds & Bradford Extn Rly to Skipton Skipton–Ilkley line to Skipton Steeton and Silsden Ilkley | Keighley Ben Rhydding Keighley (GN) Burley-in-Wharfedale Menston Guiseley Ingrow West Ingrow East Crossflatts Damems Cullingworth Bingley Esholt Oakworth Wilsden Saltaire Baildon Haworth Denholme Shipley Oxenhope Thornton Shipley and Windhill Apperley Bridge to Halifax Queensbury Frizinghall Clayton Manningham Great Horton Bradford Forster Sq Horton Park Bradford Exchange City Road Bradford Interchange Airedale line to Leeds Manchester Road St Dunstans Bradford Adolphus St Thackley Bowling Idle Bowling Junction Laisterdyke Eccleshill Calder Valley line to Leeds to Leeds Dudley Hill Birkenshaw and Tong Pudsey loop line railway to Leeds Low Moor│ Low Moor Goods Spen Valley line to Mirfield Wyke and Norwood Green Calder Valley line to Halifax

The City Road Goods branch was a goods only branch serving the Lister Hills and Thornton Road areas of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. ^{[1] [2]}

History

Proposed as part of the Bradford and Thornton Railways Act (1865), later withdrawn but then incorporated in the Bradford and Thornton Railways Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. clxix), ^[3] and later amalgamated with the Great Northern Railway (18 July 1872). ^[4] The line to City Road from St Dunstans opened on 4 December 1876 and consisted of a double-track branch from just east of Horton Park at Horton Junction travelling north for 1 mile 1,140 yards (2.652 km) at a climbing gradient (northwards) of 1-in-50, then 1-in-88. ^[5] City Road was one of four major goods depots in Bradford: Aldolphus Street built by the Great Northern Railway, Bridge Street built by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, and Valley Road, built by the Midland Railway. ^[6] City Road Goods Yard was only 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Bradford city centre. ^[7]

During the 1950s, the boilers from two Great Northern Railway Atlantics were used to provide steam for two compound hydraulic pumping engines. ^[8]

Although the branch was intended solely for goods traffic, at least one passenger train reached the terminus, the West Riding Railtour on 6 September 1964, believed to be the only time a passenger train ran up and down the line. ^{[9] [10]} By the late 1960s, all freight traffic except inward workings of coal had ceased, and the site only handled coal from June 1967 until closure. ^{[11] [12]}

It closed when goods services were withdrawn from the stub of the St Dunstans to Thornton line on 26 August 1972, ^[13] and the branch was officially closed on 28 August 1972. ^[14]

The warehouses were converted into offices of a haulage company. However, they were destroyed in a fire in November 1983. ^[15] The site later became the location of a Grattan warehouse, the largest single-storey warehouse in Europe at that time. ^[16]

Grattan Warehouse on the location of the former City Road station

References

1. Joy, David (1984). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain Volume VIII South and West Yorkshire . David St John Thomas. ISBN   0-94653-711-9.
2. Beesley, Ian (1987). Victorian Bradford : the living past. Halifax: Ryburn. p. 36. ISBN   1853310034.
3. Bairstow, Martin (2015). The Queensbury Lines. Farsley: Bairstow. p. 6. ISBN   978-1-871944-44-0.
4. Batty, Stephen R. (1989). Rail Centres: Leeds/Bradford. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 76. ISBN   0-7110-1821-9.
5. Whitaker, Alan; Myland, Brian (1993). Railway Memories No. 4: Bradford. Todmorden: Bellcode Books. p. 81. ISBN   1-871233-03-8.
6. Whitaker, Alan (1986). Bradford Railways Remembered. Clapham: Dalesman Books. pp. 54–55. ISBN   0-85206-870-0.
7. Greenhalf, Jim (24 October 2012). "The hubs of city industry derailed by rise of road". Telegraph & Argus. p. 21. ISSN   0307-3610.
8. Baldwin, James S (2015). "9: Withdrawal, preservation and stationary boilers". Great Northern Atlantics. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Transport. p. 118. ISBN   9781783463671.
9. Peel, Dave (2013). The unusual and the unexpected on British railways : a chronology of unlikely events, 1948-1968. Stroud: Fonthill Media. p. 280. ISBN   9781781552346.
10. Bairstow, Martin (2015). The Queensbury Lines. Farsley: Bairstow. p. 11. ISBN   978-1-871944-44-0.
11. Whitaker, Alan (1986). Bradford Railways Remembered. Clapham: Dalesman Books. p. 55. ISBN   0-85206-870-0.
12. Batty, Stephen R. (1989). Rail Centres: Leeds/BRadford. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 138. ISBN   0-7110-1821-9.
13. Holland, Julian; Spaven, David (2013). Mapping the railways: the journey of Britain's railways through maps from 1819 to the present day. Glasgow: Collins. p. 189. ISBN   9780007506491.
14. Hurst, Geoffrey (1992). Register of closed railways 1948-1991. Worksop: Milepost publications. p. 67. ISBN   0947796185.
15. Greenhalf, Jim (3 November 2012). "Bonfire Night blazes". Telegraph & Argus. p. 21. ISSN   0307-3610.
16. Whitaker, Alan; Myland, Brian (1993). Railway Memories No. 4: Bradford. Todmorden: Bellcode Books. p. 7. ISBN   1-871233-03-8.

External links

• Map from c. 1908 showing the end of the branch, the sidings, and wool warehouses