Jump to content

City Road Goods Branch

Add links
Coordinates: 53°47′55″N 1°46′45″W / 53.79851°N 1.77903°W / 53.79851; -1.77903
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

City Road Goods Branch
Aerial view of the City Road goods branch curving around the old City Stadium, c. 1950
General information
LocationBradford, City of Bradford
England
Coordinates53°47′55″N 1°46′45″W / 53.79851°N 1.77903°W / 53.79851; -1.77903
Grid referenceSE146336
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Pre-groupingGreat Northern Railway

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

[edit]

Proposed as part of the Bradford and Thornton Railways Act (1865), later withdrawn but then incorporated in the Bradford and Thornton Railways Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict.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It closed when goods services were withdrawn from the stub of the St Dunstans to Thornton line on 26 August 1972,[13] and the branch was officially closed on 28 August 1972.[14]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

[edit]
  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.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=City_Road_Goods_Branch&oldid=1296583025"