Before electrification, Forster Square only had trains to Ilkley and Keighley (maybe Skipton) and occasional summer weekend trains to/from Morecambe ( but I think even these had stopped a few years before). At one point the Ilkely trains were even terminated at Guiseley. All Leeds-Bradford trains served the Interchange.
Going back further in time - in its heyday, before being rebulit, Bradford Forster Square was a major station, with through services/portions via Leeds City via Sheffield to London St Pancras, Birmingham, Bristol and the South-west, and services to Carlisle and Morecambe, in addition to the local services to Leeds City calling at stations which are just being re-opened on the Aire Valley line.
It was a magnificent structure, which, in its latter years, was given-over mainly to parcels traffic. You had to pick your way through barrows to find your train!
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Back in the 70s there were many Bradford Kings Cross services via Leeds in addition to the direct service I mentioned earlier. The trains reversed at Leeds if I remember correctly.
Before then, many Bradford/Leeds-London services were portion-worked - the main train running to/from Leeds Central, with a 3-coach portion, usually headed by a Stanier tank engine, from Bradford Exchange via Drighlington and Morley Top to Wakefield Westgate, where it was attached/detached from the main train.
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It might have retreated into one of the arches, with the other maybe used for something else (car park maybe, or even a bus station of some sort) much like Hull Paragon.
However, as you say, had it survived a couple of years, it would have been listed - of that there is no doubt. I remember reading that at one time, BR was considering keeping the trainshed but just rebuilding the entrance. However, it seems that this plan must have been superceded by the interchange plan, more's the pity.
Didn't the fact that the road overbridge at the entrance to Exchange station was getting to the stage that serious maintenance work would be required to continue its safety, plus the perceived need to provide a bus station for all of Bradford's bus terminii, inspire the building of Bradford Interchange on the other side of the bridge?
They also originally built a maintenance depot under the bus station - a bus garage with a bus station on its roof... hmm!
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The Wortley curve. Continued well into HST days. 740 M-F off Bradford Interchange iirc.
Also picked up at New Pudsey so obviously no problems with the platform length back then.
Also, am I right in thinking the Wortley Curve was never officially closed - just abandoned?
Dig a little under the sycamores and you will still find the old rails, still intact.