Information about Halifax station in the 1950s and 1960s

[csiedmo]

Hello,

I would like to follow up the highly enlightening closed thread "Information about Halifax station in the 1970s" as (to me at least) it is still a puzzle as to how the ex-GNR platforms were operated.

As mentioned in that thread, it seems that platform 4 was nominally an Up platform (Jack Wild states this in one of the Martin Bairstow publications).
However, I have read elsewhere that when the buildings on platforms 5 and 6 were being demolished in 1954, that the ex-GNR services used platform 4 in both directions.
From the photo that I have seen of the demolition, that idea seems to make sense - the area looks less than passenger friendly.
That is further evidenced by more than one photograph of trains at platform 4 with the loco at the Down end and in one of these photographs a semaphore signal can be seen at the Down end of the platform.
However, that begs the question, how his trains get back onto the Down line if indeed they did? I suppose it is possible they used the Up line in both directions, maybe as far as North Bridge?

Following the loss of the ex-GNR passenger services in 1955 Halifax station was transferred to the NER in 1958. It surprises me that the now otherwise barren platforms 5 and 6 were re-signed in NER tangerine, which you would imagine would be an indication that they had returned to passenger use in at least some limited form. The once-per-day service using platform 5 in the 1960s mentioned in the previous thread is duely noted, but surely there must have been more than that c.1958 to warrant this facility? Indeed the track to platform 6 was in situ until 1963.

By the 1960s some the spare capacity is being utilised by parcels trains. According to the 1962 WTT we have the following parcels services (through-services are in italics, terminating/originating services are in bold; the list does not include DMU parcels services, newspapers and mail):
3C02 Sowerby Bridge to Leeds (Down) Arr. 0323 Dep. 0344
3C03 Huddersfield to Bradford (Down) Arr. 0706 Dep. 0723
3C19 Normanton to Halifax (Down) Arr. 0804
3N18 Manchester to Bradford (Down) Arr. 0842 Dep. 0850
3C22 Bradford to Halifax (Up) Arr. 0957
3C04 Normanton to Sowerby Bridge (via Low Moor) (Up) Arr. 1226 Dep. 1248
3C23 Normanton to Halifax (Down) Arr. 1556
3M05 Bradford to Rochdale (Up) Arr. 1732 Dep. 1737
3C18 Sowerby Bridge to Mirfield (Down) Arr. 1942 Dep. 1947
3L18 Halifax to Normanton (Up) Dep. 1950
3L09 Bradford to Huddersfield (Up) Dep. 2028 Arr. 2038
3C06 Halifax to Leeds (Down) Dep. 2048
3C50 Bradford to Halifax (Up) Arr. 2135
3M18 Leeds to Manchester (Up) Arr. 2150 Dep. 2200
3N24 Liverpool to Bradford (Down) Arr. 2329 Dep. 2334

So a mixture of Up and Down trains. To keep the parcels trains out of the way of the passenger trains, you might expect that the Down trains would use platform 5 and the Up trains platform 4. But the usual narrative is that platform 4 was used for parcels during this period, and indeed in a photographs of this period there are usually parcels vans in platform 4 plus one in the bay, and I have never seen a parcels train in platform 5.
If the Down parcels trains did use platform 4, how did they get there on arrival and how did they get back onto the Down line on departure? There seems to be no route to get into platform 4 from the west side prior to the 1969 remodelling, and no access to the Down main line on the east side.

It would be great so here from anyone who saw these services in operation or who could shed any light on this subject.

Many thanks,
Ed

 

[Welshman]

Platform 4 was nominally an up platform, and for a period in the 1960s was used regularly on Saturdays when there was no parcels traffic, for Manchester trains, along with platform 3 for Bradford/Leeds trains as usual. This was during a period of experimentation to decide which island to be removed when the station was later reduced in size. [As it happened, Island 3 & 4 was disbanded, and traffic concentrated on Island 1 & 2.].
During the week though, parcels traffic occupied platform 4 because the Island platforms 5&6 had neither hoist nor lift - steps only. I can only assume that down traffic went wrong line to Halifax East Junction and was then crossed-over just before Beacon Hill tunnel.

In my time, I remember only one passenger service using platform 5. This was the 7.48am dmu from Normanton, arriving Halifax at 8.30am, which then waited until 9.48am before departing for Bradford & Leeds, before taking -up its duties as the 11.06 to Liverpool Exchange.
I used to enjoy travelling on this train, as because it was off-pattern, I was often the only passenger from Halifax, and sometimes the station staff would forget all about it, leaving the guard to wander over the footbridge to find someone to give the right-away! Also on an autumn/spring morning, the railhead could be quite slippery having seen no traffic since the previous day, leaving the train slipping and slithering up to Halifax East box.

 

[The exile]

Hello, It surprises me that the now otherwise barren platforms 5 and 6 were re-signed in NER tangerine, which you would imagine would be an indication that they had returned to passenger use in at least some limited form.

Never underestimate the effects of slavish bureaucracy. “It says here, ‘all platform sineage to be replaced in NE regional colours…’”

 

[csiedmo]

Thanks for your replies chaps!
I hadn't considered the additional facilities offered on the centre island other than the pleasantry of the awning.
And yes, I suppose it shouldn't be too much of a surprise for platforms to redecorated without good cause.

I too had wondered whether the crossing by Beacon Hill tunnel was used to get onto the Down line, but as this was (is?) a trailing crossing (I think!) it would involve some wrong line working on the main line followed by entering the crossing in the "wrong direction", so I wasn't sure if it would be allowed. The other way that I thought it might be done was via the Goods line as it passes through the yard. There must have been a way to access the goods yard from the Up Goods Line, although I've not seen it in photos, probably because it would have been hidden from view underneath Station Road.

I've thought of a couple of other questions that you might know something about:

- Do we know whether the rake of vehicles on platform 4 was an accumulation of the three arrivals, or was it a case of each arrival being unloaded and shunted to the carriage siding adjacent to platform 6 to make space for the next parcels train?

- Did the use of platform 4 for parcels trains persist after the 1969 re-modelling, or did it cease at that point? In Great Northern Outpost Volume 2 there is a photo of the west side of station during this process. Platform 3 is in still use but the track to platform 2 is in the process of being re-laid in accordance with the new design. There are coaches in platform 4 (although I suppose those might be for the engineers rather than the parcels vehicles) but the route to platform 4 from the west is blocked by a stack of track panels, so access could have only been from the east at this time, although of course when the job was complete, access was only possible from the west.

Many thanks again for your help.
Ed

 

[Welshman]

Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't really help with your last query.
By that time I'd left home for university, and apart from occasional visits to my parents, I lost contact with the area.