Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Does anyone have any information on this station that was situated between Huddersfield and Wakefield. and what services, passengers and goods, may have used it ?
Middlestown for Horbury and Crigglestone (East) stations were built for all traffic as part of the Bradford Through Lines project (which never got beyond Thornhill Junction / Dewsbury Savile Town). Both were opened for goods traffic along with Dewsbury ST on 1 March 1906. Neither was ever opened for passenger traffic. Middlestown was closed for goods traffic (i.e. closed completely) on 29 March 1937.Does anyone have any information on this station that was situated between Huddersfield and Wakefield. and what services, passengers and goods, may have used it ?
I referred earlier to the Bradford Through Lines project, perhaps better known as the Midland Railway's West Riding Lines scheme. This was a plan of the latter part of the 1890s to built a new line from Royston Jn on the company's North Midland line through Dewsbury and through Bradford to provide an 11-mile shorter route from the south to Bradford and a 5-mile shorter route to Scotland. For various reasons this scheme was never carried out in full, but the part that was done according to the original plans was the section of line from Royston Jn north-westwards through Crigglestone (later East) and Middlestown to the point of crossing above the L&Y main line just by the L&Y's west junction for Dewsbury. From this point the line should have gone on, but a change of plans meant that it dropped sharply down to Dewsbury Savile Town goods station. A connection was built at Thornhill from a burrowing junction on the new Midland line to the L&Y main line, and this later allowed the through trains to Bradford to be run over the L&Y lines. So a white elephant? In economic terms almost certainly. But if it had been finished promptly when first planned, maybe not -- and Bradford would have had its north/south link.Was this on the current line via Healey Mills, or the high level White Elephant line which ran on the high, red brick viaducts over Horbury Bridge and Calder Grove?
I referred earlier to the Bradford Through Lines project, perhaps better known as the Midland Railway's West Riding Lines scheme. This was a plan of the latter part of the 1890s to built a new line from Royston Jn on the company's North Midland line through Dewsbury and through Bradford to provide an 11-mile shorter route from the south to Bradford and a 5-mile shorter route to Scotland. For various reasons this scheme was never carried out in full, but the part that was done according to the original plans was the section of line from Royston Jn north-westwards through Crigglestone (later East) and Middlestown to the point of crossing above the L&Y main line just by the L&Y's west junction for Dewsbury. From this point the line should have gone on, but a change of plans meant that it dropped sharply down to Dewsbury Savile Town goods station. A connection was built at Thornhill from a burrowing junction on the new Midland line to the L&Y main line, and this later allowed the through trains to Bradford to be run over the L&Y lines. So a white elephant? In economic terms almost certainly. But if it had been finished promptly when first planned, maybe not -- and Bradford would have had its north/south link.
Middlestown station never had regular, scheduled services, although it was apparently used by a few excursion trains.
I'm pretty sure there that I saw an internet photo (which I can't locate at the mo) depicting two platforms and no buildings.