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Where is this old photo - West Yorkshire?

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jp4712

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I'm scanning some old photos taken by a deceased friend and I've come across this one that I can't identify. I'm pretty sure it's in West Yorkshire, but I can't place it. At left there's a platform sign - 5 & 6, so clearly a big through station. There's a totem, but you can't read it.

Does anyone have any idea where my friend was?
 

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edwin_m

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Very distinctive as the platforms on the right were built later across what was previously the station frontage, the right hand side of the large building. Those platforms have now gone but the building, no longer surrounded by tracks, is now the Eureka museum. Something similar happened at Bangor (Wales).
 

Revaulx

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The platforms on the right were for the GN Queensbury Lines, which lost their passenger services in the mid 50s.
 

crosscity

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This is definitely Halifax, where I was born and bred. Having being given a Kodak Instamatic, this was my third picture taken when I was 12. The Ops picture is earlier as the gas lamps had been removed from the lampposts by the time I took my photo.

Aug 1968. Platforms 6, 5 and 4 at Halifax. A BRCW 3-car dmu is on platform 4 forming one of the hourly Leeds-Manchester Victoria trains. Use of this platform by the Manchester trains only took place on a Saturday to aid management on how best to rationalise the station layout in the future.
by Ray, on Flickr
 

jp4712

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Thank you - and to express my gratitude, here's another photo at Halifax that he must have taken at the same time.
 

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jp4712

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But! Here's another one. Douglas lived in MAnchester but was known to wander around the north, but this one is unlikely to be outside that area. Could this, possibly, be the side of Moses Gate station?
 

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crosscity

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Thank you - and to express my gratitude, here's another photo at Halifax that he must have taken at the same time.
A lovely shot of Halifax. The Class 110 'Calder Valley' dmu's were introduced in 1961 so this is a typical mid-60's shot. I can't read the destination blind, but I suspect the train is a Leeds-Manchester Victoria (or even Exchange) service. For a while Platforms 3 and 4 were the main platforms which easily accomodated the standard hourly service each way. It still has its 'whiskers' (rather than a yellow front) so I think the photo is from around 1963. This is a gut feel, others might be able to pinpoint the year more scientifically.
 

Ianigsy

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Al I can't read the destination blind, but I suspect the train is a Leeds-Manchester Victoria (or even Exchange) service.

The last letter is definitely an E - I'd say Harrogate and given the tail lamp probably from its previous working.

As opposed to the colour photo which looks like three naked bulbs to me!
 

jp4712

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edwin_m

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On the original it's very indistinct but I'd go with Harrogate too.

Shall we try another one? He took this on the SLS 'Old Manchester Rail Tour' on 12 May 1956 whose itinerary is at https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/50s/560512sl.html. So where was he?
Pretty sure it's Milnrow: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/m/milnrow/
Viewpoint similar to the first picture (note chimney and skyline) but the goods shed has been demolished and the big canopy on the left replaced by the one seen (from the other end) in the second picture.
 

Greetlander

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Thank you - and to express my gratitude, here's another photo at Halifax that he must have taken at the same time.
God this depresses me - I realise rationalisation had to happen but Halifax was decimated. What I've never understood is that the authorities waited until the service provision at Halifax was brought back up to a level where a 3 platform station would have been more use, before selling it off. I know there are busier stations that cope with two platforms out of necessity (Wakefield Westgate for example) but it screams out as a station needing to be bigger.
 

daodao

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Nope. Hale.

Definitely Hale. The husband of my former schoolmistress in my last years at primary school was the stationmaster there in the mid 1960s, having been relocated from Braithwaite station on the ex CKPR line a couple of years before it closed (I presume that it had been made into an unstaffed halt).

The scene has changed little in the intervening years, although there are now more motor vehicles. Much of the main station building is now a private business, although there is still a ticket office open on weekday mornings. The line still carries substantial freight traffic as well as hourly passenger trains, causing frequent delays at the level crossing, which cannot be converted into a bridge.

The building visible just to the right of the station on the other side of the level crossing is a branch of the former Williams Deacon's Bank (owned by RBS), now sadly closed along with all the other Greater Manchester RBS branches outside the city centre.
 
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WesternLancer

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enjoying seeing these scans of your friends pictures, as well the responses to them from ppl who know the answers or recall the places at the time. Keep posting as very enjoyable to see these historic images. I always think these sorts of pics might not win photo awards, but since they would be just like the sorts of pics I would take (that would never win any award!) it's just as enjoyable to see them - if not more so.

Would be nice to see more! Great that you have been entrusted with scanning them Jp, following your friends passing. Nice work and appreciated!
 

Welshman

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The last letter is definitely an E - I'd say Harrogate and given the tail lamp probably from its previous working. which

As opposed to the colour photo which looks like three naked bulbs to me!

I agree with you that its "Harrogate"
But as platform 3 was used by east-bound trains, ie towards Bradford from Manchester and away from the camera, then "Harrogate" is the correct destination - it is the headcode which hasn't been changed, as that should be in the 1E...series.
I suspect it was the 1030 from Liverpool Exchange to Harrogate, as that was usually 2 3-car sets.
I Holt has a picture of what I suspect was the same train at Hall Royd Junction on 17th July 1965:-
http://www.stormrail.info/the-calder-valley-class-110-dmu
 
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jp4712

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enjoying seeing these scans of your friends pictures, as well the responses to them from ppl who know the answers or recall the places at the time. Keep posting as very enjoyable to see these historic images. I always think these sorts of pics might not win photo awards, but since they would be just like the sorts of pics I would take (that would never win any award!) it's just as enjoyable to see them - if not more so.

Would be nice to see more! Great that you have been entrusted with scanning them Jp, following your friends passing. Nice work and appreciated!
Thanks for the nice words. As you’ve asked so politely, here’s another one - no need to play a guessing game here...
 

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WesternLancer

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Thanks for the nice words. As you’ve asked so politely, here’s another one - no need to play a guessing game here...
Well - I enjoyed that as I went thru Sowerby Bridge for 1st time ever with a £10 northern rover 2 weeks or so ago - so enjoyed seeing the context in that pic! Thank you.
 

crosscity

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I agree with you that its "Harrogate"
But as platform 3 was used by east-bound trains, ie towards Bradford from Manchester and away from the camera, then "Harrogate" is the correct destination - it is the headcode which hasn't been changed, as that should be in the 1E...series.
I suspect it was the 1030 from Liverpool Exchange to Harrogate, as that was usually 2 3-car sets.
I Holt has a picture of what I suspect was the same train at Hall Royd Junction on 17th July 1965:-
http://www.stormrail.info/the-calder-valley-class-110-dmu
Interesting that at that time Platform 3 was used by trains towards Bradford. By the time I started catching trains in 1967 I wasn't aware of through trains to Harrogate, and have it in the back of my mind that for a while trains to Bradford went from Platform 4. I've got no evidence of that, and it may not be true. Was the Liverpool-Harrogate service just once per day? And was the basic one train each way per hour already in place in 1965?
 

Welshman

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Platform 3 was always used by trains towards Bradford/Leeds/Harrogate until it was closed in the rationalisation. Then the island platforms 1 & 2, which used to be served by trains to Manchester and Huddersfield, became used by Bradford trains on platform 2 and Manchester trains on platform 1, and has remained thus until the present day - a situation now becoming unacceptable with the increase in trains [when the rationalisation took place, there was just an hourly service in both directions, with trains to Huddersfield [and Penistone] having been withdrawn.

When the Calder Valley was turned over to dmu operation in 1962, the steam-hauled Bradford/Leeds portion working at Low Moor was abandoned, allowing the closure of Low Moor, as the dmus could easily reverse in Bradford Exchange with little extra journey time being necessary. The opportunity was also taken to combine the existing Bradford Exchange/Leeds/Harrogate service, [which originated with the first dmus, the Derby Lightweights introduced c.1954], with the new Calder Valley service, thus creating a Liverpool Exchange/Manchester Victoria/Bradford/Leeds/Harrogate service.

It worked out very neatly - trains departing Liverpool at x30 past the even hour, x25 [and every hour] from Manchester, arriving Bradford x30, departing x35 past the next hour, arriving Leeds Central x57 and Harrogate x25 the next hour; returning at x35, Leeds x00/06, Bradford x25/x30 and Manchester x30 the following hour.

Most services during the day ran through to Harrogate but were curtailed at Leeds during the early morning, after tea-time and all day Sunday.

This pattern was then cut-back around 1965-66 as you say -[I'd gone away to university at that stage and lost touch with the local scene], and became the basic one train per hour, Manchester to Leeds you mention.

Further information can be found on the RailcarUK site:-

https://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-110/operations
 

alexl92

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Thanks for the nice words. As you’ve asked so politely, here’s another one - no need to play a guessing game here...
That bricked up tunnel looks interesting - where did that run to?
 

Welshman

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That was the branch to Ripponden and Rishworth up the Ryburn Valley.
It was originally intended to be continued through a tunnel under the Pennines to Littleborough, but was never completed.
Had it been finished, it would have become the main line to Lancashire, reducing the current distance via Hebden Bridge & Todmorden by 6 miles or so.
 

jp4712

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Fancy another one? Seems to have been taken shortly before or after the one that's been identified as Milnrow.
 

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Ploughman

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That was the branch to Ripponden and Rishworth up the Ryburn Valley.
It was originally intended to be continued through a tunnel under the Pennines to Littleborough, but was never completed.
Had it been finished, it would have become the main line to Lancashire, reducing the current distance via Hebden Bridge & Todmorden by 6 miles or so.
Is the tunnel still there?
Bricked up at least but is there any inside rockfall or collapses?
 

jp4712

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Here's another one! But GW this time, a big station. Birmingham Snow Hill?
 

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jp4712

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If it helps, I think this was taken on the same day (and I don't know where this one is, either...)
 

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Welshman

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Your first one [#28] looks like Chester General, and the second [#29] Llangollen - looking towards Corwen.
 
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