So I better finish writing about our LAST trip to the UK, right?
In my December 19, 2021 post, I left off with our visit to East Riddlesden Hall. A short drive from the Hall is the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, a unique 5-mile branch line railway set in the heart of West Yorkshire. Heritage steam and diesel trains run through stunning Bronte Country, an area which straddles the West Yorkshire and East Lancashire Pennines in the North of England. It was a broody, rainy day, and with the windswept land of heather and wild moors outside the train windows, it is hardly surprising that this region became the inspiration for the classic works of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
I was fascinated by the switching station in the picture to the right. If you look at the bottom left of the photo, you can see cables running from the switch house to the railroad track. Inside the switch house are levers that are pulled or pushed, which move sections of the track, directing the train to one set of tracks or another! I had never imagined it was such a simple AND manual process!
We purchased a ticket that allowed us to get off the train at various stops. We began on the diesel train, which you can see in the picture below. The various stations evoked bygone eras with signage and other features.
While we waited for the steam train to arrive, we thoroughly explored the station, which had real coal fires in the men's and ladies' waiting rooms. The ladies could enjoy the comfort of a proper toilet with a ceiling pull; the men had to go outside to a latrine with no roof at all. For all the times I have had to stand in lines for the women's room, I felt a certain sense of satisfaction with this arrangement!
Below is a video of the steam train pulling into the station. There is something so entrancing about the chug-chug-chug, the billowing smoke from the engine and the lonesome whistle heralding its arrival.
Spousal Unit has long been a fan of beers brewed by Timothy Taylor's. Wouldn't you know that the Brewery was established in the center of Keighley in 1858, and the steam train serves Timothy Taylor's beers? Spousal Unit and my father-in-law were in heaven!
Oxenhope is the terminus of the Railway in the shadow of the surrounding moors. We had only 30 minutes to peruse two museums co-located with the station, which was not nearly enough time. (In that time, the crew moves the engine from the "front" of the train to the "back", so that we can make the return journey.) I had to take pictures of the signs for the Great Northern Railway; coincidentally, the Great Northern Railway built the depot that houses the museum where I volunteer once a week! Not the same company, obviously!
One of the museums exclusively focused on vintage carriages. Visitors could walk through some of them, and others were available for viewing from the outside only. The museum had enabled this by building large viewing platforms at window level. Most of the carriages had placards in the windows, listing the movies and/or TV programs that had utilized the carriage as a filming location. The display at left gave just a few examples. (all pictures will enlarge if clicked on)
Below are close-ups of the side panels - you can see the names of programs (such as Peaky Blinders) that have featured these carriages!
The museum also had intriguing displays on other topics, such as Railway catering, and how it has changed over the years. As I say, 30 minutes didn't begin to cover it; you could easily spend a half day just at the two museums at this stop!
I am grateful that railway enthusiasts have invested such passion in the preservation of history, to the benefit of us all. Even one of the stations was an outstanding example of conservation. At Ingrow West, the original station was so badly vandalized between closure in 1961 and re-opening in 1968, all that could be done was to keep the site tidy and use it as an unstaffed request stop. Bradford Council and the Railway Preservation Society took the opportunity to improve the site by replacing the station building. A suitable structure was found just across the Pennines at the disused Foulridge Railway Station near Colne, Lancashire. The Victorian building had lain disused since the closure of Foulridge in the 1960s. Here is how it looked when it was chosen as the replacement.
The structure was removed and rebuilt at Ingrow West; the unveiling took place on July 22, 1989. Here is how it appears today!
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