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THE AIRE VALLEY LINE FROM LEEDS TO BRADFORD  

PART 3 - CALVERLEY & RODLEY TO BRADFORD

Please note...some photos have been re-sized to fit the page. If the text is illegible - simply click on photo (as you would a thumbnail) to see the correct formatted (readable) size.  

 

 

 

 


 

In the days before air-tight plastic food containers (Tupperware) was invented, an ex-Army & Navy shoulder bag was an essential accessory for spotting trips. It contained jam butties the size of breeze blocks, 'fizzy' pop, an Ian Allan ab

 
c and notebook - and, above all else, a Kodak Brownie 127 camera (buried beneath half a bag of Jammy Dodger biscuit crumbs). The camera had a shutter speed of 1/25 second and was the cheapest way of getting started in railway photography, but the temptation to fill the viewfinder with a speeding locomotives (to the exclusion of everything else in the surroundings) inevitably ended up with a set of blurred shots. It wasn't until my dad suggested taking a step back from the action and embracing more of the railway scene that things improved - and thank goodness I heeded his advice, because the railway network has changed out of all recognition over
 
the years and the general view often produces a more interesting picture. In this view, Midland Compound No 41121 heads a Leeds City-Bradford Forster Square local train in July 1958   

(Left) The folly of youth! It's amazing the lengths to which some photographers will go to bag that all illusive ‘master’ shot!  I've seen cameramen shinny up signal posts, climb onto roofs and hang perilously from trees. But then, I’m as guilty as the next man, which is the reason I've included this shot of the Leeds-Liverpool canal at Calverley and Rodley in 1962. It shows the now-demolished gasometer, which, at its full height, provided a panoramic view of the Aire Valley line in both directions. I don’t know what  lunatic tendency told me that I’d get a great shot of the railway if I climbed to the top, but I did...I sat there in full view of the public like a prized-lemon - there's no place to hide on top of a gasometer! Still I managed to bag this shot of a Black 5 heading across the River Aire towards Leeds with an engineers train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 
     (Below) Two conventional three-quarter lineside shots of the same stretch of line as above...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
(Above Left) The permanent way gang responsible for the quadrupled section of track between Leeds and Shipley should be congratulated, because it was always kept in immaculate condition during the Sixties. Today the standard of upkeep of the rail network is nowhere near as good, with sizeable weeds poking through the ballast between the sleepers. Now I’m not a keen gardener, but I do know that if weeds are left unattended they soon grow into the size of bushes, and they flourish in all kinds of places, not only on lightly-used rural branch lines, but also in the vicinity of busy main line stations. And it isn’t because of some new anti-herbicide legislation either, but neglect. The permanent way is the very foundation of the rail network, and if weeds are allowed to clog the drainage, the ballast can become uneven and alter the alignment of track. It does give an altogether untidy look...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 To be continued....

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