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THE AIRE VALLEY LINE FROM LEEDS TO BRADFORD
PART 3 - CALVERLEY & RODLEY TO BRADFORD
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(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.

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


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(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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