| Royston to Thornhill line | |
| Other Name: | West Riding Lines |
| Image Alt: | A track leading into the distance, fringed with trees on both sides and with an overbridge |
| Type: | Heavy rail |
| Status: | Closed |
| Locale: | West Yorkshire, England |
| Stations: | 4 (all goods-only) |
| Open: | see below: |
| Close: | 1968 (completely) |
| Event1label: | Royston to Thornhill Midland |
| Event1: | 1905 |
| Event2label: | Middlestown Junction to Dewsbury Savile Town |
| Event2: | 1906 |
| Event3label: | Mirfield to Huddersfield Newtown |
| Event3: | 1910 |
| Owner: | MR (1905 – 1948) BR (1948 – 1968) |
| Linelength: | total: |
The Royston to Thornhill line was a Midland Railway venture constructed in West Yorkshire, England, that had the intent to allow trains to travel from Sheffield to Bradford without going through . The scheme, which was promoted as the West Riding Lines, would have travelled underneath Bradford city centre in a long tunnel and ended up in the Aire Valley providing a through line across Bradford. In the event, only the section from Royston to Thornhill, a smaller branch to a goods station at Dewsbury Savile Town, and a longer branch from Mirfield to Huddersfield were ever built. By the late 1960s, the lines had all been closed, however, the viaducts at Bradley, Crigglestone, and Horbury still remain.
The line was promoted by the Midland Railway with a view to shortening the distance needed to travel from London St Pancras to Bradford, and also to allow the Midland to make inroads into the Huddersfield, Halifax and Dewsbury areas. The proposal received assent from Parliament in 1898, with a estimated cost of £2.1 million. The length of the entire line between Royston and Bradford was listed as, and the extension would put Bradford on the main line to London.[1] However, only of the proposed length was ever built; connecting Royston with Thornhill Junction, 2.5miles connecting to Dewsbury Savile Town, and a 4.5miles branch from Mirfield to Huddersfield Newtown.
Construction started in 1902 starting from Royston Junction, and was open from there to Thornhill Junction by November 1905, and into Dewsbury Savile Town by March 1906. Major engineering efforts on the line include viaducts at Horbury Bridge and Calder Grove (Crigglestone), and a 250yard tunnel at Crigglestone.[2] [3] After the Dewsbury branch had crossed the L&YR main line, the line dropped down a 1-in-40 gradient and passed through a tunnel before arriving at the terminus. The only major structure on the single-track Mirfield to Huddersfield Newtown Branch, was a 15-arch viaduct across the River Colne at Bradley. Had the scheme been carried out to the full plans, a new line would have been constructed along the Spen Valley, and a tunnel would have been required under Bradford for a length of, which would have started south of Bradford and emerged at the Midland Line from Forster Square just north of the platform ends at Forster Square. After the initial sections of the line were built, the Midland Railway halted any further construction stating that the engineering difficulties of building the line in Bradford were proving too costly. The plans for a line through Spen Valley were shelved when an agreement with the L&YR was reached regarding running powers over the line between Thornhill and Low Moor, thus allowing the Midland into Bradford without the need to build a new line.[4]
One of the conditions attached to the 1898 bill was that the Midland Railway were legally responsible protect the water rights for a water-powered mill in the Ripley area of Bradford. When tunnelling through hills, the normal approach is to drain all water away to the nearest watercourse, but this would have deprived Ripley's mill of its water, preventing it from operating. Consideration was given to a viaduct across Bradford instead of a tunnel, but by 1907, a West Riding Lines Abandonment Bill was being tabled in Parliament for changes to the original bill.[5] By 1910, three express trains per day were leaving Bradford for St Pancras, but using the L&YR lines to Thornhill Midland Junction, and the lack of a through station at Dewsbury (Savile Town was a terminus), led to the Dewsbury Town Council opposing an amended scheme that used running powers of the other lines than a continuation of the line through Dewsbury. The whole project was shelved at the start of the First World War, and never resurrected, with the scheme being formally abandoned in November 1919.[6]
Although the line was furnished with three stations, no passenger traffic called at these, and only the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway ran local passenger trains over the formation of the line as through trains, with the L&YR possessing running powers over the Midland line as far south as Sheffield. Longer-distance services, such as The Yorkshireman, saw a direct Bradford to London St Pancras (avoiding Leeds) using the line, but this only ran between 1925 and 1939, the service being cut back during the World War II. Most passenger services continued until 1948, but the last services ran over the line in 1968.[7] Middlestown and Crigglestone East stations had goods yards, and they were built with two platforms each, both of these aligned along the main running lines. Dewsbury Savile Town closed in 1950, however, the line was open from Middlestown Junction to Dewsbury well into the early 1960s as a wagon storage facility.[8]
The line was transferred from the London Midland Region of British Rail, to the North Eastern Region in 1957.[9] The bulk of the line was closed in 1968, though the section between Thornhill and Crigglestone Viaduct was kept open to provide materials for the building of the M1 at the eastern end.[10]
The eastern section of line through Notton is now bridleway and cyclepath, connecting with the Trans Pennine Trail in Royston.[11]
A further Midland branch extended from Mirfield to Huddersfield Newtown. The Midland built this line from Mirfield to Huddersfield as the LNWR would not allow the Midland running powers over their Line between Heaton Lodge Junction and Huddersfield. However, the original plan was to extend the line from Middlestown Junction all the way to Huddersfield, but the L&YR consented to allow the Midland Railway to use the section between Thornhill Midland Junction and Mirfield, before the Midland's own branch left southwards at Mirfield station. This benefitted the Midland in reduced costs of a longer line. The line ran for and was built as a double track formation, though only one running line was ever laid. Newtown Goods Yard, and the line opened on 1 November 1910. As the LNWR was amalgamated into the Midland at the Grouping of 1923, the longer line was deemed unnecessary, and so a connection was made with the main Huddersfield to Heaton Lodge line in 1923 at Red Doles Junction. Thereafter, goods trains from Newtown Yard propelled backwards up the line, so that they were facing the correct way to then run southwards to Hillhouse Yard, and the line to Mirfield from Red Doles Junction closed completely in 1937. This produced a shorter branch of 1miles between Red Doles and Newtown. Newtown Goods Yard closed in August 1968.
Horbury Viaduct is long, 26feet wide, and has 17 arches.[12] The viaduct is lower than at Crigglestone as it only reaches a maximum height of, and each span is across.[13] Crigglestone Viaduct spans the Hallam Line and the A645 road, and used to also run over old colliery workings, and the west to south Horbury curve railway line which closed in 1991. Crigglestone has 21 arches, spanning and is over 25m (82feet) high. From west to east, the first 16 arches are across, the next two are, and the final three are across.
Crigglestone straddled the coal workings for British Oak and Flockton collieries, the Horbury Curve (also known as the Crigglestone Curve) - a railway line connecting Horbury to the line going south from Wakefield to Barnsley, the A645, and finally, the Wakefield to Barnsley Line itself.[14] Both Horbury and Crigglestone viaducts are built of blue brick, and designed by J. A. McDonald.[15] In 2023, Crigglestone was renovated with repointed brickwork, vegetation cut back, and new bat boxes and bat tubes installed after it was found that pipistrelle bats were living within its structure.[16]
Bradley Viaduct is long, high, and has 15 arches.[17] Bradley Viaduct now forms part of the Calder Valley Greenway, and the section of the greenway between the viaduct and Mirfield, is on the former railway trackbed.[18]