HISTORY (curtosy of wiki)
The first Hellifield railway station was opened by the little north western rialway in 1849. It was a modest structure, similar to those at gargrave and long preston and sited 1⁄4 mile (0.4 km) to the south of the present one. A much larger replacement (the current station) was built by the midland Rrailway and opened on 1 June 1880,immediately to the north of the junction of the line from leeds and the newly completed Lancashire and Yorkshire railway route from blackburn via clitheroe It soon became a busy junction (as it was now located on the Midland Railway's main line from london to Scotland), with trains going to:
The line from Blackburn had its local passenger service withdrawn on 10 September 1962, but it remains open for goods traffic and periodic diversions when the West Coast main line is closed north of preston for engineering work. The adjacent locomotive shed closed the following year and local trains from the station to Carlisle ended in May 1970, although it continued to be served by expresses to and from glasgow until 1975. Thereafter it was downgraded to unstaffed halt status and served only by stopping trains between Leeds and Morecambe.
In April 1977 the main station building was designated as a Grade II listed building.
By the late 1980s the main buildings and canopies were in very poor condition and under threat of demolition, but following a £500,000 cash injection from british rail in conjunction with English heritage and the Railway Heritage Trust, they were refurbished and returned to private commercial use. Trains to and from Carlisle also started calling again in May 1995 to further encourage use of the station and its newly restored amenities.
Between 2005 and 2008, the station was used as the operating base for Kingfisher Railtours' Dalesman steam-hauled charter trains over the settle Carlisle line. Facilities on offer to the travelling public at the station include the Long Drag cafe & gift shop and a heritage room used to exhibit items and photographs connected to the Settle-Carlisle route. The station is also still used by special trains and steam-hauled railway tours as a water stop and traction changeover point. It has also undergone further structural refurbishment in the summer of 2013, with network rail carrying out £500,000 of work on the Grade II listed building to repair/replace the glazing and repaint the canopies.
The last remaining signal box at the station (there were three until 1966) is one of only two manual boxes left in operation between Leeds and carnforth (the other being at Settle Junction). It acts as the 'fringe' box to the Leeds workstation of York IECC in the Skipton direction, as well as controlling the junction and a pair of goods loops that are used to help regulate the increasingly heavy levels of freight traffic on the Carlisle, Leeds and Blackburn lines.
REPORT
So ive been wanting to do this for a while, although the station is derelict more or less there is no entry into the listed buildings and theres 24 hour cctv in operation monitored from the control box by what I can only describe as a 70s throwback. Anyway I didn't come for the station I came for another reason.....
The train
The train is a diesel class 44 royal mail train with 12 carriages or so I thought , on closer inspection it turned out to be five locos each with two to three carriages there are three royal mail and two England Scotland and wales railway service trains.
theres plenty left to see all the original features still in situ sat on the sidings behind the old engine shed
any way time for piks
The first Hellifield railway station was opened by the little north western rialway in 1849. It was a modest structure, similar to those at gargrave and long preston and sited 1⁄4 mile (0.4 km) to the south of the present one. A much larger replacement (the current station) was built by the midland Rrailway and opened on 1 June 1880,immediately to the north of the junction of the line from leeds and the newly completed Lancashire and Yorkshire railway route from blackburn via clitheroe It soon became a busy junction (as it was now located on the Midland Railway's main line from london to Scotland), with trains going to:
- Clitheroe
- skipton
- Leeds
- Blackburn
- settle
- carlisle
- manchester
- morcambe
The line from Blackburn had its local passenger service withdrawn on 10 September 1962, but it remains open for goods traffic and periodic diversions when the West Coast main line is closed north of preston for engineering work. The adjacent locomotive shed closed the following year and local trains from the station to Carlisle ended in May 1970, although it continued to be served by expresses to and from glasgow until 1975. Thereafter it was downgraded to unstaffed halt status and served only by stopping trains between Leeds and Morecambe.
In April 1977 the main station building was designated as a Grade II listed building.
By the late 1980s the main buildings and canopies were in very poor condition and under threat of demolition, but following a £500,000 cash injection from british rail in conjunction with English heritage and the Railway Heritage Trust, they were refurbished and returned to private commercial use. Trains to and from Carlisle also started calling again in May 1995 to further encourage use of the station and its newly restored amenities.
Between 2005 and 2008, the station was used as the operating base for Kingfisher Railtours' Dalesman steam-hauled charter trains over the settle Carlisle line. Facilities on offer to the travelling public at the station include the Long Drag cafe & gift shop and a heritage room used to exhibit items and photographs connected to the Settle-Carlisle route. The station is also still used by special trains and steam-hauled railway tours as a water stop and traction changeover point. It has also undergone further structural refurbishment in the summer of 2013, with network rail carrying out £500,000 of work on the Grade II listed building to repair/replace the glazing and repaint the canopies.
The last remaining signal box at the station (there were three until 1966) is one of only two manual boxes left in operation between Leeds and carnforth (the other being at Settle Junction). It acts as the 'fringe' box to the Leeds workstation of York IECC in the Skipton direction, as well as controlling the junction and a pair of goods loops that are used to help regulate the increasingly heavy levels of freight traffic on the Carlisle, Leeds and Blackburn lines.
REPORT
So ive been wanting to do this for a while, although the station is derelict more or less there is no entry into the listed buildings and theres 24 hour cctv in operation monitored from the control box by what I can only describe as a 70s throwback. Anyway I didn't come for the station I came for another reason.....
The train
The train is a diesel class 44 royal mail train with 12 carriages or so I thought , on closer inspection it turned out to be five locos each with two to three carriages there are three royal mail and two England Scotland and wales railway service trains.
theres plenty left to see all the original features still in situ sat on the sidings behind the old engine shed
any way time for piks
Last edited: