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Report - - Horbury West Curve/Crigglestone Curve, West Yorkshire - Various Visits, 2011-12 | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Horbury West Curve/Crigglestone Curve, West Yorkshire - Various Visits, 2011-12

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J.M.

28DL Member
28DL Member
Hello all, well, I guess I might as well post the only piece of exploration photography I've ever really done, my photographs of Crigglestone Curve, going from mid 2011 to early 2012.

If I might say, this was a very special place for me, I'd come here when life was particularly rough, and the result is I went across every inch of the place from end to end. By spring 2012 I no longer had the time and sometime in the year I was told by a friend the line had been pulled up - seems Network Rail got fed up of it being declared part of the infrastructure!

You'll all have seen plenty of this before, it's a pretty well known piece of land and often used by dog walkers it's so easy to access. On the Northern end of the line is where I liked to spend the most time - at the set of buffers just before the meeting point at the Horbury Main Line. My pictures include the Summer and Autumn of 2011 and the snow in January 2012. These were way before I ever considered taking pictures for anything other than self amusement and I used a rather naff Kodak Easyshare to take them - the result is quality in some places is absolutely shocking, for which I apologise! I also apologise for some of the editing and 'cooking' I've done on the pictures - I experimented a lot with the old computer and what have you.

The line opened in 1902 to goods with passenger service four months later. It was little more than a connection between the Lancashire & Yorkshire’s main Todmorden-Wakefield line and its branch to Barnsley. Passenger traffic was already on the wane by the start of the Second World War, with the irregular service closing in 1961.
Up until 1991 it was still used for a less than regular freight service, however, by February 1991 the line was closed with both ends buffered off - as seen here. For a few brief moments while open the line was host to the royal train, where it would be stabled at night.

Nearby the Northern End is an old crossing or bridge. I'm still unsure as to..well, what it is. Perhaps part of the mythical colliery branch? Also nearby was the rubble of what I believe was a more substantial bridge roughly in line to this one. A mystery!
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The aforementioned buffer:
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The Northern end of the line going towards the river bridges. This patch was in suspiciously good condition despite the heavy mounds of brambles and branches to act as a deterrent. The rabbits were an excitable bunch and I had no success getting a picture of them...
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The River Bridge is probably the best known feature of the line. It's quite a substantial one!
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Down by the middle of the line is the bridleway's bridge.
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The skewed tunnel must've been a right ballache! It could still take a train through it, anyday.
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