Platform canopies at Sowerby Bridge

It was a very big station the area that is now the woodwork machinery building was platforms.

and a large engine shed

Some Photos for you at snipped-for-privacy@clara.net

"Trev" wrote

The link doesn't seem to work.

John.

some silly Billy stuck a & in try

"Trev" wrote

Thank you. Think Sowerby Bridge was the only shed in Yorkshire I failed to visit in steam days. :-(

John.

Sowerby Bridge had an island platform at the south side (I remember changing one cold Saturday morning in the late 60s from a Bradford Exchange to Sowerby Bridge service to a York to Manchester Vic one - both 110s and the change was from one side of the island to the other) but it's now filled in.

The canopies may be a rare example of the LMS spending money on stations - more common than the LNER, though. I don't think they're L&Y. They were there on that late 60s morning. They did remind me of other LMS stuff, at Bradford FS for instance.

The canopies look to be in the style of the Midland - if that was possible.

Jim.

Thanks to all for feedback - the present canopies, judging by the architecture, look very BR-era but, as Tim says, could well be '30s/'40s LMS structures (the canopies and waiting rooms at Derby Midland are another vaguely similar example of LMS concrete 'n' glass that springs to mind). The fact that the station lost much of its importance in the early '70s suggests that they aren't diesel era additions, as by that time I'd have thought that 'bus shelters' would have been more in keeping with the station's downgraded status. The canopies also resemble one erected on the main Up platform at Wakefield Kirkgate *before* the overall roof was dismantled; this canopy features in one or two Treacy photos of Britannias I've seen, and so was definitely there in the BR steam era.

David Belcher

I think the current canopies are from the early/mid 1960s and were erected by BR, Both Wakefield Westgate and Wakefield Kirkgate have similar ones which would suggest that they were not LMS as Westgate was an LNER station.

They are not the same canopies as those shown in Martin Bairstow's book.

The station remained fairly important until the witrhdrawal of the Calder Valley service to York in 1970. Through trains from Manchester went to Leeds via Bradford or York via Wakefield and you had to change to go down the other line.

"Paul Rigg" wrote

Kirkgate station is a disgrace and there's not much there in the way of quality architecture. These 2003 shots shows the best of the (modern) canopies

More encouraging info! Another question - the signal box I plan to use has the top half of an old Tri-ang box (despite the garish red plastic base, a very good reproduction of an LMR Type 15 structure) on a home-built interlocking/relay room with interior details nicked from a ruined Merit "Potters Bar" PSB kit (resulting in a small panel box similar to those at Chinley or Crewe Sorting Sidings). Were any LMR Type 15s ever built on that side of the Pennines (I know that quite a few routes didn't properly transfer to the NER until ca.1958), or is modeller's licence the best excuse here? I know of one or two on the S&C, such as Long Meg and Kirkby Stephen, but this is too far north of my layout's location, really.

David Belcher

Greetland Junction could be one just 2 miles or so East of Sowerby Bridge towards Elland and Mirfield.

Don't remember Sowerby Bridge East, although there must have been one because the Milner Royd Junction distant was at the East end of the down platform. There was a missing signal which must have been the Sowerby Bridge East Starter. Sowerby Bridge West was at the East end of Sowerby Bridge tunnel, it was on old fasioned box and was burnt down in about 1983, although it had been switched out for a while previously, leaving a long section between Milner Royd Junction and Hebden Bridge

Should be a good layout - lots of scope for interesting trains.

I don't think so. The Midland used hipped ends to each bay of the roof; the sloping ends have only been cut back in recent decades, presumably to save on maintenance. I couldn't find a very clear picture online, but this:

Nick

Nick,

I'll have to wait till I get home and check my references, but I pretty sure that flat gable-ended canopies were also used by the Midland. I've found a picture of Ashchurch station which shows an open ended canopy and I'm sure this is how I've seen early pictures of this station.

I'll check up when I get home on Saturday.

Jim.

I have added two more image's of text documents with track plan and information that might be of use.

Same place

Which publication are the track plans from?

MBQ

Model Railways, if you can remember that, March 1978

Fairly sure that Greetland is an LMS ARP-spec box built in the '40s. Elland is certainly a BR box, but of a North Eastern Region design similar to the one that used to be at Morley.

Not that much scope, I suspect, as it's a minimum-space town-centre terminus [1]; 3 platforms (2 main ones + a bay), shortish passenger/parcels trains only (the goods yard & MPD are supposedly somewhere 'up the line'), mainly local stopping trains, some semi-fasts of corridor stock to/from Manchester (Vic.), and as befits the ex-L&Y lines in West Yorks., one or two workings of Marylebone through coaches. Though only a small layout, the station throat has some complex pointwork to keep things visually interesting.

David Belcher

Nick,

Just had a chance to check up and in the OPC book on LMS architecture it states that the Midland ridge and furrow awnings were pioneered on the Leicester to Hitchin line and shows a picture of Kettering station in virtually original condition with vertical ends to the awnings which had wooden boarding. Similar canopies were used on the Bedford to London line and Elstree station is illustrated showing the vertical end awnings. And there is Ashchuch station which I mentioned earlier which had open ends to the awnings.

The awnings with hipped ends, and supported on lattice girders, seem to have appeared a bit later and various stations are illustrated - Loughborouigh, Skipton, Melton Mowbray, Burton-on-Trent, etc.

Jim.