Idle railway station

Disused railway station in West Yorkshire, England

53°50′09″N 1°43′54″W / 53.8358°N 1.7316°W / 53.8358; -1.7316Platforms2Other informationStatusDisusedHistoryOriginal companyGNRPre-groupingGNRPost-groupingL&NERKey dates15 April 1875Opened2 February 1931Closed (passenger)7 October 1968Closed (line)
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  • e
Bradford Lines
Legend
Steeton and Silsden
Ilkley
Keighley
Ben Rhydding
Keighley (GN)
Burley-in-Wharfedale
Menston
Guiseley
Ingrow West
Ingrow East
Crossflatts
Damems
Cullingworth
Bingley
Esholt
Oakworth
Wilsden
Saltaire
Denholme
Shipley
Thornton
Shipley
and Windhill
to Halifax
Queensbury
Frizinghall
Clayton
Manningham
Great Horton
Bradford Forster Sq
Horton Park
Bradford Exchange
City Road
Bradford Interchange
Manchester Road
St Dunstans
Bradford Adolphus St
Thackley
Bowling
Idle
Bowling Junction
Laisterdyke
Eccleshill
to Leeds
Dudley Hill
Birkenshaw and Tong
Low Moor
Low Moor
Goods
Spen Valley line
to Mirfield
Wyke and Norwood Green
Calder Valley line
to Halifax

Idle railway station was a railway station in Idle, West Yorkshire, England.[1]

History

During the 1860s, two small railway companies were formed to promote suburban railways in Bradford, the Bradford, Eccleshill and Idle Railway and the Idle and Shipley Railway. Their schemes - and the companies themselves - were taken up by the Great Northern Railway, which built a line looping through the villages to the north-east of Bradford: from Laisterdyke, through Eccleshill, Idle and Thackley to Shipley.

The line was open to goods traffic on 4 May 1874, and to passengers on 18 January 1875.[2] Idle railway station opened on 15 April 1875[3] and was situated south of the High Street next to the Oddfellows Hall, built in 1840.

Passenger service on the line ceased on 2 February 1931 and the passenger station closed, though goods traffic continued on the whole line until October 1964 and between Shipley and Idle until 1968.[4]

Little now remains to show that there was ever a railway station in Idle. The station was just south of the bridge where the railway crossed High Street at the junction with New Street. It then followed the route of what is now Idlecroft Road south towards Eccleshill.

Route

Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Thackley   GNR
Shipley Great Northern Railway branch line
  Eccleshill

References

  1. ^ Whitaker, Alan; Myland, Brian. Railway Memories No. 4: Bradford. Bellcode books. ISBN 1-871233-03-8.
  2. ^ Bairstow, Martin (1999). The Great Northern Railway in the East Riding. Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-19-8.
  3. ^ "Bradford timeline 1850-1899". Retrieved 26 December 2009.
  4. ^ Joy, David (1984). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain Volume VIII South and West Yorkshire. David St John Thomas. ISBN 0-946537-11-9.