Railways before our time

[Oldddudders]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-63557602

 

 

[62613]

Wasn't there a locoshed at Hillhouse? I can remember that piece of land being derelict in the early 1970s; so maybe not as old as they reckon

 

[Wickham Green too]

Looks like there were servicing pits dug across an older turntable pit - so at least two phases.

[4630]

The original Hillhouse Shed dates from around 1849 with the coming of the railway to Huddersfield.  The shed was enlarged in 1882/3 and again in 1905/6 when it became a through shed, before closure in January 1967.

 

Currently the whole site is a large compound for the TransPennine Route Upgrade.  Current plans show that a temporary platform(s)/temporary station for some services will be constructed here as the main Huddersfield station is set for some major alterations from 2024-2026, including the construction of additional platforms, before the installation of overhead electrification is undertaken.

[RichardT]

The initial paragraphs of the BBC report is an interesting example of how far the journalistic/popular descriptive vocabulary  for railway issues has diverged from the professional/enthusiast vocabulary…

 

”A railway siding dating back to the Victorian era has been unearthed by engineers upgrading a train route.

The siding at Hillhouse in Huddersfield was used for harbouring off-duty trains and was built about 172 years ago.

It included train sheds and railway turntables for services transporting cattle, coal and other materials across the country, according to Network Rail.”

 

“Train route”; “harbouring off-duty trains”; “train sheds” (in this context).  At least they didn’t say “Train station”!

 

RichardT

[Wickham Green too]

... and managed to avoid saying 'train siding' !

[Reorte]

It's "a siding" that raised my eyebrows, because uncovering the remains of an individual disused siding must surely be a very routine thing.

[nigb55009]

Why is it the BBC seem to use reporters with specific knowledge of the topic, for everytopci. If necessary moving them

from one end of the country to the other, on a daily basis in some cases. But when it comes to all things transport

related,  especially railways, the nearest hack will do. No effort seems to be made to research the subject. Any news item

 relating to railways gets the same old background photo of some third rail trackwork and a few lines of ill informed

words, most of which seems like guesswork. A discovery like Hillhouse would make an interesting article, not just for

railway enthusiasts, but also local historians and industrial archaeologists, if only someone could be bothered to do their

homework.

[GeoffAlan]

I see it when war reporters 'do a piece to camera' with an Armoured Vehicle is in shot or being discussed.

 

The word 'Tank' is used for anything at all and 99% of the time it isn't. 

 

So it's not so shocking that reporters don't know the difference between a locomotive and a train. 

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, GeoffAlan said:

... The word 'Tank' is used for anything at all and 99% of the time it isn't. ...

Even Gruber's 'little tank' was an armoured car !

[The Stationmaster]

But which turntable is it?  A 42ft turntable was provided at Hillhouse shed in 1882/3 and a 65ft table was provided in 1905/6  -presumably replacing the earlier table.  the original shed appears to have dated from 1854 but it 'sn't clear from any information that I can find if it had a turntable.

 

Comparing the photos on the BBC item the turntable now being uncovered would appear to be the 1882/83 table the site of which would have been partially obliterated by the 1905/6 alterations to the shed buildings which considerably extened them.

 

Quite where 172 years conmes from I'm not sure.  There are unclear indications about a shed being built at Hillhouse in 1849 but the only clear date is 1854.  And in any case the site which is being excavated most neatly aligns with the 25" OS map position of the 1882/3 turntable which in turn makes it 140 years old, not 172 years old.

 

The shed had the great pleasure of paying host to a WR 'Grange' in 1964 which had managed to get as far north as Huddersfield before somebody noticed that it wasn't meant to have got that far.

Edited November 9, 2022 by The Stationmaster

[keefer]

9 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

The shed had the great pleasure of paying host to a WR 'Grange' in 1964 which had managed to get as far north as Huddersfield before somebody noticed that it wasn't meant to have got that far

Before or after it had taken lumps out of platforms? 🙂

[4630]

41 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

 

Quite where 172 years conmes from I'm not sure.  There are unclear indications about a shed being built at Hillhouse in 1849 but the only clear date is 1854.  And in any case the site which is being excavated most neatly aligns with the 25" OS map position of the 1882/3 turntable which in turn makes it 140 years old, not 172 years old.

 

 

My supposition, when I was considering the date, was that whoever wrote the piece was using the date when construction of the nearby Huddersfield Station was completed in October 1850, 172 years ago.

 

Train services had actually commenced a year or so earlier though, before the station had been finished! 

Edited November 9, 2022 by 4630
spelling