British Pathé

Last Thursday British Pathé released their entire archive of 85,000 newsreel films spanning the period 1896 to 1976, and uploaded them to YouTube. I'm sure this will be an interesting historical resource for many reasons, but from a quick look lere is plenty of interesting railway related footage.

For example, a quick search led me to two interesting films from 1926 and 1927 about the construction of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a 1930 film showing the LNER Hush-Hush loco, and a 1962 film from Dinorwic Quarry.

Given where I grew up though, one of my favourites so far shows the early days of preservation on the Middleton Railway:

Henry de Lacy II

If you've been reading this blog since the first post, or have read the relevant posts on my other blog, you will know I have a fondness for Flying Scotsman. Now you may thing that if, as a child, I was going to have a photo of a steam train on my bedroom wall that it would be of Flying Scotsman. You would, however, be wrong. The photo on my bedroom wall was of Henry de Lacy II.

My Dad took the photo, and thanks to my Mum careful labelling each slide, I know that it was shot on the 16th of April 1983 at Middleton Railway; note that the slide is in better condition than this image gives it credit, but as my Dad has borrowed my slide scanner this was scanned using the slide adaptor on my flatbed scanner which doesn't produce particularly good images. I'm not sure why this particular photo should have ended up on my wall but it could actually be the first steam engine I saw in the flesh. Of all the slides of steam engines my parents have recently given me (and which formed part of the inspiration for this blog) it's got the earliest date so there is a good chance this was taken on my first trip to a steam railway.

Henry de Lacy II was built by Hudswell Clarke and Company in 1917 for use at Kirkstall Forge in Leeds where it spent it's entire working life. Apparently it was the second of four locomotives to be named after Baron Henry de Laci of Pontefract, who, in 1152, allowed Cistercian monks to found an abbey adjacent to the site of Kirkstall Forge. Interestingly it is the only locomotive at Middleton Railway to have arrived under it's own power having used the mainline network to travel from the forge to the railway when, in 1968, the forge donated it to the railway.

Henry de Lacy II can still be found at Middleton Railway, although now as a static exhibit in the engine shed -- if you take care to follow the health and safety notices you can even visit it's cab. Looking at the old photo I think it was probably a static exhibit back in 1983 as there is a board placed across the chimney. Either way it's actually looking a lot better now after a new coat of paint.

A Steam Powered Elephant

When we visited Middleton Railway for their 200 Years of Steam gala, as well as a number of visiting old locomotives they also had a steam elephant on show! This steam elephant is actually a working replica of a very old locomotive.

Current thinking is that the original was built in 1815 by John Buddle and William Chapman for Wallsend Colliery which was situated on the north bank of the River Tyne. Details on when it was built and how it worked are sketchy as it is only known from a few paintings. This replica was built at Beamish for use on the Pockerley Waggonway.

I did take a short video clip of it moving, but it didn't turn out very well (I forgot that the expensive camera I own takes rubbish videos, while the cheap camera takes excellent videos) so I'm not going to show you it in motion. Suffice it to say that it's by far the strangest looking steam engine I've ever seen.

Eight Days A Week

Okay so I promised to stop with the musical puns but having used a Rolling Stones track I thought I should balance things out with a Beatles track! The title should really read "Eight Days A Year".

The Middleton Railway currently runs from the edge of Middleton Park to Moor Road in Hunslet. Of course when it was a working railway it continued on into the centre of Leeds. The line into Leeds, known as the Balm Road branch, still exists but in all the times I've visited the railway or been past I've never seen it in use. The problem is that on leaving the station it crosses Moor Road. There is no level crossing, no barriers, and no warning lights just the rails embedded in the tarmac.

When we visited the railway in June the branch was open and in use. Traffic was stopped simply by two men with red flags, a bit like a school crossing. When we boarded the train for the short trip down the branch I overheard a conversation between one of the railways volunteers and another visitor. It turns out that the reason the branch isn't used very often is that because of the nature of the road crossing they are only allowed to take fare paying passengers across it on eight days during the year. If they wanted to use it more often than that then they would have to pay to upgrade the safety of the crossing, something that they can't afford.

Health And Safety

To make sure you don't get bored reading about my attempts to build a 12 ton coal wagon I thought I'd post a photo I took at Middleton Railway during their 200 Years of Steam Gala.

Now given this was attached to a static exhibit, I think only the last warning actually applies. Had the engine been in steam then the most important warning was missing: assume everything in the cab is burning hot!

200 Years Of Steam

When I was growing up the closest place I could be taken to see steam engines in action was Middleton Railway (Google Maps recons it's a 3.5 mile, nine minute car drive from my parents house).

The railway opened in 1758 using horse drawn waggons to pull thousands of tons of coal a year from the Middleton Colliery into the heart of Leeds. In 1812 it moved from horse drawn waggons to became the first railway in the world to successfully use steam locomotives in a commercial environment. Middleton Railway also has a more recent history of firsts when, in 1960, it became the first completely volunteer operated society to run passenger services on a standard gauge railway. For a more detailed history see the societies own history page.

To celebrate 200 years of steam locomotives working on the line, a few weekends ago they hosted a large steam gala, with all their operational steam engines in action as well as a number of visiting locomotives. It was the first time I'd visited the railway in at least twenty years so a lot had changed. Firstly, when I used to visit the ticket office and shop was a tiny little cabin at the edge of the car park, now it's housed inside a purpose built engine shed and museum which houses some of the locomotives I remember, although now as static exhibits awaiting overhaul. I'm intending to write about some of the locomotives in separate posts, but for this post I thought I'd show you the country's oldest operational steam locomotive: Furness Railway No. 20. It was built in 1863 by Sharp Stewart & Co. of Manchester making it 149 years old and still going strong (although it has had numerous bits replaced in that time). A perfect visitor for the 200 Years of Steam gala event.