Thornton Railway Viaduct - Thornton, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 47.348 W 001° 51.364
30U E 575361 N 5960667
This 20 arch stone railway viaduct used to carry The Great Northern Railway line but now carries the 'rails to trails' Great Northern Railway Trail (National Route 69).
Waymark Code: WMV467
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/20/2017
Views: 0
The Railway
In 1864, the Halifax & Ovenden Junction Railway was given permission by Parliament to build a line from Halifax to Holmefie1d. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) and the Great Northern Railway (GNR) were both subscribers to this scheme. In 1871, the Bradford & Thornton Railway, supported by local industrialists and the GNR, was also granted rights to construct a line to serve the industries to the west of Bradford. A more ambitious plan was devised in 1873 to connect both of these lines and also construct a route through towards Keighley. This necessitated the boring of the Queensbury Tunnel and excavating a rock face called Strines' cutting. In total they cut, blasted and dug through over 2 miles of solid rock. This proved to be costly and major undertaking which was not without incident.
Passenger trains ran until 1955, and goods trains until 1963
The Viaduct
Thornton Viaduct is a disused railway viaduct crossing Pinch Beck valley at Thornton, near the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It has 20 arches, is 270 metres long and at its highest point 30 metres high. It was built in an S-shape to allow a smooth access to Thornton station. The viaduct was part of the GNR's Queensbury Lines running between Queensbury and Keighley. It stopped carrying passengers in 1955 but remained open to goods until the 1960s. At that time, the railway closed and the tracks were pulled up. The viaduct is now a Grade II listed building.
The viaduct was reopened in 2008 as part of the Great Northern Railway Trail between Cullingworth and Queensbury along the track bed.
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