Queensbury Station Halifax Junction - Queensbury, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The railway line was abandoned to passengers in 1955 and then goods traffic in 1965. Part of the route has now been converted to The Great Northern Railway Trail cycle and walking route (National Route 69).

The boards have an old map drawn at the time of the railway opening showing the railway lines and junction at Queensbury station. There is also a modern map showing the area as it is now and available walking routes.

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY TRAIL
QUEENSBURY STATION
HALIFAX JUNCTION

Welcome to Halifax Junction of Queensbury Station where once railway lines from Bradford and Keighley converged and then entered the famous Queensbury Tunnel which then carried trains through to Halifax.

Railway History
In 1864, the Halifax & Ovenden Junction Railway was given permission by Parliament to build a line from Halifax to Holmfield. 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

Briggs Tramway (shown below in blue)
To the left of where you are standing was a narrow gauge tramway that linked a coal mine near the brick chimney behind you to the township of Queensbury. You can still make out the trackbed of this line in the fields in front of you. An unusual proposal was put forward in 1895 to use the tramway as a way of getting passengers to the station from the township. However this was scrapped due to safety fears and the tramway was eventually abandoned in the early part of the 20th Century.

Queensbury Tunnel
Queensbury Tunnel gave the people who engineered and constructed it a huge challenge that would take 5 1/2 years. Construction began on May 21st 1874 and passenger trains were eventually allowed to run through to Halifax in December 1879.
Its length of 1 mile 741 yards ( 2.3 km) made Queensbury the longest tunnel on the GNR system at that time. Three hundred men were employed in the construction of the tunnel, with relays of horses being used to bring explosives from South Wales to blast through the sandstone and millstone grit. However, progress was slow and a specialised tunnel boring machine - revolutionary in its day - was eventually brought in to grind through the hard rock.
Eight shafts were planned for the tunnel to aid construction time with men mining at each of these and also at the tunnel entrances. Five of the shafts became useful for ventilation upon completion, the deepest being 379 feet. At least 2 fatal accidents occurred at these shafts.
One man died when a rope being used to haul up a cage from the shaft broke and he was struck as it fell. Two of his colleagues working nearby narrowly escaped with their lives as the cage plunged down. Several other workers were killed or injured either by falling material or when ramming the explosives into holes they had drilled in the rock. It was very dangerous work.
Completion of Queensbury Tunnel was celebrated by a sumptuous meal for the workers, provided by the contractors, and they had the privilege of being the first people to travel through it on a special train.
The tunnel always had a reputation for being very wet and in winter a locomotive was sometimes specially employed to let off steam along its length to prevent a build up of large icicles.
At the Queensbury end, smoke often obscured a signal for the South Junction that was positioned inside the tunnel, so a mechanical 'gong' was installed to warn engine crews of its approach.

Type of Historic Marker: Standalone metal board Historical Marker Issuing Authority: Bradford City MBC Related Website: [Web Link] Give your Rating: Age/Event Date: Not listed

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