Woodlesford

The Story of a Station
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A Deltic hauled Pullman passes Water Haigh colliery on a Sunday morning in the early 1960s.  The train ran fom London Kings Cross to Edinburgh via Leeds and Harrogate and was probably diverted through Woodlesford because of engineering work on the Great Northern route between Wakefield Westgate and Leeds. During the diversions the distinctive throaty roar of the Deltic's Napier diesel engines would often disturb the Holy Communion service at Woodlesford All Saints church. The signals protected the junction of the line from the pit onto the main line. The bridge in the middle distance was constructed in 1909 just before the pit opened in 1910. The contractors were John Butler and Company of the Stanningley Iron Works in Leeds and they charged the Midland Railway £270 and 1 shilling. The line which runs under it connected Armitage's Quarries to the railway and the Aire and Calder canal. Some of the rails from this line are still embedded in the roadway along Eshald Lane.