Wild West Yorkshire
Rhubarb and Spanish
© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2018
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
21 March 2018
We’re out for the day, using another of those £10 day rover
tickets on Northern Rail. It was going to involve a trip around
the Cumbrian Coast and down the Settle and Carlisle, but the
weather forecast discouraged us - instead, we’ll head for
West Yorkshire, and explore some of the more obscure lines.
After the short run from Nantwich, our Northern Rail journey
begins at Crewe, on a Piccadilly (via the airport) service. A
quick walk through the centre of Manchester gets us to
Victoria, and a Leeds-bound train via the Calder valley. We
were going to change to a Huddersfield - Wakefield train at
Mirfield, but a short delay for signals at Bradley Wood meant
we arrived at Mirfield too late for our connection. We decided
to stay on the train to Leeds…
… where, after buying some lunch, we joined a Knottingley
via Castleford train. We would be following our original plan
in reverse for a while. The service terminates at Knottingley;
our class 150 DMU disappeared down the line towards Goole -
and returned a little while later, having crossed over to the
opposite track.
We’re retracing our steps now, as far as Pontefract (home of
the confection we called “Spanish”, in the days when a
threepenny bit would buy a pocketful. Most people would call
it liquorice). From Pontefract, the train continues towards
Wakefield (HQ of the “rhubarb triangle”), along a route which
was freight-only in the days of colliery steam.
The once-grand station at Wakefield Kirkgate was a sad mess
of rusting structural steelwork last time I was there, 15 years
ago almost to the day (see “Derby to Donny”, 22 March
2003). It’s been refurbished - the rusty ruins have gone, and
it looks smart and presentable, in a spartan sort of way.
Certainly smart enough to entertain the Grand Central service
to Kings Cross, which called during our sojourn. The subway
linking the platforms is quite splendid, lined with tiled
reproductions of Ashley Jackson watercolours - and who’s
that chap down at the end?
Speaking of famous Yorkshiremen, we met another an hour or
so later, outside the magnificent frontage of Huddersfield
station, before riding back to Victoria in a aging, but
sprightly, Pacer - complete with the original bus-type seating.
We had the train almost to ourselves - quite a contrast to the
EMU from Piccadilly to Crewe (standing room only) and the
175 back to Nantwich. An interesting and enjoyable outing!
