Outwood to Castleford 15/03/14

I am not a scholar of railway history, but am an enthusiastic student, being good with dates, companies and infrastructure, but still having difficulty comprehending the process of development and the minds of those who invested. It's all a tale of 19th century capitalism running rampant and unrestrained, with individual companies seeking to dominate their markets and reap the profits, with governments happy to sit back and let free trade have its day, without a view to building a national infrastructure. The tale of today's trail, the so-called Methley Joint line, is such a case in point, as back in the 1860s, the Midland Railway lines dominated traffic to the south-east of Leeds, and rather than paying for access rights, the Great Northern, the Lancashire & Yorkshire and the North Eastern railways decided it would be cheaper to club together and construct their own line to link metals between Castleford and Outwood, and to tap the blooming colliery traffic in the area. Operating from 1865 to 1957 as a going concern, and remaining to serve the coal industry until as late as 1981, it is now a remnant to an age when there was hope that traffic and industry could justify the expenditure and construction of a new line, one which to contemporary eyes seems to have had no real reason for ever having been there in the first place.

Outwood to Castleford via the Methley Joint & the Methley-Cutsyke (L&Y) lines  9 miles



Railway Terrace, Outwood

Off the train at Outwood station at 10am, almost leaving my gloves on board as I go, a site which stands on the triangle of former lines which marked the end of the Joint Line and standing north of the site of the original Lofthouse & Outwood station, and from here it a short walk to find the first significant railway remnant, namely the Railway Terrace, a group of seven house built by the GNR in their custom style, and only revived from dereliction relatively recently. Across the infilled cutting, my path leads me onto the local playing fields, which stand at the bottom of the site of Lofthouse Colliery, active until the early 1980s and now completely reclaimed, largely forming a country park with the remnants of the spoil heaps standing to its east, and the heritage trail is on I should seek out in future. I track east along the cutting edge, passing behind several old brick building which pique my interest before dropping onto Potovens Lane, where the bridge parapets stand at the roadside. Head over to find the bridleway eastwards, noting that to the passing traveller Outwood would look much like a suburban dormitory town and not like one that had once been at the centre of the coal industry, and its growth has consumed a section of the trackbed, but a memorial to the colliery remains as half a winch wheel stands at the roadside next to an estate that looks barely 20 years old. The path snakes on behind suburban semis and light industrial sites, with a local dog walker fascinated to find out where I'm headed, and it claims to be part of the Wakefield Wheel, part on a burgeoning cycle route around the entire district, which I would most definitely applaud, and I then find my way up towards the A61 Leeds Road via the Gateways, an unappealing cul-de-sac which rises so I can get a look back into the extent section of cutting that I had hoped to be walking in, but somehow missed.


Joint Line Embankment, Lofthouse Gate

Over the main road, I find that the clear section of trackbed is blocked off, as the workmen have been in to start laying a hard surface upon it, indicating that this notional path is about to become an official one, and even though there is no one working on it on a Saturday morning, I will be polite and not tussle with the fences and heavy plant and instead take a detour. So past the local Co-op and onto Broadmeadows, the sort of road which offers a perspective towards the lower Calder, but mostly suggests bleak suburbia, and it's therefore worthy of praise when you find houses that have rusticated brick and the slightest effort to emulate vintage stylings along the road back to the railway, and the trackbed is rejoined to continue east. Still a dirt track along here, but the trees appear to have been cut back extensively, so it look like the next phase of redevelopment isn't going to be too far away, and across Anaheim Drive it becomes apparent that there are quite a few tracks that have been installed between the old terraces and new houses in this corner of Lofthouse Gate. Over Baker Lane to follow the track along the edge of more parkland, delighted that the sun has stayed out when the day predicated minimal appearances for it, before the line of the railway turns into Gainsborough Way, a road built exactly along its alignment, boasting 1980s house that are not weathering well and many adjacent streets named after notable artists. Not the sort of territory to gladden the walker's heart, and I'm not too sure if its possible to get all the way along to the end to meet the open trackbed at Long causeway (that name again!), so a detour uphill along Chaucer Avenue is necessary to continue east along Canal Lane (not sure which canal, at this elevation) before descending away from the 19th century terraces, down Mount Road to get back on track, as it were.


Joint Line Infilled Cutting, Stanley

More substantial bridge parapets remain here too, and on Long Causeway too, and my path leads me onto a broad grassy field above the suburban sprawl, plainly accessible and open to dog walkers so I press on along it, slightly elevated as this is infilled cutting, and only when I start to descend towards the old people flats on The Chase do I realise that I might have made a mistake. Indeed, the sign on the fence states no access to Aberford Road, and I'm not in a mood to back track, and I seek an alternative that isn't too trespass-y, finding one in the boundary fence that rises steeply above the back of the flats before crossing a field to descend down the drive of Roman Station Farm, to meet the A642 and not feel too bad about my 'whoops' moment. This is the site of Stanley station, where a level crossing used to cross the road before it became a rat-run for crazy drivers, and I've no idea where the boundaries are that separate the villages of Outwood, Lofthouse Gate and Stanley might be, its another grand case of settlements getting smooshed together. From there the shortest possible route is taken over to Bottom Boat Road, and here's a place that doesn't offer any explanation as to its curious name, but it's little more than council house and bungalows, with an alley way between them to lead me out the point where the semi-urban walking ends and the track into the countryside begins. We may be ridiculously close to the Calder but it remains barely visible off to the south, but the rising embankment indicates that we are now on the railway again, with a decent hard surface as the track of the Leeds branch of the Trans-Pennine Trail is met, so plain sailing is due for the next couple of miles.

Joint Line M62 Bridge

Joint Line Trans Pennine Trail

It's great having a notable trail all to yourself, not to be bothered by cyclists, horses or joggers as you make your way through the fields with a nice level track ahead of you, basking in the late winter sunshine that you hadn't anticipated, and you could be forgive for thinking that you are looking out into a rural landscape that hasn't been touched in centuries. The reality is somewhat different, as there has been extensive industry out here, and the rural flavour is really only 30 years old, for gravel workings endured alongside the Calder to the south, and to the north lay Newmarket colliery, active until the 1980s and now memorialised by grassed over spoil heaps and warning notices to stay off the infilled tips. A crossing track beyond the colliery site indicates the presence of another railway, according to the map, and this must be the southern branch of the East & West Yorkshire Union Railway, the industrial line last encountered on a damp day in Lofthouse, running down to its staithes by the Calder, and as the track moves on some fellow travellers are finally encountered, oddly in one single group of feet and wheels, before peace returns and the track takes a dive to get around the absent bridge at Methley Lanes. My eagle eye fails me as I look north to seek any trace of Foxholes colliery, almost certainly landscaped into oblivion, and only the remains of an occupation bridge give a hint of another track down towards the Calder, but attention is drawn toward the oncoming M62 under which my path passes. It's a pretty substantial bridge too, built to full railway loading gauge and complete with refuges, just in case anyone had ever planned to get trains running down this way again, a good place to stop to water and admire the handiwork on the TPT waymarker and the nicely wrought gate that welcomes you back into Leeds district.


Methley South Station House

Joint Line, near Methley Junction

Onward eastwards, sure that I'm going to have to divert off the track once the Trans Pennine trail departs it, but the presence of nothing to impede your further progress and of dog walkers along the continuing trackbed has me bold enough to continue, not that I'm expecting anyone to object, as i keep on amongst the birch trees, looking out to see if an escape rout might be necessary as the line passes over two intact bridges, one of which has Navigation Beck below it. It's certainly a well used path, despite there being no ROW along here, and it leads all the way down behind the houses of  Pinder Green before stopping abruptly as the old Midland Railway line bisects the Joint Line, with the overbridge now absent. So the detour starts to get to the other side of the contemporary railway, heading up through the housing estate to Watergate, and under the railway to wander into more houses that have gained the designation of Methley Junction, after the former L&Y station which now resides beneath it, and Burnleys View and Green Row are followed to lead me up to the overbridge that once passed over the tracks of the Cutsyke - Methley Line up to the junction. I press on, despite the signage claiming that this is a private road because a little further on was Methley South station, where the station house still stands, where the metals of the Joint Line separated to the spurs linking it to the L&Y, and to the NER line into Castleford. This confusion of cuttings and embankments is still quite evident in the landscape as you pace along the farm track, and this was an odd sort of place for such a collision of four railway companies, but such was the nature of 19th century railway development, I would wager that Methley must have been the smallest settlement in the country to have once boasted three railway stations (it has none at all, these days).


L&Y Line Whitwood Junction Bridge

L&Y Line Methley Viaduct

The end of the Joint Line does not mean the end of railway walking though, for the L&Y trackbed remains intact and accessible, and I'm going to trespass again, because I'm sure no one cares, but it looks like some building work is going on around Methley South too, so this might be the last opportunity to see this line in its rawest state. A short clamber on the embankment and we're back on track, above the farms and dog kennels and over the bridge across the farm track to set course towards Castleford, along the line of the L&Y's line of 1849, which remained in use for freight until the demise of the local coal industry in the 1980s (are you spotting a theme here?). I'd have liked a longer walk before you get to the dramatic feature of the day, but before too many steps are made, the track moves up to cross Methley Viaduct, high above the Calder and offering the last decently sunlit views of the day up and down the river and into the distant high lands around Kippax. For somewhere supposedly  inaccessible to the public, it sure has got a lot of traffic, three dog walkers pass as I pause for watering, and it has been made decently safe by having barriers installed to keep people away from the ridiculously low parapet, and hopefully, the Sustrans treatment isn't too far away. Move on, finding my way off the embankment, because I know the railway crossing at Whitwood Junction is missing, and taking the footpath that goes beneath it and leads over to Methley Bridge Farm, through many fields of horses, heavily carved up and I'm thankful that it's dry, otherwise quagmire! Taped off enclosure means a bit of circuitous going and styles come as a bit of a surprise after so much level walking, and the very last one causes me to stretch a hamstring, which has me wincing and laughing in equal measure, the edge of Castleford being a daft place to hurt yourself. Road walking thus follows, up the A639 Lumley Hill, thinking that the local council had a mildly interesting pattern book for its houses, rising all the way over the railway into Castleford (NER line) to peer over the wall to see that the substantial abutments at Whitwood Junction do still have no bridge above them.


L&Y Line Greenway Developing

L&Y Line Lumley Street Bridge

Beyond there, a sign is seen to gladden my walking soul, as it announces that Wakefield council and Sustrans are in the process of developing the Caslteford - Methley Greenway, which means half of the track that I have walked will be gaining a finished surface and the viaduct will gain a useful life once more. A little way up hill, the crossing of the line to Cutsyke is made, and indeed a road base has been laid and rolled, with access ramps have been carved down the edges of the cutting for access. Pace along by Lumley Mount Bungalows to get another look down from Lumley Street Bridge, and the dank and neglected atmosphere of the line seen on pictures looks like it is going to be replaced with something special, so hurrah for progress I say, then move down to Leeds Barnsdale Road so that I might get a look at the site of Cutsyke station, ruminating that Castleford might be one of the lowest-rise towns in the country (I you drove through it looking up, you might miss it?) and that this surrounding landscape looks a world away from the days when this was a coal town. Turn up Aketon road to pass under one of the most disappointing railway bridges ever, and to see that nought remains of the railway station, but figure a retrace of this route must surely come once the greenway is completed, and then plough on towards the town centre, to the A655 junction, where a nicely mosaiced sign welcomes you to the town the Romans called Lagentium. A last railway relic is found as High Street crosses the line via the level crossing, as Castleford West signal box stands forlornly by the trackside, hoping for a day when heritage-minded people might rescue it, and then it's onwards, and I had no idea at all that Burberry, purveyors of ghastly beige check, had their factory here. Enterprise way, betwixt bus station and Aldi is last road of the day, leading me up to Castleford station, which has at least gained some temporary shelters, so it doesn't look as sad as it did two weeks ago, and someone has weeded the unused Platform 2 as well, time check says 1.25pm, and less than ten minutes before my ride home too, and on board a party train too, with revellers seemingly heading for an early start in the big city.

Next on the Slate: Springtime, and I'll be NIW and down country, so High Leicestershire beckons!


1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 973.5 miles
  (2014 total: 60.3 miles)