Pudsey Loop

Starting Point - Pudsey Lowtown station site. Finishing Point - Tyersall Lane. Distance 1.7 Miles

I cycled from home and locked my bike up close to the site of Pudsey Lowtown station to explore part of the Pudsey Loop on foot.  

Rail Map Online view

The main line from Bradford Interchange to Leeds was and still is the route through Stanningley. Stanningley station closed in 1968 having been replaced by New Pudsey about a mile to the west which was designed as a park and ride facilities for the communities that lost their railway when the Pudsey Loop closed in 1964. The Pudsey Loop was begun as a dead end branch from Stanningley to Pudsey Greenside in 1878. The line was later extended to meet other lines in and around Bradford to the west and an east facing chord was added at the eastern end of the line to meet the main line in the Leeds direction at Bramley making the line in to a loop that provided an alternative route between Bradford and Leeds.

More information about the Pudsey Loop line can be found on the Wikipedia article.

Pudsey Lowtown

1935 Map

Below - The road named Lowtown crossed the former railway on a bridge. The bridge has been filled but the bridge girders are still in situ. Pudsey Lowtown station was on the right hand side. The houses of Crimbles Place have been built on the former station site. To the left a footpath follows the course of the railway north to Mount Pleasant. The cutting has been filled in but the reservoir and footbridge shown in the old map survive, the bridge is filled to the bottom of its stone arches but the site was quite overgrown at the time of my visit so I didn't get photos.

1935 Map

South of Crimbles Place, Longfield Court has been built on the former railway, though south of this a stretch of trackbed is now a footpath to New Street Grove.

Below - Looking along the former railway from Longfield Court. The wall that separated the road from the Ravens Mount road can be seen on the left.

Robin Lane crossed the railway on a bridge, again the bridge has been filled up to deck height but the bridge girders are still in situ, the footpath slopes up to the filled in bridge to cross the road at road level.

1921 Map

It's a similar story at Ratcliffe Lane and South Parade and New Street where the footpath climbs to road height to cross at road level, the bridge girders of all three are still in situ. West of New Street the houses of New Street Grove have been built on the former railway land, this was once the extensive goods yard of Pudsey Greenside station.

Pudsey Greenside

From New Street Grove a path connects to Carlisle Drive which follows the former roadway in to the goods yard and emerges on Carlisle Road. The former station site itself is now occupied by industrial units. The Carlisle Road bridge has not been filled in, however the trackbed beneath it is inaccessible behind the industrial units.

Below - Looking west from Carlisle Road bridge the entrance to Greenside tunnel can be seen. A start was made on filling the steep cutting on the approach to the tunnel but this work was stopped and a campaign is ongoing to reopen the tunnel as a foot and cycle path.

The tunnel currently being inaccessible means a detour along the streets. The track from Smalewell Road that accessed the quarry is still in existence, including the bridge that crossed the railway just west of the tunnel.

Below - View of the west portal of Greenside Tunnel

Below - The bridge that took the track across the railway to the quarry.

A path also follows the course of a short branch that served a local quarry. At the site of the junction rubble of some of the buildings and some large stone blocks can be seen.

The path continues on a high embankment until it reaches Tyersall Lane, the bridge here has been removed and the path descends the embankment to Tyersall Lane. 

Below - The removed bridge over Tyersall Lane.

 West of here the trackbed is on private land. The embankment continues to the point shown on the old map where the line went from embankment to cutting, the cutting has been filled in though. Searching on the satellite map and streetview (accessible from Rail Map Online in the options on the right of the page) reveals that the rest of the route up to the double triangle junction is now filled in cuttings, though bridge girders are still in situ at the site of the filled in bridges. I however returned to Lowtown. I have previously mentioned Laisterdyke where the loop was accessed from the Bradford direction in my Rails Around Bradford walk.