Blake Dean Railway

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Blake Dean Railway
Stress test of the Trestle Bridge
Stress test of the Trestle Bridge
Route length: 9 km
Gauge : 3 feet = 914 mm
Legend
   
 Heptone stall
   
 Trestle Bridge
   
 Dam construction sites at Walshaw Dean

The Blake Dean Railway was about nine kilometers long narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of three feet (914 mm) in the Hardcastle Crags Valley from Heptonstall to the dam construction sites at Walshaw Dean in the English county of West Yorkshire .

Route

Dawson City

The route ran from the Dawson City workers' estate near Whitehall Nook in Heptonstall along the mountain over several smaller bridges past Widdop Gate. She crossed the valley on a wooden bridge to the construction sites of the three dams for the lower, middle and upper reservoir at Walshaw Dean .

A 180 m long and 32 m high trestle bridge made of heavy pine was the most complex structure on the route. Enoch Tempest commissioned the architect William Henry Cockcroft and the local carpenter George H. Greenwood to build the structure. It was completed on May 24, 1901.

The bridge was auctioned on May 22, 1912 and demolished that same year. Today only parts of the foundations are visible.

Rail vehicles

Team of eleven horses transporting a locomotive from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall
The steam locomotive 'Esau' with Enoch Tempest in the driver's cab and his son George in the coal bunker

There were 15 steam locomotives including 'Esau' and 'Baldersdale'. The Hopwood haulage company pulled 14 of them with up to 16 horse-drawn carts up the steep road from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall, which overcomes a height difference of almost 100 m (300 feet) with two hairpin bends. The transport usually took place on Saturday afternoons when that many horses were available.

The construction workers took advantage of for their daily trips to and from the dam construction site two discarded blue-green streetcars Pferdebahn of Liverpool with slogans such as "Lime Street" and "Fazakerley".

Accidents

On July 22, 1906, a fire broke out on the bridge, presumably due to flying sparks from one of the steam locomotives, but this was quickly noticed and extinguished. The damage was only £ 30 and the bridge was back in service a day later.

On September 5, 1905, there was a serious accident when the steam locomotive 'Baldersdale' with engine driver John Leech and stoker James Taylor derailed under the gantry crane at the central dam. The locomotive tipped over on its side. The engine driver pushed the stoker out of the locomotive in good time, but he himself slipped and was so badly scalded by the steam escaping from the boiler that he died a few days after the accident.

literature

  • Corinne McDonald and Ann Kilbey: City in the Hills: Dawson City and the Building of the Walshaw Dean Reservoirs. Hebden Bridge Local History Society. December 1, 2012. ISBN 978-0953721757 .

Web links

Commons : Blake Dean Railway  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guide to Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge & Neighborhood including Cragg Valley, Colden Valley and Heptonstall.
  2. ^ A b c Issy Shannon: Rails to the Reservoirs. When the Klondyke came to Calder Valley.
  3. ^ Hebden Bridge Literary and Scientific Society: Dawson City.
  4. ↑ Phil Champion: Piers of trestle bridge, Blake Dean. The geographer. Recorded June 17, 2006. Published October 31, 2006.
  5. ↑ KP Plant: Picture Parade.
  6. ^ David Hanson: Tough times in Dawson City ... Halifax Courier. January 29, 2013.

Coordinates: 53 ° 46 '40.9 "  N , 2 ° 3' 32.9"  W.