Huddersfield and Elland Railway (L&NWR/L&YR 1873/4)

The Huddersfield & Elland Railway was a scheme proposed in late 1873 by the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR) and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (L&YR), and was similar in nature to the latter's abandoned Huddersfield Branch Line scheme of 1866.

The scheme was summarised as follows:

A Railway to be wholly situate in the West Riding of the county of York, commencing by a junction with the London and North Western Railway in the township of Huddersfield, in the parish and borough of Huddersfield, near the bridge carrying the last mentioned railway over Hillhouse Lane, and terminating in the township of Elland-cum-Greetland, otherwise Elland, in the parish of Halifax, by a junction with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway near the bridge called Low Lathe Bridge carrying the last-mentioned railway over the river Calder, and which said intended railway will pass from, in, through, or into the several parishes, townships, and extra-parochial or other places following, or some them, that is to say:— Huddersfield, Hillhouse, Fartown, Quarmby, Lindley-cum-Quarmby, Lindley, Fixby, Elland, Elland-cum-Greetland, otherwise Elland, and Halifax.

The estimated cost was reported as £334,000.

According to newspaper reports, the scheme was developed as a rival to the Midland Railway's Huddersfield, Halifax and Bradford Railway (1874) scheme that intended to follow a similar route out of Huddersfield towards Elland and beyond.

The Bill was first debated in Parliament on 20 January 1874.

The Huddersfield Chronicle (19/Feb/1874) provided a more detailed description of the route:

This line is projected to commence by a junction with the existing London and North Western Railway on the embankment about midway between Hillhouse Lane and Hebble Beck. From that point the new line diverges westwards, but no lengthening or enlargement of the Hillhouse Lane bridge appears requisite or contemplated for carrying it over that road. The line then proceeds in a curve across Whitestone Lane and across the Bradford Road about 88 yards on the south or town side of Fartown Bar, and at a level of about 44 feet above the roadway; then across Spaines Lane about 125 from its terminus at Fartown Bar, and at 30 feet height above the road level; then through the centre of St. John's Cricket Ground at Fartown, and through the centre of the valuable terrace of dwelling-houses recently erected by Mr. Councillor Tetley, and crossed the Halifax Old Road there at 18 feet above the road level. It then proceeds across the Could House or Clough Brook valley on an embankment, the maximum height of which at the brook crossing is 57 feet. The line then passes through the centre of the farm buildings at Storth, where a diversion of Storth Lane carrying it under the railway is proposed, and it then proceeds in cutting to the borough boundary near Reap Hirst Lane, the total length in the borough being one mile and a half or 2,640 yards.

After quitting the borough boundary the line proceeds through the township of Fixby; first in cutting and then in a tunnel of over a mile in length (1,914 yards) in which is a slight curve, and its gradient throughout will be 1 in 70. The line will be 446 feet below the surface level at its point of crossing the New Hey turnpike road near the entrance gates to Fixby park.

The line is continued in tunnel into the township of Elland, and emerges on the northern side of the turnpike road, a little below the entrance to the Ainleys Fire Clay Works of Mr. Gilbert Robinson, and about 300 yards below the well-known sharp angle of road down Ainleys Hill. The line then curves first northwardly and afterwards with a sharp curve to the west, and forms a junction with the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway just before reaching the bridge or viaduct carrying that railway over the river Calder at Low Laith, Elland, and about 400 yards eastwards or towards Brighouse from the Elland passenger station.

The gradients of the line after clearing the main line, area, first a gradient of one in 60 to the Halifax Old Road, near Clough House, then a gradient (still rising) of one in 100 until nearly the commencement of the tunnel at Fixby, or about 330 yards beyond the borough boundary, where the line attains its point of highest level, the rise being 114 feet about its commencing point. From this point, the line descends rapidly, at the steep gradient of one in 70, all through the long tunnel and until approaching the junction with the Lancashire and Yorkshire line at Elland, where it changes to one in 86 for about 360 yards, and then at one in 660 for another 110 yards to the point of junction with the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at a level 149 feet lower than the maximum height at Grimscar and 35 feet below the commencing point at Hillhouse.

The total length of the line is three miles six and quarter furlongs.

The Bill received its second reading in Parliament on 13 April 1874.

The following month, the Select Committee heard evidence for both this and the rival Midland Railway scheme. In general, the witnesses from Huddersfield strongly favoured the MR scheme.

Ultimately, the Select Committee found that the preamble was not proved to their satisfaction and the Bill was rejected. The rival MR Bill suffered the same fate.

The Railway Times (15/Aug/1874) reported:

The bill which was presented to Parliament on behalf of this company [L&YR] and the London and North western jointly, for making a short line of railway from Huddersfield to join your main line at Elland, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was heard by the same committee of the House of Commons as that to which the proposed Huddersfield, Halifax, and Bradford railway of the Midland was referred — the latter measure for a part of the distance was a competing line with the joint project, and as a whole injurious to your interests. The committee, after a lengthened investigation, rejected both bills.

Route

The following is an approximation of the route, based on the newspaper description, and is not intended to be accurate.