Back in May 2015, I spent a day walking the ghost lines of the Halifax to Queensbury Railway, a spectacular and demanding route that was part of the Great Northern Railway’s challenging "Queensbury Lines" network. This railway was born of Victorian ambition, forging a path through the steep Pennine terrain—a task so difficult it earned the nickname 'the Alpine route' or 'the switchback'.
The short section I explored, captured in these photos, run from the former site of North Bridge Railway Station up toward where the Woodside Viaduct once stood. These remnants of a mighty line, which closed to passengers in 1955 and completely in 1974, speak volumes about the engineering and industrial power of West Yorkshire.
The Haunted Halt: North Bridge Station
My journey started at the site of North Bridge Station. Opened in 1880, it was built by the Halifax and Ovenden Junction Railway, jointly operated by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR).
The station itself was a marvel of Victorian compromise. The line had to run beneath the newly rebuilt North Bridge, which was raised an impressive 11 feet to clear the tracks. The passenger facilities were apparently "cramped & gloomy," but the site was a major hub for goods, including a large yard that served the nearby gasworks. Today, the station buildings are long gone, replaced by a leisure centre and its car park.
The only prominent survivors are the iron footbridge that once spanned the platforms and the dark, imposing mouth of the Old Lane Tunnel.
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Tunnels and Tragedies: The Route North
Heading north from North Bridge, the line immediately plunged into engineering challenges. The nearby Woodside Viaduct was a six-arched structure that carried the line toward the Old Lane (Woodside) Tunnel and Lee Bank Tunnel. Tragically, the viaduct was later demolished to make room for the A629 road, the main road between Halifax and Keighley.
All that remains now is the impressive southern abutment , a powerful stone statement of where a massive structure once began.
Further on, the line passed through the Lee Bank Tunnel(sometimes referred to as Woodside Tunnel). It’s an incredibly atmospheric stretch, the stonework damp and mossy, a true forgotten path. The entire Queensbury Lines project was notoriously difficult and dangerous, leading to the local press dubbing them "the slaughtering lines" due to the casualties sustained during construction. Lee Bank Tunnel will feature in a later post.
The Photography: A Splash of History
To capture the mood of this forgotten industrial heritage, I chose a specific editing style for these photos: selective colour removal.
I stripped almost all colour, rendering the stone, moss, and foliage in moody, evocative black and white. The only colour I allowed to remain was red . This choice was deliberate, a visual metaphor for a past that was dramatic and often difficult:
The Grit and Rust: Red represents the rust of forgotten ironwork and the danger of the great works.
The Warning: It highlights the warning signs of demolition and decay that now mark these historical sites .
A Trail of Memory: It forces the eye to focus on the small, contemporary markers that dot the landscape, sharply contrasting the scale of the forgotten Victorian infrastructure with its quiet modern life.
Walking these overgrown tracks is a humbling experience. They are a physical reminder of the sheer human effort and engineering ambition that powered the industrial North, now slowly being reclaimed by nature.
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