BRADFORD-BORN railway historian Mark Neale writes of using a 'virtual museum' to preserve the memory of former railways:

"One of the railways which served Bradford carried its last regular passenger in 1931. Another, famously known as the 'Queensbury line', closed in the 1950s.

Both lines are not forgotten and on social media, particularly Facebook, they have attracted in excess of 2,000 followers on two dedicated sites - The Queensbury Line and The Idle Line. People in Australia, Portugal, even Russia are interested in these two closed railway lines in the district.

My initial aim was to gauge interest and attract contributions in the form of previously unseen images and documents relating to the two former suburban railways. I have now reached a stage where there is sufficient interest and material to merge the Facebook sites into a dedicated website, a permanent online resource or 'virtual musuem' covering this aspect of Bradford's railway history. Hopefully this will ensure that the two routes will remain in the memories of Bradfordians and act as an interpretative tool for people who don't remember them.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been told that there was never a station in Eccleshill, or that the building in Windhill used to be a scooter shop, and not Shipley and Windhill station, its original purpose. Hopefully, a website will put meat on the bones.

Interest in the line, now popularly known as the Queensbury lines is particularly high. It was well photographed and featured major engineering, plus lengthy tunnels at Queensbury, Lees Moor and Clayton, in addition to major earthworks along its length. The Idle line required much less in the way of engineering features, but did contain a daunting gradient from the Shipley end up to Thackley, where the station was located behind the Great Northern pub. The station building survives as a private house. Shipley and Windhill station building also survives, but is under threat of development. The design was repeated at Idle, Eccleshill and Earlsheaton (on the former GN from Dewsbury).

As a result of passenger trains ceasing in 1931, due to competition from trams, the Idle line isn't as popular as the Queensbury line and was less photographed whilst in service. I have gathered as much information about and images of the Idle line as I can. But there is much more out there and I'd like it to be gathered together as an online archive.

Eventually all the information and images will form an imaginary journey along the two routes.

I am particularly keen to add photographs of Horton Park and Clayton on the Queensbury line and images of Eccleshill on the Idle line to the collection. I would also like to add stories from people who travelled on the lines, or worked on the routes.

This priceless image of Eccleshill station shows bowler-hatted commuters leaving a train from Bradford. It was taken prior to closure in 1931 and epitomises a Bradford much changed from today.

I believe both lines would have had a part to play today as modern suburban lines serving Idle, Eccleshill, Clayton, Thornton etc.

When the Queensbury line closed to passengers in 1955 there was no major public outcry but there was a suggestion that the new diesel units serving unmanned stations might be a solution. The idea wasn't taken up but shortly afterwards the line was used for crew training using the new diesels.

So today both of these two minor railways in our locality still stir up much interest."

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