Keighley (pronounced Keith-lee) station is owned by Network Rail. KWVR leases platforms 3 & 4 and Northern Rail leases platform 1 & 2.
Platform 4 is the usual departure platform for the KWVR branch and it retains many of the original features. For example, a superb glass canopy and the original waiting room and toilets which are still in use, as are two rooms under the ramp which now house the Station Master's office and the staff mess room.
The booking office on platform 4 started life as a Findlays' tobacco kiosk at the old Manchester Central station (now known as G-Mex ), while the ticket collector's hut was originally a telephone box at Wakefield Kirkgate.
Look to platform 3 you will see that it is quite bare in comparison to platform 4. Between the 1950s & 1990s most of the UK's railways were operated by British Railways which was owned by the state. It had limited financial resources and was forced to cut back on many things which required expensive maintenence, hence the removal of the canopy and even the closure of the Worth Valley branch. It is hoped that Network Rail will soon be able to restore the platform canopies to a similar standard to ours.
There is a turntable at the end of platform 3 which was acquired in 1990 from Garsdale where it used to turn engines on the Settle to Carlisle line. The signal box occupies the site of the original Keighley West box and the cabin standing there today was brought from Esholt Junction on the Ilkley line. The signal box will control all movements in the KWVR side of the station when it is brought into use.
As your train departs from Keighley the line starts with a 1 in 58 gradient and quickly turns through 90 degrees. Prior to 1962 heavy goods trains had to start back beyond the station to take a run up the hill if conditions were wet due to the slippy rails. This can't happen today, but if the loco is struggling it will begin to surmount the problem once it rounds the curve by the Globe Inn.
As you leave Keighley you will see the old Yorkshire Electricity yard on your right (now Nelsons Builders yard) which used to be the Great Northern Railway goods station. The GNR route to Bradford and Halifax used to start at this point, go under the Worth Valley line by a bridge (this is now filled in), before running parallel to the Worth Valley line but at an even steeper gradient for over two miles past GN junction. It then ran through its own station at Ingrow (East) before eventually disappearing into Lees Moor Tunnel.
Click here for a map to Keighley station
