Category Archives: Brighouse

Brighouse interlude.

21 Tuesday Oct 2025

Posted by in Brighouse, Photography, Railways, Travel, TRU, West Yorkshire

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On Friday, despite the weather being grey and autumnal I needed a break from staring at computer screens, so walked into Halifax for a trip to nearby Brighouse to indulge in a spot of rail photography. Due to the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) construction at Huddersfield drastically reducing the number of platforms available, Brighouse is currently a railhead for services from my neck of the woods. Instead of hourly trains to Huddersfield, a two-hourly shuttle service runs from Bradford Interchange to Brighouse, where it connects with buses to Huddersfield or to Leeds via Mirfield, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury and on to Leeds as the local service from Wigan Wallgate to Leeds via this route has been diverted to run through Halifax.

Brighouse is also a good location for photographing freight services running via the Calder Valley. Hence some of these pictures…

150004 was doing the honours on Friday. After reversing at Bradley Wood Junction it’s returned ready to work 2J66, the 14:30 to Bradford Interchange.
66431 approaches the station with a trainload of ballast from the quarry at Shap. The service is 6E73, the 0910 Shap Summit Quarry to Doncaster Up Decoy yard. The train runs Tuesday to Friday.
Heading in the opposite direction was DBs 66017, hauling 6M16, the 05:40 Wilton to to Knowsley Freight Terminal empty ‘binliner’

Brighouse station’s a well-kept place with a very active friends group who’ve worked wonders over the past few years, transforming a basic station with a profusion of colourful flower and shrubs – both in planters on the platforms and actual gardens. Adding to the interest are a series of history boards which tell tales of local people and industries, including the story of one local man who inspired a well known song by breaking the bank of Monte Carlo. Yes, it really happened!

Here’s someone else with a local connects and famous in a very different way. I doubt he’d have approved of gambling for a start!

I suspect William wouldn’t have approved of another institution that’s nearby. The Commercial Railway Inn is right outside the station and offers a range of real ales, wines and spirits, as well as snacks. It’s an ideal place to bide a while in-between trains. This multi-room pub has one dedicated to music.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

22nd March picture of the day…

22 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in Brighouse, History, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, West Yorkshire

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Today was one of those days that didn’t really go to plan because of the bane of the outdoor photographer’s life. The weather. It started well enough. I was working from home, wading through all the pictures I took on Merseyside yesterday whilst also dealing with emails and other correspondence. But I could see the weather was ideal for photography. Dawn was going into the Community Rail Network office in Huddersfield for a meeting with Network Rail and TPE so she suggested I might want a lift into town. It sounded like a good idea to me as I could get pictures of some of the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) work and diverted services for the the archive. I really should have checked the weather forecast first…

All was well until we got to Huddersfield, the weather looked cracking. Then I dug the camera out. Just as soon as I did dark clouds marched in from the West – bugger! Huddersfield station was quiet as only a few services were running (to Sheffield, Bradford Interchange, Marsden, Leeds and Hull) the busiest place was the station forecourt where fleets of coaches were ferrying people across the Pennines to Manchester. My plan was to hang around for half an hour before catching the first available train to Brighouse where I’d intended to get a series of lineside shots of the TPE services diverted via the Calder valley, only the bloody clouds followed me and the weather got gloomier – and wetter. I ended up retreating to the Market Tavern in order to have a pint and make a series of work phone calls to make something of the day whilst hoping the weather would clear again. It teased me a couple of times with brief flashes of sunshine, but then the rain arrived so I gave up and came home via a train to Sowerby Bridge before slogging up the hill to home and my desk. Ho hum!

Still, I did get the picture of the day at least. The friends of Brighouse station have done some fantastic work over recent years, transforming the station with plants and flowers. Now they’ve branched out and added a series of local history boards which tale the tale of the town and some of its inhabitants. One in particular caught my eye. Do you remember the old song about the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo? Well, he was real – and he was local…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Welcome to the wild West – Yorkshire…

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Brighouse, Law and order, West Yorkshire

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There was me minding my own business, out training for my charity cycle ride (more of which later) when a squadron of police cars passed me on the road to Brighouse. It’s not an uncommon event in this part of the world. Normally it’s to do with a domestic, drunken brawl or the M62 being stuffed up. However, the presence of the West Yorks police helicopter, circling Brighouse town centre made me think something a little more serious may be afoot.

Sur enough, when I dodged the lines of traffic to get into the town centre I found what looked like a movie set. Police tape aplenty around a square outside a bank, with platoons of police, a brace of ambulances and a pair of fire engines. On the edge of the tape were a few dozen locals who seemed glad of the diversion! On enquiring I was told it was the aftermath of a bank robbery which may, or may not, have involved acid.

I thought bank robbery had been consigned to history in the 21st century due to all the modern technological advances. But then this IS West Yorkshire, which is in many ways firmly embedded in a different age still.

Bank robbery being part of that it would seem…