SKIPTON to COLNE the missing trans-pennine rail link. Calling @ Foulridge, Earby, Thornton & Elslack

A pleasant walk along what is nicknamed as 'The missing trans-pennine link' following the route of the old line from Skipton through to Colne. There were a small number of barriers to overcome, but when i passed them it was an interesting, if not long, walk. There is a lot of speculation as to whether this line will re-open, i did not experience too many barriers and i personally think it is within central governments budget range, only time will tell.

HISTORY.
The construction of the Skipton-Colne ‘branch’ was an initiative born on the east side of the Pennines as an extension of the Leeds & Bradford Railway (L&B), although it would become part of a trans-Pennine route when it joined the East Lancashire Railway at Colne. An agreement was reached in August 1848 between the East Lancashire and Leeds & Bradford that each company would work its own line to Colne and that there would be a joint station at Colne which the L&B would construct along with a 2-road engine shed. The Skipton-Colne line opened on 2 October 1848 followed by the ELR’s continuation to Burnley on 1 February 1849. The East Lancashire Railway was absorbed by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway on 13 August 1859. From 1856 LYR trains were permitted to run over the Skipton-Colne route.

The cotton-working town of Barnoldswick was missed by the Skipton-Colne line which passed instead through Earby, about 1½ miles to the east. A branch from Earby to Barnoldswick was opened on 8 February 1871. The junction was, appropriately, north-facing providing for direct travel between Barnoldswick and its West Riding neighbours of Earby and Skipton rather than with Colne in Lancashire.

The Colne Branch followed the lowest altitude route (the ‘Foulridge Gap’) through the mid and south Pennines. The railway was the only one that crossed the Pennines between Lancashire and Yorkshire without a tunnel through the hills. Gradients between Skipton North Junction and Colne nowhere exceeded 1 in 141, and the summit near Foulridge was approached at 1 in 396 from Colne and 1 in 231 from Thornton-in-Craven. Reflecting its origins from the Leeds end, travel on the ‘branch’ was described as ‘Up’ towards Skipton and ‘Down’ towards Colne. Beyond Colne on the former East Lancashire / Lancashire & Yorkshire line the descriptions were reversed, ‘Up’ being towards Preston/Manchester and ‘Down’ towards Colne.

From its northern end the Colne Branch left the line to Lancaster, Ingleton and Carlisle at Skipton North Junction, soon crossing the River Aire on an iron bridge with masonry supports (now demolished) and following a route on a rising gradient of 1 in 141 at the edge of the Craven lowlands to Elslack station. A short distance before the next station, Thornton-in-Craven, a branch led northwards to serve Thornton Quarry and lime works, carried by a bridge over the old Skipton –Colne road and passing through a tunnel under the present A56.
Approaching the town of Earby the route of the line leaves what has since 1974 been the county of North Yorkshire and enters Lancashire. The Skipton-Colne line crossed the A56 on the level, beyond which were the goods and then the passenger facilities of Earby station. Immediately beyond the station was a level crossing, and about half a mile onwards the Barnoldswick Branch swung off sharply north-westwards. During World War 1 a Ministry of Munitions (MoM) explosives depot was opened on the flat land on the up side of the railway, a short distance south-west of Barnoldswick Junction, and this was served by loop sidings on the up side of Skipton-Colne line and a branch into the MoM site which split into several sidings to serve a number of explosives stores. The depot closed and the associated railways were removed by the late 1920s.

Lancashire was entered a short distance north of the village of Foulridge. The line was carried over the adjacent Leeds & Liverpool on a low iron viaduct resting on masonry piers (now demolished) before entering Foulridge station. Here the line reached its summit, all other railway routes across the south Pennines required tunnels to cross from east to west, some of them (such as Summit, Standedge, Totley, Cowburn and Woodhead) being of considerable length. The railway re-crossed the canal in its tunnel before reaching the town of Colne. A network of sidings announced the approach to Colne where the station was shared with the East Lancashire (later Lancashire & Yorkshire) company.

The line closed to both passenger and goods traffic on 2 February 1970. Founded in 2001, SELRAP (Skipton East Lancashire Rail Action Partnership) is campaigning to reopen the Skipton to Colne railway line, as part of the rail network of the United Kingdom; its motto is ‘Connecting communities across the North’. The campaign has attracted support from local MPs, councils, businesses and numerous members of the public with its strong economic case to restore the 11½-mile link.