Kippax railway station

Kippax railway station was a railway station on the Castleford–Garforth line in West Yorkshire, England. The station opened in 1878 and closed to passengers in 1951, although the line remained open for a further 18 years for diversions and goods traffic.

Kippax railway station
Station Lane, Great Preston, looking north. The station was on the right hand side.
General information
LocationKippax, City of Leeds
England
Coordinates 53.7614°N 1.3868°W / 53.7614; -1.3868
Grid referenceSE405296
Platforms1
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyNorth Eastern Railway
Pre-groupingNorth Eastern Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
8 April 1878 (1878-04-08)Opened to goods
4 April 1878Opened to passengers
22 January 1951Closed to passengers
30 September 1963 (1963-09-30)Closed to goods

History

The station was on the western edge of Kippax village adjacent to the hamlet of Great Preston.[1][2] Like all the other stations on the line, it had just one platform on the eastern side of the line. The station opened to passengers in August 1878, but had opened to goods traffic four months earlier.[3] As with other sections of the line, the station did not possess a passing loop, though trains could pass in the freight loop that led into the goods yard.[4]

In 1880, the station's water tower was used to supply fresh water to the people living in and around the station area (Great Preston). An outbreak of fever, diphtheria and diarrhoea in previous years had led to the railway company providing fresher water than that already afforded to the locals.[5] The tower, which was situated on the main platform, was not fitted with an apparatus to transfer water to locomotives.[6]

The station had a goods shed to the south of the platform; its design was the same as the one provided at Ledston.[7] The chief export from Kippax was aggregate; a local quarry had a siding just to the north of the station.[2] Kippax was the busiest station on the line as it served a larger and well established village. In 1911, 44,000 tickets were issued compared to Ledston's 15,000.[8]

The station closed to passengers in January 1951,[9] with closure to goods in September 1963. No trace of the station remains, though the trackbed has been converted into a cycleway.[10]

References
  1. "Kippax Village Design Statement" (PDF). leeds.gov.uk. p. 23. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  2. Rockett 2003, p. 10.
  3. Grant, Donald (2017). Directory of the railway companies of Great Britain. Leicestershire: Matador. p. 309. ISBN 9781785893537.
  4. Rockett 2003, p. 29.
  5. Wilson, J Mitchell (1881). "No. 41: Tadcaster Rural Sanitary Authority". Tenth Annual Report of the local Government Report 1880-1881. London: HMSO. p. 243. OCLC 872509301.
  6. Rockett 2003, p. 12.
  7. Rockett 2003, p. 11.
  8. Hoole, Ken (1985). Railway Stations of the North East. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 173–174. ISBN 0-7153-8527-5.
  9. Burgess, Neil (2014). The Lost Railways of Yorkshire's West Riding: the Central Section Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield. Catrine: Stenlake. p. 31. ISBN 9781840336573.
  10. Rockett 2003, p. 44.

Sources
  • Rockett, Ron (2003). The Leeds, Castleford & Pontefract Junction Railway; the Ledston Branch. Farsley: Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-27-9.
Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Garforth
Line closed, station open		   North Eastern Railway
Castleford–Garforth line		   Bowers
Line and station closed
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