Castleford/Cutsyke - Methley Disused Railway

Start/Finish          Cutsyke Junction Signal box, Leeds Road, Castleford
Start Time            10.00am  10 Nov 2011 & 12 Nov 2011
Distance                6.8 Miles
Duration               3hrs 30mins
Weather               Grey & Misty - Odd Sunny Interval
O/S Map               Explorer 289: Leeds - Harrogate - Wetherby & Pontefract
Terrain                 Old Railway Trackbed - Uneven and Muddy in places

GPS route

This walk starts at Cutsyke Junction signal box on Leeds Road, Castleford.

With the signal box (And a huge Asda supermarket) behind you, walk along the right hand side of Leeds road for a few yards until you see a bit of wasteland/carpark on your right and a sandwich shop. Turn into the carpark, and you will see a row of trees running along the existing railway track. Cut through the trees and you will be at the start of the trackbed. we need to turn left here, then simply follow the dismantled line.

Cutsyke Junction Signal Box

You will see old cable troughs, Sand boxes, track ballast and such like along the sides of the track - a reminder of what the track used to be....

After a few minutes you will come across a bridge, that is tiled underfoot!  and straight after this you will come across the old station/platform, which is still, in the main, intact!  None of the station buildings remain...just rubble, and an indication of how it used to be....

First glimpse of the old platform

                                             Building at the back of the platform

From the old station/platform continue along the old trackbed, which has an unmistakable look of a railway - which goes through a large cutting that towers either side of you, and you pass through 2 bridges - Lumley Street Bridge and Lumley Hill Bridge. Some great fungs can be found growing in the shady/damp parts of the cuttings...and many different toadstools!

Distance Marker

Fly Agaric Toadstool

                                        

Puffball Toadstools

                                                     

Lumley Street Bridge

                                                   

Lumley Street Bridge

Under Lumley Hill Bridge

                                       

Lumley Hill Bridge

                                                    

Shortley after passing through the second bridge (Lumley Hill), we arrive at our first 'hurdle' to overcome. This is where we arrive at Whitwood Junction -  a working line with trains going to/from Leeds/Sheffield/Knottingley/Goole. There was a bridge that carried our railway path over this, but it has sadly been demolished, as these 2 pictures show:

                 

So from here we have to take a diversion away from the track, and head right - through a small field and to the main road at 4 Lane Ends in Castleford/Methley Bridge. When arriving at the road, turn left and walk a few hundred yards...past Methley Bridge Farm and Shop until you reach the river Calder. Here, leave the road and head down a footpath on your left to the river, then bear left walking along the river, heading to the viaduct you will see a short walk away. This viaduct carries our railway path!

Viaduct over River Calder 

              

On arrival at the viaduct, walk underneath. From hear if you look to your left, you wll clearly see the banking of the railway path. We need to walk along this all the way to the end, and climb up the banking. Here you will be able to see where the bridge used to cross the working line, and where we had to leave the walk at the other side.

Now we can turn around so the working line is behind us, and housing to our right, and continue our walk along the disused trackbed.

We cross over a small decaying occupation bridge just after the housing to our right ends, and straight in front of us we can see the viaduct that we cross.

Decaying occupation bridge

Viaduct across the River Calder

View from the viaduct to the viaduct the carries the working line

Once we have crossed the viaduct we are almost at the end of the walk. with one more occupation bridge to cross, then it's up to the old Methley South Joint Station.

Occupation Bridge

Methley South Joint Station House

Methley South Station Building, obviously taken of a different day!

Old line buried under the road at the back of South Station

From the station you can navigate around the back, and over the Methley Junction overbridge and to the old Methley Station House, which is the end of the line here. So we turn around and retrace our steps back to Cutsyke Junction.

Methley Junction Overbridge

Methley Station House

Homeward bound!

If you have an interest in railways, then keep your eyes open as you are walking - there are bits scattered around to see. I was like a kid in a sweet shop, constantly looking around for 'goodies'!