help needed please with some 4472 locations

[neildimmer]

I have been asked by Ian McDonald to try and find out the locations of these 4 photos of 4472 Flying Scotsman, 3 probably taken in Yorkshire and 1 possibly in Derbyshire
Can anyone help with exact locations please
https://tinyurl.com/5jcksycc

Neil

[greenglade]

Hi Neil

It might be worth asking on some of the 4472 Facebook pages, there are a few ex 4472 (preservation years) crew who frequent those pages, current crew, too who may be able to help.

Pete

[richard]

They have locations printed on them - I'm assuming you don't believe them!?

Definitely have the West Yorkshire / Leeds look about them.

Interestingly my first thought on the Cross Gates one, was indeed Cross Gates!
I didn't remember the pedestrian bridge (and it was gone the last time I was there watching UoSA), but here's a later photo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crossgatesbridge.jpg

Probably the only times I ever saw 4472 running were as a kid at Cross Gates in the 1970s - going in the other direction tho.

The one labelled Seacroft doesn't feel right. Is that a real gradient (or is the picture tiled?). If gradient then definitely wrong. And even if the image is tilted, I can't match the curve.
I could believe it is the wider Leeds area, but the closest line is the Leeds-Selby route through Cross Gates - I wouldn't call that Seacroft although I note Seacroft Hospital is nearby. East west, straight except near Rookwood (to Neville Hill), pretty level. Mix of cuttings (eg. Crossgates) and embankments (Rookwood area).
As for the Hospital - that area was built up around the hospital when the photo was taken - I can't match that with the undeveloped areas on the photo and the skyline.

I don't know Stourton, but the third photo definitely has a south Leeds look about it.

[neildimmer]

Thanks for the replies

Neil

[Herbert Nigel]

I think the original photographer didn’t necessarily know his locations too accurately but the descriptions used aren’t really too far out.
Picture 1 is better identified as Osmondthorpe. Osmondthorpe lane and Neville Hill shed are just back behind the train as it swings North round a left hand curve on a 1 in 162 climb heading for (presumably) York. The line then reverses and heads East across Selby road, behind Seacroft hospital and up to Crossgates station, still climbing to leave the Aire valley. If you visited here today you’d find yourself looking at Neville Hill’s carriage washing plant in the foreground and a lot more housing on either side of the line.(The area immediately behind the loco’ was at one time the site of a carriage shed).
Picture 2 is undoubtedly Crossgates station prior to demolition of the footbridge. Passengers are now required to walk from one platform to the other via the main road bridge in the background.
Picture 3. Well Stourton may be what the O.S. map described the area as back in the 80’s. It’s the Midland main line heading south out of Leeds and, to be fair, Stourton signal box is not far behind the photographer but this is generally described by railway staff as “Pepper road” which crosses this bridge and locals think of it as being Hunslet rather than Stourton.
Picture 4. No arguments. That is exactly where it is, passing the old Midland railway Calverley and Rodley station site (now long gone) and heading towards Leeds from Skipton. The photographer is almost certainly standing on the Leeds outer ring road bridge to obtain the photo’.

[neildimmer]

I think the original photographer didn’t necessarily know his locations too accurately but the descriptions used aren’t really too far out.
Picture 1 is better identified as Osmondthorpe. Osmondthorpe lane and Neville Hill shed are just back behind the train as it swings North round a left hand curve on a 1 in 162 climb heading for (presumably) York. The line then reverses and heads East across Selby road, behind Seacroft hospital and up to Crossgates station, still climbing to leave the Aire valley. If you visited here today you’d find yourself looking at Neville Hill’s carriage washing plant in the foreground and a lot more housing on either side of the line.(The area immediately behind the loco’ was at one time the site of a carriage shed).
Picture 2 is undoubtedly Crossgates station prior to demolition of the footbridge. Passengers are now required to walk from one platform to the other via the main road bridge in the background.
Picture 3. Well Stourton may be what the O.S. map described the area as back in the 80’s. It’s the Midland main line heading south out of Leeds and, to be fair, Stourton signal box is not far behind the photographer but this is generally described by railway staff as “Pepper road” which crosses this bridge and locals think of it as being Hunslet rather than Stourton.
Picture 4. No arguments. That is exactly where it is, passing the old Midland railway Calverley and Rodley station site (now long gone) and heading towards Leeds from Skipton. The photographer is almost certainly standing on the Leeds outer ring road bridge to obtain the photo’.

Many thanks

Neil

[richard]

"Herbet Nigel" : Yes Osmondthorpe is the Rookwood area to me! When I was trying to locate the pictures for my earlier post, I was surprised how close Seacroft Hospital was to the line even though "there have never been any railways in Seacroft" (well BR ones - Leeds has had a lot of industrials over the years so I'm not going to say never).
It is the only bit of the line that vaguely matches but the apparent gradient threw me.

As for Crossgates: The brick is distinctive. It is strange, I must have stood on that pedestrian bridge and watched trains as a kid in the late 70s, but I just don't remember it!

[Herbert Nigel]

Gosh Richard, you must have been a local. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t would know the “Rookwood” name (it being the road names in the triangle between Osmondthorpe lane, York road and the railway). Certainly to the local railway staff it was always Osmondthorpe (implying the area beyond Neville Hill but before the BRSA club which was on Rookwood Road).