Heritage route
Kirklees Light Railway
Clayton West → Shelley · England
Kirklees Light Railway in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 5 km
- Fastest time
- 25 min
- Average speed
- 12 km/h
- Operator
- Whistlestop Valley
- Train
- 15 in gauge steam
- Countries
- England
- In service since
- 1991
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
A 15-inch-gauge railway opened in 1991 on the Lancashire & Yorkshire’s Clayton West branch: through Skelmanthorpe and the 511-yard Shelley Woodhouse tunnel, with Emley Moor mast in view.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway opened its branch from Clayton West Junction to Clayton West on 1 September 1879, built wide enough for a second track that was never laid. Coal from the collieries at Park Mill and Emley Moor kept it open past Beeching, but passenger trains ended on 24 January 1983 and the track was lifted by 1986. The 15-inch-gauge railway opened on 19 October 1991, at first only to a halt called Cuckoos Nest, and now runs three and a half miles to Shelley; since 2021 the attraction around it has been called Whistlestop Valley.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 10001165 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Clayton West
- Skelmanthorpe
- Shelley Woodhouse tunnel
- Shelley
How long is the Kirklees Light Railway?
The Kirklees Light Railway runs 5 km from Clayton West to Shelley.
How long does the Kirklees Light Railway take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 25 min for the 5 km. That is an average of 12 km/h end to end.
Who runs the Kirklees Light Railway?
Whistlestop Valley, with 15 in gauge steam.
How old is the Kirklees Light Railway?
The line has been in service since 1991. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
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