Healey Mills opened in 1963 in an attempt to modernise wagon-load traffic. It replaced a dozen smaller yards in the area and its purpose was to improve the efficiency of sorting and marshalling wagons into trains before sending them off to their destination. The yards featured hump-shunting, in which wagons were pushed over a ‘hump’, freewheeled into the required siding, and braked using special retarders next to the rails - all controlled from a centralised operations tower.
A purpose-built diesel depot opened alongside the yards at the end of 1966 and the two facilities saw round the clock activity with a claimed capacity of 4,000 wagons per day. Situated to the west of Wakefield, Healey Mills was ideally located for sending and receiving trains to all parts of the country, as well as handling the large number of local coal trains at the time.
There's a little bit about the railway sidings on wiki ;
Healey, Ossett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Note - the mainline (live) still runs either side of the derelict marshalling yard and all the locos are now gone. Just a few trucks left and miles of lines !
Signal relay boxes
Engine Shed
Gas works
Relays
Office
Stuff
Waiting Room ?
Kit
Under the coal wagons
All hooked up
A purpose-built diesel depot opened alongside the yards at the end of 1966 and the two facilities saw round the clock activity with a claimed capacity of 4,000 wagons per day. Situated to the west of Wakefield, Healey Mills was ideally located for sending and receiving trains to all parts of the country, as well as handling the large number of local coal trains at the time.
There's a little bit about the railway sidings on wiki ;
Healey, Ossett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Note - the mainline (live) still runs either side of the derelict marshalling yard and all the locos are now gone. Just a few trucks left and miles of lines !
Signal relay boxes
Engine Shed
Gas works
Relays
Office
Stuff
Waiting Room ?
Kit
Under the coal wagons
All hooked up
