Description and History of Site:-
The colliery railway brought coal mined at the Waterloo Main Colliery pits, sunk onto the Beeston coal seam located south west of Temple Newsam House, to the coal staith on the corner of Easy Road and Cross Green Lane, Leeds. The staithe was the distribution point for merchants who sold and transported coal to the end user, the railway also being used to transport miners to and from their shifts at the pits using a pool of five steam locomotives, 'Sylvia', 'Dora', 'Antwerp', 'Kitchener' and 'Jubilee' one of which, 'Kitchener' was known to have been a 1914 built Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0 ST. The miners travelled to their shifts from Leeds and back using two carriages for the service, the locals giving the railway its name the Paddy Train. The railway was a standard gauge single track and by 1937 was employing a crossing keeper at Cross Green Lane who operated a flag controlled crossing point.

The 1908 25 inch Ordnance Survey map shows the pits serviced by the rail link as Dam, Park and Bride pits, also Neville Hill Sidings Coal Depot, Thwaite Locks staithe on the Aire and Calder Navigation (NGR SE32350 31239), Leeds Sewage Works and the G.N.R Hunslet sidings were also connected.
The railway wasn't shown on the 1846-7 6 inch Ordnance Survey map, but appears on the 1888-90 edition, Waterloo Main pit was in use in 1854 so was probably constructed at that time to connect the pit with Leeds. One of the locos used in the early days of the colliery was a 1867 built Hunslet 0-6-0 works number 21.

The railway stopped transporting miners in 1959 when it was replaced by a special bus service. The railway still operated as coal haulage only with the last train running to Neville Hill sidings in November 1968, the Waterloo Main pit closed in December 1968 with the railway dismantled shortly afterwards.

Further Reading and References:-
http://www.leodis.net/searchResults.aspx?LOCID=0&DECADE=0&YEAR=&KEYWORDS=PADDY%20TRAIN&KEYWORDS2=&ANDOR2=And&KEYWORDS3=&ANDOR3=And&RECSPAGE=5&IMG=0&VIEW=1&CURRPAGE=1&PUBID=0
https://www.nmrs.org.uk/assets/mines/coal/yorkshire/1854/W.html
https://eastleedsmemories.wordpress.com/category/waterloo-colliery/
https://eastleedsmemories.wordpress.com/tag/coal-staithes/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/10624355624
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124446949@N06/30053218587/in/photostream/

Help us improve this entry

The compilers welcome corrections or additional information on all sites.
Any information provided will be verified before appearing on the web site.

Email comments

Key Words :- coal railway mineral line steam loco

Viewing the Site :- Public footpath alongside road.

Address :- Easy Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Grid Ref :- SE 31553 32736
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.789989 , Long -1.52254
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site demolished or no longer extant
Site Condition :- Site cleared - no above ground remains visible
Site Dates :- c1854 - 1968
Contributor :- Andrew Garford - 30 May 2020

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Andrew Garford