The conquest of Holbeck viaduct

Part 3 of the Leeds Historical Expedition Society's quest to take cameras were no other camera has been before. Here we take you on a birds eye view of the abandoned Holbeck railway viaduct in south Leeds. Carefull planning, reconascence & skilled tactics were employed for this daring raid on the monster viaduct. Built by the L.N.W.R in 1869 the viaduct is 1500 yds long and has 85 arches, 9 overbridges & underpasses. Built out of black engineering brick it is both visually impressive & a monumental testament to the victorian railway builders of the day. Thankfully it escaped the unwanted attention of the Luftwaffe on more than one occasion with there deadly load hitting elsewhere. Here we discover some of the viaducts secret places & take a look at the seedier side of the Holbeck area now frequented by prostitutes when darkness descends. The viaduct was considered surplus to requirements in 1988 with no trains passing over it since as can be seen from the amount of vegetation growing on top. Hope you enjoy the trip.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Leeds
• Holbeck
• viaduct
• city
• center
• trains
• railway
• station

[hopki65]

i rember the old viaduct when we used to come in that way from doncaster

couriosity though

why are the track and fittings still in place?

[philldavison]

It's strange that hopkin. The track is left on one side of the viaduct down the whole length of the straight run of the viaduct. The curve into Leeds is lifted & so is the embankment section.

[philldavison]

Hi njpurling. The track or viaduct line known as it's known ran from Leeds station & used to connect further down with what is now the Leeds-London mainline, All the track has been modified at Leeds now meaning they could abandon this line to save the cost of maintenance work on, also the curve near the station was too tight to put electric wires on. The line used to carry all London trains & closed in 1988.

[philldavison]

Hi Lemington. The viaduct will never carry trains again although i believe it could be turned into a cycle path/walkway.

[Digitalpiracy]

My compliments to the Leeds Gentlemen's Exploration Society on a superb job and some very cool filming & editing - nice one

[philldavison]

Many thanks Digital. Part four is a fright night special coming soon!

[samhirst87]

Excellent! what can I say... The music sets the mood, The driveby is excellent. A real sense of mischief about this! The history of the viaduct and the subways is captured perfectly! Excellent!

[ackers72]

Top notch from the top notch society!!!

[SittingMooseShaman]

...be careful lads! Them prostitutes' tunnels can be quite... er, 'tricky'- to say the least!! Please put on better protection when y'ins explore them hookers' 'oles... Wear full body rubber rain coats... This way it cannot be denied that y'ins don't practice 'safe-search' when cavortin' about them Holbeck Hooker Highrise viaducts...

Fare thee well.

[randomkid21000]

LNER

[forks74]

Nice bit of scrap metal there you should have waied it in! Any copper?

[SearchlightsInc]

Been on there a few times and we even came across the subways as kids but never really knew why they were there. They only lifted 1 set of tracks up for some reason and left the other down. Had lotta fun exploring as a kid but i will say one thing, last time i checked there was a padlock on that gate, so how did you guys get up there :P

[20vtechnik]

Love your videos!

Keep up the great work!

(good tunes too)

[robertparmar37]

Did that use to be the rute to london from leeds back in the 1980's

[Saraceno2751]

*Gulp* !!! hey philldavison is that you ?

Ive talked to this girl on chat

Get da link 2 her profile @ DateHerSafe(.)com/profile?=154­8

[tonyreno123]

you should have asked how much! 5 dolla sucky sucky 15 dolla she love you long time ha ha good vid

[cactusmelba]

cool vid Phill, can your lips be unsealed yet?

[radiomanwakefield]

fantastic again, nicely edited , nice soundtrack,,,,,,more please