WITNESSING THE BUILDING OF HEALEY MILLS DEPOT
In May 1962 when I was 7 the family moved to Forge Lane, Horbury Junction, right next to the old L.M.S. line between Healey Mills and Wakefield and a stones throw from what was then Charles Roberts wagon works.

What a place to grow up, already well into railways and witnessing the transition from steam to diesel. I had already lived not far from the old G.N.R. main line into Leeds Central, and witnessed the passing of the L.N.E.R. Pacifics to what was to become my beloved Deltics. Little did I know that before my 24th birthday I had worked both at Healey Mills shed and on Deltics.
At the time most of the freight in and out of Healey Mills yard was worked mainly by Austerity 2-8-0's and ex L.M.S. 8f's from Wakefield and Mirfield sheds. Goods carried were mainly the bulk commodities like coal and steel, but general freight was also marshalled there. I distinctly remember an 8f hauling 72!! five plank open wagons towards Healey Mills when we first moved there.

We still had local stations with trains stopping. These were worked mainly by what were to become class 110 dmu's in full green livery. The nearest open station to Healey Mills was Horbury and Ossett station on the main Wakefield to Huddersfield road which I did a lot of my "spotting" from as I could have a chance of getting to jump onto a footplate from time to time.
Then about 1964 or 1965 from the station you could make out the start of the building of what was to me a large building. This was to become Healey Mills depot.

I will describe Healey Mills shed from my experience of working there. The Main shed was a four road shed. Three through roads each holding two mainline diesel locomotives and one dead end road holding either a mainline locomotive or a couple of shunters. The shed was what we called on the railway a "flat shed" not like Tinsley or Gateshead which were platformed. This meant you had to use gantries and ladders to do a lot of maintenence. The dead end road was A road where the bodylifts were carried out. The next road B road was where there was an overhead crane to do major maintenence, and the other two roads C and D roads was where the general maintenence was done.
Locomotives were not allowed to be started up in the shed, but had to be hauled out by another loco or shunter. This was common to many depots, but not all. The depot as you all know is in the middle of the yard so there was no direct road access. All material for the shed like spares and consumables except oil,sand and fuel had to be brought over the bridge which had a small crane to carry large items on over the bridge and then to the shed by fork lift.

At the end of A road was first the supervisors office, stores, air filter cleaning room and injector overhaul and oil testing room.Then there was the amenity block housing downstairs the washrooms and upstairs the messroom.

About 800 yards to the west of the main shed is what we nicknamed "The Ponderosa." In other words the servicing shed. I spent a lot of my railway worktime in this small two road shed, the first time as a fitter's assistant and when I went back there as a fitter.
The locos came from the yard or from other locations for servicing firstly through the wash plant then directly into the servicing shed. By the way one of the "old hands" who I worked with can remember an ex L.N.E.R. B1 4-6-0 being put down this road by mistake, this was before Healey Mills depot was officially opened and the fitter was outstationed from Wakefield shed.
This is the shed that did fuelling exams, A exams and pre exams were carried out. At the west end of the shed were two roller doors that could be closed to keep the howling westerly wind out.
On the next road behind the servicing shed in towards the main yard was the toolvan road, where the breakdown crane was stabled. These toolvans were always out sometime in the week.
Just a little further west was the loadbank, where a locomotive was coupled up to a load simulator and tested thoroughly and then the fuel storage tanks which when full held 50,000 gallons of diesel.

What a shame that this facility is not being used. It is all still as I left it to be tranferred to Gateshead in May 1984. This is truly a waste. There has been a couple of plans to reopen the depot but nothing has materialised.

Source: by Nigel Petrie

GOING LOCO
I once witnessed back in the early 80’s a man nearly get killed at Healey Mills, a depot near Wakefield. He was sure one of his last engines he needed was tucked away in the long lines of locomotives held there, awaiting new duties. He ran down the embankment, across the track, under the buffers of two attached locomotives. He disappeared for about five minutes. He suddenly reappeared between the locomotives and jumped out into the path of a passing freight train. It missed him by inches. This is the kind of insane risk, I have witnessed many a time.

Of course not everyone would go to this extreme to see a train.

Source:Rory Lushman