Healey Mills Marshalling Yard

It was part of the British Transport Commission's Modernisation plan, and so was equipped with a hump to enable the efficient shunting and re-ordering of goods wagons.

Healey Mills was one of many hump yards being built, for whose traffic was planned in the 1950s, but by the time they were commissioned, lorries and fast motorways were eating into their ability to operate cost-effectively.

[4] Its location on an east/west axis meant that it was ideally positioned for the coal trains destined for either Lancashire, or the east coast ports of Hull, Immingham and Goole.

[6] The yard was placed in the Healey Mills area near Ossett, and was located between the running lines of the existing Calder Valley railway.

[8] The hump was installed at the west end of the yard so that traffic from the Yorkshire pits could be marshalled via a reversal over it, and then staged for delivery to either the east coast ports or Lancashire.

[11] Three other yards, Copley Hill, Crofton Empty and Hillhouse, worked in a smaller capacity than before as some of their traffic was transferred to Healey Mills.

Questions were put to the Secretary of State for Transport, but as the derailment was at very low speed and no injuries occurred, there was no official post-accident investigation.

It lost its marshalling responsibilities again in May 1998, when Doncaster Belmont yard superseded Healey Mills as the gathering point and hub for Yorkshire.

Doncaster Belmont's position on the East Coast Main Line meant that it was geographically and strategically better placed to handle the wagonload traffic (now branded as Enterprise under EWS ownership).

It lost its allocation of mainline locomotives, which were shared between Gateshead, Immingham, March, Stratford, Tinsley and Thornaby, and its shunters were sent to Leeds Holbeck.

[19] In 1993, Trainload Petroleum reopened the depot at Healey Mills, though this was short-lived, and was only used for fuelling and minor maintenance of locomotives.