Their schemes - and the companies themselves - were taken up by the Great Northern Railway, which built a line looping through the villages to the north-east of Bradford: from Laisterdyke, through Eccleshill, Idle and Thackley to Shipley.
The line was open to goods traffic on 4 May 1874, and to passengers on 18 January 1875.
[3] Passenger service on the line ceased on 2 February 1931 and the passenger station closed, though goods traffic continued on the whole line until October 1964 and between Shipley and Idle until 1968.
[4] The line is now a public footpath, with only ruined buildings and partially demolished platforms at track level to show that this was a railway station.
[5] The 1894 building still exists and is now a private dwelling, situated next to the 1874 humped back Crag Hill Road bridge.