898 - THL898

Today’s Guy Wulfrunian is our third red Wulf in a row and it depicts 898 (THL898) crossing the railway bridge on Croft Street, above the throat of Bradford Exchange railway station, on its way back to Wakefield in the 61 route via the main road.

 

This area has changed dramatically a number of times since this photograph was taken. Ten-platform Exchange station was knocked down and the tracks cut back to the south side of Bridge Street to form Bradford Interchange. This took a large part of what had been the railway goods facilities to form the bus station which included a huge bus depot for the West Yorkshire PTE. This in turn led to the closure of several ex-Bradford City Transport depots.

 

Barely 25 years later in 1999, and with Metro’s bus operations having been privatised, the Interchange bus station was demolished and a smaller bus station built on part of the site, with the remainder being sold off to fund the re-development. The basement bus depot was closed and a replacement largely open-air facility opened on the site of the former Hammerton Street DMU depot.

 

Just to the rear of 898 can be seen the water tower that was used to keep steam engines supplied with water.

 

Done