Passenger types: Suburban

Freight types: Coal, Coke, Tar, Amonia, Vans, Motorail, Dyes

Operators: 1 station manager, 1 assistant

Halifax, set at the heart of Calderdale in Yorkshire’s West Riding, played an important part of northern England’s wool trade, and that tradition continues at McKinley, where the imposing bulk of Tibble’s Mill dominates the railway’s approach into the town at the end of the branchline from Sheffield.

The mill sees a constant flow of traffic in and out as part of Halifax’s endless stream of mixed goods and passenger services. The town’s pretty two platform station, Halifax Copley Street, is kept busy with suburban services passing through en route to Manchester or Bradford, while nearby McKinley Chocolates turns out tins and boxes of the nation’s favourite confectionery by the thousand.

Heavy industry is also close at hand; take the reverse branch round to the town’s gasworks with its never-ending demand for coal and chemicals. The gasworks by products also need to be collected and taken away, ensuring a great variety of stock passes through Halifax seven days a week.