Urban Exploration: Hellifield Abandoned Train

We are Urban Explorers, we are not vandals. We take nothing besides photographs and leave nothing but footprints.

In my conquest to find interesting Urban Exploration locations, I have mostly been using a couple of internet resources, namely, https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/ and https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/.

Both have good information contained within and you can search your local area for prospective finds. Working 30 miles from home opens more opportunity for me as long as the light holds.

Winter is approaching and with it less light for me to find things en route to work. I discovered an abandoned train that sits close to the Hellifield junction between Gargrave and Long Preston and last Friday, went to investigate.

From my research of titbits on the internet, the train is a Royal Mail goods engine with approximately a dozen carriages. It's been sitting there for at least 10 years and there have been attempts to sell it that have failed.

To whom would one sell a train? Perhaps to passing gypsies, I don’t know.

Approaching the main Hellifield station, I saw notices threatening me with £1000 fines for trespassing and many security cameras. I could also see the train in the distance.

Just it being there was a relief, these things get demolished or towed away in an instant and you never know until you look. I wasn’t wasting my time with ghosts today.

Another angle was needed and Google Maps can help you greatly if you use them. This was my new approach and the same one used by the other Urban Explorer from where I gained knowledge of this train.

Make a note of the sturdy locked gates at the end of the road. I will explain later.

You can see the train and everything from far away and even the the main road where cars pass frequently. This is not good, I don’t want to be seen and they can see me easily smooching around.

I learned that the sturdy locked gates were open until quite recently, just my luck. There are always alternate ways of gaining access and I found one quite easily.

The train has been heavily vandalized with a lot of graffiti, and even more so recently after comparing what I saw with photographs from only a few months ago. Maybe this is why the gate is now chained.

The front engine had handles and steps that looked sturdy enough, but I had to haul myself up. You need to remember that trains are usually in platforms and the climb is not generally this far up.

Inside was a wreck. The glass on train windows is thick, but someone had taken the time to smash through some of it anyway.

I always wondered why trains had a steering wheel? If there are any train drivers reading or you know, then please do tell.

The newspaper gave me some clue of who long this engine really has been sitting here. April 27th 2002, that’s 16 years ago. Was the engine driver reading the Sun while tootling along the tracks?

Being a goods vehicle makes things less interesting than a passenger one. The bulk of carriages were empty and large but with little to photograph unless you like big open spaces. I didn't bother jumping up into it.

Some were locked and there was more than one engine. I did check a second one only to find it was startlingly similar to the first with a similar level of vandalism.

Even production trains are a little rusty around these edges, but this was extreme rust. The paintwork has seen better days, and even your graffiti merchant isn't going to improve this.

Sniffin’ Glue? I wonder if the vandals that wrote this were doing just that?

The train was a little underwhelming to me. Besides the engine, there was little to see besides rust and graffiti.

I spent around 20 minutes milling about the place looking for anything of interest. It was a little open for my liking and I had a feeling; was someone watching me?

The train was next to a live track which I was conscious of. I left after getting the photographs I was looking for, but with that feeling, 'It could have been more interesting.'

On approaching my car, a white security vehicle passed me. I didn’t make eye contact with the driver as he passed but had they been alerted to my presence?

Looking back at the gate entrance on leaving, the car was firmly parked next to the sturdy locked gate (the one I mentioned previously).

Coincidence or routine? I don’t think I will ever know.

It’s probably not wise getting too close to a live rail track. Hindsight tells me that I really shouldn’t have gone to this place. I didn't go on the tracks and purposely kept well away from them but had to hide from a passing train at one point.

I’ll stick to spooky manor houses and abandoned factories from now I think, with the odd lunatic asylum thrown in for good measure.