With my idea in mind now, I needed to find out it is realistically achieveable. No point going any further if I simply cannot make my idea a reality. And with no luck on the National Rail side of things, I'm running out of options in how I might pull this off.
First step then is to find a suitable location and resources in order to even stand a chance.
I hit the Google high waves, and after trying many combinations of search terms, I typed in "Train Graveyard" to see what came up. And much to my delight, I got lucky.
I came to learn about a place called "Healey Mills", which is in West Yorkshire. I got excited, as it was an abandoned train yard, with abandoned trains, that more importantly, was relatively close.
Suddenly, my idea was becoming realistic.
The site I checked out was called Urban Ghosts, and the images taken from the site started to interest me very much...
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Exploring the Train Graveyard at Healey Mills, West Yorkshire
September 18th, 2011, In Featured, Urban Exploration, by Tom
Even though Healey Mills Traction Depot near Wakefield in northern England officially closed in 1987, an impressive assortment of abandoned trains and railway buildings continue to haunt the forgotten site. Extensive sidings were present by the 1920s, and today’s eerie scene is a far cry from 1963 when Healey Mills was modified to handle 4,000 wagons each day. Despite the infrastructure, Healey’s only public transport service by 2011 was the number 102 bus from Wakefield to Ossett.
The Healey Mills Sidings are a sad reflection of Britain’s great railway past. But the overgrown tracks and forlorn diesel engines have captured the attention of urban explorers intent on documenting their decay in atmospheric images. Abandoned railway stations and tracks are fascinating in their own right, but like this post-Soviet aircraft graveyard discovered on a Far East Russian air base, the presence of defunct machines fuels the imagination and helps bring abandoned places to life.
Despite the yard’s closure 25 years ago, these rusting Class 56 locomotives are a more recent addition. Operated latterly by English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS), they were likely stored here from 2004 after the company withdrew most of the fleet. Quietly awaiting their fate – most likely the breaker – they’ve become the subject of urban exploration, captured by the likes of Urban Outlaw and Phill.d, and featured on sites such as Derelict Places.
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A little further digging brought me to an article on this website here...
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End of the Line for Healey Mills Depot and Marshalling Yard Built 50 Years Ago
Published 16th March 2012
(Source - http://www.rail.co.uk/rail-news/2012/end-of-the-line-for-healey-mills-depot/)
Final Operations Cease at Once Important Yorkshire Railway Yards
One of the UK’s most well-known freight railway locations has finally closed after a protracted run-down, as DB Schenker closed its staff depot at Healey Mills, West Yorkshire. The 140-acre site was once one of Europe’s largest marshalling yards, but over the past two decades the yards have become obsolete, the depot closed and now freight trains no longer call there to change crews.
Healey Mills opened in 1963 in attempt to modernise wagon-load traffic. It replaced a dozen smaller yards in the area and its purpose was to improve the efficiency of sorting and marshalling wagons into trains before sending them off to their destination. The yards featured hump-shunting, in which wagons were pushed over a ‘hump’, freewheeled into the required siding, and braked using special retarders next to the rails - all controlled from a centralised operations tower.
A purpose-built diesel depot opened alongside the yards at the end of 1966 and the two facilities saw round the clock activity with a claimed capacity of 4,000 wagons per day. Situated to the west of Wakefield, Healey Mills was ideally located for sending and receiving trains to all parts of the country, as well as handling the large number of local coal trains at the time.
But wagon-load railfreight came under increasing threat in the 1970s and 1980s due to competition from road transport. Then a double blow came with the decline of the Yorkshire coal industry and resultant reduction in coal trains, which had once formed up to 50 percent of traffic at Healey Mills.
As a result, the depot lost its own allocation of locomotives in 1984 and the marshalling yards closed in 1987 - although both were still used for stabling locomotives and trains until the early 2000s.
The redundant sidings were then used to store long lines of withdrawn Class 37, 47, 56 and 58 locomotives until 2010, after which the only operations at Healey Mills were for crew changes of passing freight trains.
From February 4, these crew changes now take place a few miles away at Wakefield Kirkgate station, where portable cabins have been installed as temporary offices. All that remains at Healey Mills are the overgrown sidings, a few redundant wagons, and the buildings awaiting demolition.
Right now, I'm excited as hell! Looks like I might have just come across my perfect site!
Now to actually find it...
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