York to Beverley Line

The railway York - Beverley was located in the north of England. It ran from York to Market Weighton by the southern Yorkshire Wolds to Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, and was in operation from 1865 to 1965.

History

Construction

The construction of a railway line from York to Beverley to Hull was originally by the York and North Midland Railway ( Y & NMR) and its president George Hudson promoted. In order to consolidate its monopoly in East Yorkshire, bought Hudson 1845 Londesborough estate near Market Weighton. With this step, he came to the Manchester & Leeds Railway earlier, which had also planned to build a line to Hull in this area. As suggested by the local channel owners to build resistance, Hudson bought their property at inflated prices.

The parliamentary approval for the route was 1846. Due to the mostly flat terrain, the section between York and Market Weighton was already opened on 3 October 1847.

1849 was forced to resign Hudson. The reason was a financial scandal, was involved in one of its other railroad companies, the Eastern Counties Railway. Thus, the construction of the second section was delayed through the Wolds to Beverley to all of 17 years. The Y & NMR had to consolidate and in 1854 part of the North Eastern Railway (NER ). Here, the construction or planning of new rail lines had to be stopped for the time being.

Before closing the gap could be made to Beverley, the NER but first had to solve, which had east of Market Weighton country a confrontation with the MP Lord Hotham. He agreed to a construction ultimately under the condition that his property should get ( at Kiplingcotes ) has its own breakpoint and run on Sundays no train. After completion of the second section was finally the entire distance traveled on 1 May 1865, first train.

The route then led north of York in the the Y & NMR belonging railway York - Scarborough and at the west end north of Beverley in the railway Hull- Bridlington. 1889, the line was expanded to double track, and the railroad crossing on the busy A64 between York and Scarborough was in the 1930s replaced by an underpass. 1890 Market Weighton was with the complete construction of the railway line Driffield Selby to a railroad hub.

Plans to modernize

Despite the closure of several lightly used breakpoints in the 1950s, the operation of the line seemed to be the beginning of the following decade secured. It drove at a constant high speed passenger trains nine per direction per day, this made ​​the line a year £ 5,000 profit. A first step towards the modernization of the line was made ​​with the installation of the first automated crossing gates conditioning Britain at Warthill. In May 1961 a contract for the further modernization was signed with the engineering firm Westinghouse. Within weeks, the first charges of construction materials were delivered to Pocklington. The majority of the remodeling plans included the reduction of operating costs by closing one of the two main lines, thereby passing places at Pocklington and Market Weighton should be installed. Furthermore, 19 of the 22 should be a gated crossings equipped with new automatic half barriers. In addition, the complete modernization of the signaling system was provided.

Closure

Did the work on the track just started, so the project was put on ice suddenly in February 1962. British Railways stated that the operations had to be suspended in favor of a "reassessment " of financial feasibility. With the publication of such a report on March 27, 1963, the fate of the railway line was sealed. Richard Beeching had proposed route for closure, because they had a negative balance according to his own account in account all costs. The closure of the seemingly profitable line should instead allow greater financial reserves. Beeching also argued that most rail passengers commuting between Hull and York, making the route would be obsolete in view of the parallel existing railroad Hull- York (via Selby ). The election of the Labour Party in 1964 did raise hopes for survival of the track, but had the Premier Harold Wilson soon move away from his campaign promise of obtaining affected by the rationalization of railway lines. The protest of many local authorities along the line was ignored, and also the secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Barbara Castle, advocated the closure. The last trains ran on 27 November 1965; the very last was a diesel railcar with five other wagons, which left at 21:42 clock the train station in York to Hull evening.

The track today

Four years after the closure of all the former railway land and the entire capital of the route were sold to local resident landowners and developers. The sale meant that in some cases houses were built on the former route. Nevertheless, the majority of the track bed and several station buildings and signal boxes were preserved until today. The station building Pocklingtons became a Grade II listed building and now houses the gymnasium of the school there. In Stamford Bridge is the station building and the engine shed and the two platforms survived with the track bed time. The gate at the railroad crossing of High Catton road is testimony of the then not fully brought modernization of the line. The imposing viaduct of brick and cast iron over the Derwent near Stamford Bridge was also made ​​and was renovated in 1991. The station building of Warthill, Holtby, Fangfoss and Kiplingcotes still exist today.

The station buildings at Market Weighton in 1979 completely demolished. Also at the former Earswick station can be seen except a signal masts no traces of rail operations more. The mast stands today outside a pub, which was built on the former track bed. Between Market Weighton and Beverley the track bed was in a bike path, the Hudson motorcycle path converted.

Reactivation?

Recently, a re-opening of the line from Beverley to Hull from the local population has been strongly advocated. The initiators of a campaign for the Streckenbau argue the railway line had been shut down unfairly, and the main streets of East Riding of Yorkshire, particularly the A1079 are no longer able to cope with motorized traffic. A certified report in 2004 of a possible route, although the feasibility, but it would cost about 239 million pounds. The County Council East Riding of Yorkshire Endorses the proposals, but no further progress has been achieved.

Due to the sale of land by British Rail was built in many places along the route, such as in Pocklington, Stamford Bridge and Huntington, a suburb of York. In case of realization of the distance they could be built exactly at the same place so no way.

However, in 2006, beat, published documents of the County Council East Riding of Yorkshire as part of the Local Development Framework Transport Development Plan new Trassierungsvarianten before, which include the construction of new breakpoints in the same places.