West Yorkshire Railways - Introduction

For the purpose of this datafile, a wider area than just the two counties has been taken. The data included covers the whole of those counties, parts of East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, South Harrogate and areas of Derbyshire.

Railway Development

The story of railways in Yorkshire starts long before the time of the Stockton & Darlington Railway of 1825. As in so many parts of the country, coal mines were the home of early railway developments. The growth of a number of waggonways around the River Tyne in the late 18th century proved the value of rails for the carriage of coal.

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In 1745, a waggonway was opened from Outwood, north of Wakefield down to the River Calder and other schemes quickly followed. The Middleton Railway, on the outskirts of Leeds, was built in 1758 and holds a unique place in railway history. It was granted the first Act of Parliament authorising a railway and for more than a hundred years used the gauge of 1.25m (4'1") as it served the colliery and local industry. In 1881, it was converted to standard gauge and became the first standard gauge preserved line in the country in 1960.

Canals and rivers were used to carry coal from the colliery lines to the sea via Selby or Goole and it was almost inevitable that the first major railway in the area should head eastwards. The Leeds & Selby suffered more than its share of political intrigue and was closed temporarily between 1840 and 1850 as rival groups battled to control traffic over a series of trunk lines. The first of these trunk lines arrived in Leeds in 1840 when the North Midland opened from Derby with connections to London. In the same year, the Manchester & Leeds arrived, having joined the North Midland at Normanton. Both of these schemes were engineered by George Stephenson who believed in using gentle gradients.

As a result, with hills on three sides, Sheffield was avoided by the North Midland and the first railway into the city was a branch off the main line at Rotherham. It also opened in 1840. Despite the difficult terrain, a line was built from Manchester through the first of the Woodhead tunnels and opened in 1845.

As the system developed nationally, companies merged and even more intense rivalries grew. The North Midland became part of the Midland, the Manchester & Leeds part of the Lancashire & Yorkshire, the Leeds and Selby and its rival the York & North Midland becoming part of the North Eastern and the Sheffield, Ashton & Manchester part of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire. With the Great Northern and London & North Western also building lines, the scene was set for large numbers of competing lines to be built. Particularly in West Yorkshire, every small mill or colliery town had two or more lines and lines were still being opened even after 1910.