| York and Doncaster branch | |
| Other Name: | York and Doncaster branch line East Coast Main Line (old route) |
| Type: | Heavy rail High speed rail |
| Status: | Partially closed |
| Locale: | Yorkshire |
| Start: | (historical) (current) |
| Stations: | 11/12[1] |
| Owner: | Network Rail |
| Linelength Mi: | 33.5 |
| Tracklength Mi: | 27 |
| Tracks: | 2 |
| Electrification: | 25 kV overhead (partial) |
| Map State: | uncollapsed |
The York and Doncaster branch was a railway line that opened in 1871 connecting Doncaster with York via Selby in Yorkshire, England. This line later became part of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) and was the route that express trains took between, the north of England and Scotland. It was opened by the North Eastern Railway (NER) between York and Shaftholme Junction, some north of railway station. Between its opening in 1871 and the grouping in 1923, the line was used by both the NER, and the Great Northern Railway (GNR). All of the intermediate local stations that had opened with the line in 1871 closed down in the 1950s and 1960s leaving just Selby open between the town of Doncaster and the city of York.
In the 1970s, a plan for extracting the coal from underneath the northern section of the line between Selby and York, led to British Rail building an avoiding line, the Selby Diversion, which fully opened to traffic in October 1983.[2] The southern section of the line between Doncaster and Selby is still open to enable trains from Doncaster to access the East Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.[3]
The trackbed of the line between Selby and York is now used partly by the A19 (as a bypass at Riccall), whilst the rest of the route forms part of the Trans-Pennine Trail and National Cycle Route 65.
At least two routes were available from the region of South Yorkshire[4] northwards into York by the time that the York to Doncaster Branch was opened in January 1871. George Hudson had already promoted his venture, the York and North Midland Railway, whilst the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&Y) had their line which went through . The L&Y were against the NER building what would be a shorter line (by), between Doncaster and York as it would take traffic away from their line. Nevertheless, the plan was approved in March 1864, and despite some financial problems, the line opened to traffic in January 1871.
The Great Northern Railway achieved running powers over the line from the NER which allowed a mutually beneficial service for both companies. The GNR would run the long distance trains and the NER would operate the local services. As the new line connected with Shaftholme Junction, the section south from there to Doncaster was controlled by the GNR, so the NER needed their permission to run into Doncaster.
The works included an entirely new section of railway south from Chaloners Whin Junction, south of York, to Barlby Junction on the eastern side of Selby. The route then used the Hull and Selby line across the River Ouse on Selby Swing Bridge and into Selby railway station. The second part of the route was another new build going due south from Selby to Shaftholme Junction north of Doncaster. The whole route between York and Doncaster consisted of from York to Chaloners Whin Junction (already in existence), of new railway to Barlby Junction at Selby, from Selby to Shaftholme Junction, and then the last section to Doncaster on the existing GNR metals.[5] The cost of the new railway was £239,500 in 1871.
There were no major engineering obstacles on the line apart from a swing bridge over the River Ouse at Naburn, just to the north of station.[6] Built to a design by Thomas Elliott Harrison, it was constructed of wrought iron which had two sections spanning . Only one of the spans was able to swing, this being the one that had a control tower on top of it.[7] In the first few years of operation, the bridge would be swung open to allow the passage of river traffic, and would only be moved into alignment with the railway when a train was due to pass.[8] During the National Railway strike of 1911, the bridge and its signal box were overrun with striking railwaymen. The military were sent in to retake the bridge.[9] The span was fixed in place by British Rail in 1956 as river traffic lessened in favour of ports downstream.
Another bridge spanned the River Ouse at Selby, just east of the station. This was originally a bascule bridge, that was replaced in 1891 with a swing bridge.[10] The 1871 line also brought a new build station and Selby became an important junction on the routes between London and Edinburgh, and also on the Transpennine route to and from Hull. The station at Selby had four through tracks, with the middle tracks having no platforms. The westbound and eastbound tracks were gauntletted over the bridge and were reformed from two lines over the bridge, to four on either side.[11] The gauntletting was removed in 1960, 23 years before the old ECML branch through was closed because of the Selby Diversion.
In 1989, the route northwards via the Selby Diversion was electrified,[12] whilst the former line to Selby northwards from Temple Hirst Junction remains un-electrified.[13]
The York to Doncaster line served the following stations;
| Name | Coordinates | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53.9583°N -1.093°W | The original formation had trains that used the old York railway station. In 1877, a through station at York was built.[14] | ||
| 53.9089°N -1.0859°W | New build station opened by the NER 2 January 1871. Closed in June 1953.[15] | ||
| 53.8697°N -1.0467°W | New build station opened by the NER 2 January 1871. Closed in June 1953.[16] | ||
| 53.8314°N -1.0531°W | New build station opened by the NER 2 January 1871. Closed in September 1958. | ||
| 53.783°N -1.0634°W | First station on the west bank of the River Ouse opened in 1834, replaced by a new station with tracks across the Ouse in 1840. The opening of the new York and Doncaster Branch line led to a new station being built to a design by Thomas Prosser in January 1871. | ||
| 53.7179°N -1.0893°W | New build station opened by the NER in 1871. Closed to passengers in June 1961, goods traffic ceased in 1964. | ||
| 53.6828°N -1.0994°W | New build station opened by the NER in 1871. Closed in September 1958.[17] | ||
| 53.6641°N -1.1056°W | New build station opened by the NER in 1871. Closed in September 1958. | ||
| 53.622°N -1.1131°W | New build station opened by the NER in 1871. Closed in June 1953. | ||
| 53.5878°N -1.1218°W | Non-public station in use by crossing keepers and their families. Quick states the halt was in use between 1920 and 1955, but that it only appeared in the Working Timetable (WTT) in 1939, 1940 and lastly in June 1955. | ||
| 53.5515°N -1.1331°W | Opened by the Great Northern Railway 6 June 1848; closed to passenger traffic 5 August 1952.[18] | ||
| 53.5225°N -1.1395°W | Opened between 1850 and 1852.[19] |
Aside from the express trains that used the route, the timetable from 1910 shows that the section north of Selby had eight stopping services per day, this had dropped by the 1930s, with three trains per day calling at all stations. In 1946, the Bradshaws timetable shows some six local trains per day each way, though only one stopped at all of the stations on the line.
In the 1970s, British Coal set about developing a working coalfield (the Selby Coalfield) to the north of Selby. To avoid subsidence on this section of line, a 14.5miles diversion (the Selby Diversion) was opened between Temple Hirst Junction, just south of railway station and Colton Junction, some south of railway station.[23] Both junctions were new to the railway and the whole cost of the project was £60 million, which was paid for entirely by British Coal. This was seen as a good compromise as the estimated value of the coal underneath the railway was thought to have been worth over £1,000 million.
At its furthest point away from the original formation, the Selby Diversion was still only 5miles west of .[24]
The stretch of trackbed between the sites of Riccall railway station and Barlby Junction is now the site of at the widened A19 road. The section between Riccall and York now forms part of the Trans-Pennine Trail, and the National Route 65 which Sustrans purchased for the price of £1.[25] The route has a scale model of the solar system, with each planet staggered along the path at the correct proportional distances from each other. The swing bridge at Naburn also has a sculpture of a man fishing on the top of it; he is known as The Fisher of Dreams,[26] and is constructed of galvanised steel.[27]
The section of line between York and Riccall, was featured on the TV series Walks Around Britain in 2017, complete with a CGI film of how the railway would have looked in the days of steam.[28]