It was incorporated by an Act of Parliament on 6 August 1897,[1] which authorised the building of a line between Brierley Junction, on the main line of the Hull and Barnsley Railway, to junctions with the Great Northern Railway and the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway south-east of Doncaster.
Although the line was considered an independent company it was worked by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR).
Passenger trains came to the line on 3 June 1912 running between Wakefield Kirkgate and Edlington with intermediate halts serving Ryhill, Grimethorpe, Great Houghton, Goldthorpe and Thurnscoe, Harlington[3] and Denaby.
The LYR amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922; the combined organisation (also known as the London and North Western Railway) absorbed the DVR on the same day.
[4] It duly passed to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923.