Leeds and Selby Railway
The company was leased and then acquired by the York and North Midland Railway in 1840 and 1844; the line remained in use through the subsequent NER, LNER, BR and post-privatisation periods.
[8][note 2] The Leeds and Hull scheme stagnated, and in the meantime the Knottingley and Goole Canal (an extension of the Aire and Calder Navigation) opened in 1826 bringing the village of Goole from obscurity, and turning it into a viable transhipment port for Europe.
[8] The Leeds and Hull railway scheme of 1824 was revived as a shortened line from Leeds to Selby and was resurveyed by James Walker in 1829;[9] Benjamin Gott, one of the line's promoters and a wool and cloth magnate thought the inclined planes would be a disadvantage.
[6] James Walker reported that the stationary engines could be abandoned, and tunnels and cuttings built in their place.
As to the route of the railway, he suggested resiting the Leeds terminus at cheaper and less-developed land around Marsh Lane instead of at Far Bank.
[11] Despite strong opposition from the Aire and Calder Navigation, which had a practical monopoly on transportation in the area, the Leeds and Selby Railway Act 1830 (11 Geo.
[15][16] Excavation of the tunnel yielded mostly shale and coal, with the remaining third being stone which was used as foundations for other parts of the line.
[16] Despite the efforts, an early passenger reported that on entering the tunnel: We were immediately enveloped in total darkness, and every one of the carriages filled with smoke and steam to a most annoying degreeAs built, the line had 43 bridges and around 16 level crossings.
[25] Both embankments and cuttings had stone retaining walls at the base, at an angle of 67.5° to the horizontal, which reduced the overall width of the earthworks.
[23] The Marsh Lane terminus in Leeds, and the station at Selby, were early examples of what would become 'railway architecture': both were long rectangular sheds, with wooden trussed roofs, supported internally on cast iron columns.
[27][28] The rear of the Selby station backed onto the Ouse, across a road (Ousegate) from jetties that would allow a continuation of the journey to Hull.
A train of ten carriages, hauled by the locomotive "Nelson", set out from Marsh Lane station in Leeds at 6.30 am.
Once the high point of the line was reached, better progress was made: at Garforth, on a stretch of track falling 1 in 180 a speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) was attained.
[38] As a result of the opening of the line, the Aire and Calder Navigation had to make considerable reductions in their charges.
Junction of the L&SR and Y&NMRbetween Milford and Hambleton On 29 May 1839 the first section of George Hudson's York and North Midland Railway opened.
It ran from York to a point just to the east of Milford station where a short chord connected it to the Leeds and Selby Railway.
George Hudson had his own route into Leeds (through Castleford via the Whitford and Methey Junctions) accessed via a working arrangement with the North Midland Railway.
The Leeds and Selby had the potential to offer opportunities to rival companies, as well as a competing route to Hudson's.
In 1848 the line west of Milford was closed to freight as well; Marsh Lane station was at that time still a terminus, and so useless for through traffic to Manchester and beyond.
Passenger services were reinstated in 1850, but freight continued to run to Leeds via Castleford and not Marsh Lane.
In the 1860s the North Eastern Railway (NER) sought to extend the line from its Marsh Lane terminus into the centre of Leeds.
Concurrently the NER and the London and North Western Railway planned to construct a joint station in Leeds.
[46] An initial (1863) plan for the line into Leeds met with significant local opposition and was withdrawn, and a revised route was made.
[51] The line representing a saving of around 35 miles journey for trains travelling from west of Leeds to Hull or York.
[52] A new goods station was built at the Marsh Lane station site, and in 1893 this was enlarged, and the extra lines added between Marsh Lane and Neville Hill,[53] the Richmond Hill tunnel was opened out at the same time, and made into a cutting, so that the extra tracks could be accommodated.
); the station closed to general passengers on 1 April 1914,[61] but remained in use as a workmen's halt for the Ridge Bridge Colliery into the 1920s.
[70] In 2005, as part of its franchise offer, the train operating Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) proposed to electrify the section of the line between Leeds and Hambleton junction in association with Network Rail, at an estimated cost of £70 million.
[note 9] In 2009 the Network Rail route utilisation strategy electrification paper identified the North Cross-Pennine route including the Leeds-Selby-Hull Line as a high ranking option for future electrification, in terms of benefits to passenger services.
[73] In 2011 funding for the electrification in CP5 (see Network Rail Control Periods) of the section from Leeds to Micklefield was announced.
