A short section of the original line reopened on 24 May 2015 as a heritage attraction operating as the Yorkshire Wolds Railway.

[6] A previous scheme from Thirsk to Driffield, the Hull, Malton and Northern Union Railway was resurrected and promoted in opposition,[note 2] but was unsuccessful.

c. lxxvii), empowering the construction of a 24 miles (39 km) line was enacted in June 1846, allowing £240,000 to be raised for its development through shares, and a further £80,0000 through loans.

A case was brought against that company's successor the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (YN&BR) to complete the line.

[note 5] In the same time period (1850s) the York and North Midland Railway held £40,000 worth of shares in the M&DJR.

In addition to the main line from New Malton (on the York and Scarborough Railway[map 4]) to Great Driffield (on the Hull and Selby Bridlington branch[map 5]) the plans included a 5 miles 4.5 chains (5.06 miles, 8.14 km) branch from Frodingham Bridge on the River Hull.

[20] By the end of the 19th century the Sunday service had ceased, but the line reached its high water mark with four trains each way each weekday.

[21] Thereafter the line ran a notably consistent three trains in each direction calling at all stations, Mondays to Saturdays, until the service was withdrawn in 1953.

This locomotive then acted as a banker to get the long train moving forwards once again towards Gilling, Pillmoor and the East Coast Main Line.

[35] The other service to use the Malton, Scarborough Road Junction then reverse route[36] was the two trains six time per year beginning and end of term specials, one from King's Cross and the other from Liverpool, to Ampleforth College.

[37] The closest freight traffic to the original concept was chalk from quarries at Burdale and Wharram bound for steelworks on Teesside.

[44] Two very occasional traffics added to the line's diminishing income: special trains for royalty and enthusiasts, both of which gathered publicity beyond their revenue.

[51] In 1854 an act of parliament allowing the YN&BR, LNR and Y&NMR companies to amalgamate into a new "North Eastern Railway" (NER) was passed; the association of M&DJR was formally announced at the first meeting of the NER, where, the distribution of income was decided to be based on traffic receipts over the next 5 years; the M&DJR obtained one director of a board of seventeen, and the company ceased to exist as an independent entity from 1 September 1854.

[52][note 10] In 1863 agreements relating to the merger of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) set the Malton section's share of the combined company's profits at 0.29%, a sum which was not sufficient to meet running costs; the company attempted to renegotiate requesting a share of gross revenue, but were denied.

[53] Difficulties and disappointments arising from line were recalled in a scathing article in the Railway News, written on the eve of the consolidation or NER shares:[note 10][54] The line was a gross mistake throughout – but was conceived in times when [...] high sounding notions of a "grand connecting link" in the "Hull and Glasgow Direct" were uppermost.

[...] The hapless Malton and Driffield has never paid its interest on borrowed capital, is now £50,000 in debt, and is destined, we are told, to total annihilation.In 1890 a line from Market Weighton was opened, promoted as the Scarborough, Bridlington and West Riding Junction Railway (act passed 1885), and worked by the NER.

[22] At Malton the former line of the railway influences modern street plans such as the rear boundary to Parliament Avenue.

[63] On 15 September 1948 a passenger train consisting of a tank engine and two coaches travelling 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) collided at an accommodation crossing with a Ford lorry carrying Poles and Hungarians going to work on a farm.

The project has a short demonstration line and an operational industrial diesel locomotive which provides cab rides to visitors.