Leeds and Selby Railway

The Leeds and Selby Railway was an early British railway company and first mainline railway within Yorkshire. It was opened in 1834.

As built, the line ran west/east between two termini, Marsh Lane station, Leeds and Selby railway station. 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.

Use of the line was expanded through junction connections to new railways, most built in the late 19th century; a junction with the York and North Midland Railway in 1839; an end on junction at Selby to Hull (Hull and Selby Railway, 1840); a through route into Leeds and westward (Leeds viaduct extension, 1869); a shortened route to York (Micklefield to Church Fenton, 1869); a line to Wetherby (Cross Gates to Wetherby Line, 1876, closed 1964); a line to Castleford (Garforth to Castleford Line, 1878, closed 1969) and a line avoiding Selby for Goole (Selby to Goole Line, 1910, closed 1964) as well as a number of minor and industrial lines and sidings. The Selby Diversion of the East Coast Main Line (1983) also made junctions with the Leeds and Selby.

The line is still in mainline use for services operated by TransPennine Express and Northern. These trains operate from Leeds to Selby, Hull, York and beyond.

The Leeds and Selby Railway Company (1830–1844)

Background

By 1830 Leeds had long been an important town, having become prosperous initially through the manufacture of woollen cloth. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was complete and the Aire and Calder Navigation connected Leeds to the Ouse, and thus to the North Sea and beyond. Selby had grown in importance as a port since the construction of the Selby Canal and had become an important inland east coast port for coastal and foreign trade.

As early as 1814 the Leeds Mercury had printed letters promoting the idea of a railway from Leeds to Selby.The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) Encyclopedia: The Leeds and Selby Railway, "Early History"

The Leeds and Hull Railway The Leeds and Hull Railroad Company was formed in 1824 in Leeds. George Stephenson was appointed as engineer, and he directed Joseph Locke to survey the line.

Stephenson recommended a double track railway, operated by locomotives at a speed of . The hills on the route out of Leeds were to have three inclined planes to be worked by three stationary engines. The remainder of the line was to be very nearly level.

The company was one of a number of contemporary projects aimed at linking the east and west sides of northern England, such as the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (act of Parliament 1829) and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (act of Parliament 1826). The Manchester and Leeds Railroad Company was formed in 1825, and would have completed the Lancashire to Yorkshire link. Representatives of the company were present at the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. Of these schemes the Leeds and Hull, and the Manchester and Leeds were not immediately acted upon, in part due to the stock market crash of 1825.It may have also been that the shareholders were unwilling to commit to building the line until the success or failure of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was known. , 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.

The growth of Goole as a port to rival Hull was sufficient to spur the Hull-based shareholders of the Leeds and Hull railway into action; at the end of 1828 they motioned that the railway should be built as far as Selby, with the remainder of the journey to Hull being made by steam packet, most importantly, bypassing Goole. The shareholders passed the proposal at a general meeting in Leeds on 20 March 1829, and the Leeds and Selby Railway Company was formed.

Formation of the Leeds and Selby Railway Company

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; Benjamin Gott, one of the line's promoters and a wool and cloth magnate thought the inclined planes would be a disadvantage.

James Walker reported that the stationary engines could be abandoned, and tunnels and cuttings built in their place. He expected that the additional cost of their construction would be offset by use of the stone elsewhere on the railway and by its sale. The railway would also be of use for the transportation of coal and stone from quarries and mines near the line, such as the Huddlestone quarry. Additionally he suggested that the route of the railway could also be used for the piping of clean water to Leeds. 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. The resurveyed line was also deviated to the north away from the river bank, to avoid the objections of the Aire and Calder Undertakers; the more northern path would require passing Richmond Hill requiring either stationary engines or a tunnel; Walker recommended the latter. Outside Leeds, minor deviations were made in order for the line to cross the north–south turnpikes using bridges. At Selby, the new plan sited the station further south than the original, which had been sited next to the road bridge, with the intention of crossing the River Ouse by widening this bridge; with the line no longer going to Hull but terminating at Selby a site with more space for wharves and jetties was required. He recommended a double track line, with sufficient land acquired for a four track line.James Walker's report: "To the Committee of the proposed Leeds and Selby Railway Company", 18 July 1829, reprinted in full in

Much of the line was to be built on land belonging to the shareholders, including Edward Robert Petre who owned land in Selby, and Richard Oliver Gascoigne (who later had built the Aberford Railway). Walker's alterations to Stephenson's original plan were accepted unaltered and put before Parliament.

Despite strong opposition from the Aire and Calder Navigation, which had a practical monopoly on transportation in the area, the (11 Geo. 4 & 1 Will. 4. c. lix) was passed in Parliament on 29 May 1830 allowing construction of the line. The company was allowed to raise a total of £300,000 in shares and loans.An extract from the act on the rates of carriage, as well as a list of subscribers can be found reprinted in "The Tourist's Companion". The company's directors were James Audus, Edward Baines, Thomas Davison Bland, John Broadley, Richard Oliver Gascoigne, Benjamin Gott, Robert Harrison, John Marshall, John Cowham Parker, the Hon. Edward Robert Petre, John Scholefield and John Wilson. Samuel Wilks Waud was the first company chairman.

Construction, infrastructure and rolling stock

Two contractors, Messrs. Nowell & Sons and Messrs. Hamer & Pratt, were chosen to carry out the construction of the line. Nowell began construction of the out of Leeds on 1 October 1830,The work in Leeds was postponed until February 1831, since there was a possibility that a proposed Leeds & Bradford Railway might be built, giving the possibility of a through link taking a different path. and Hamer & Pratt began work in February 1831 on the remaining to Selby.

The primary engineering feature of the line was the Richmond Hill Tunnel through Richmond Hill, Leeds. It was long, with its western entrance at from the Leeds terminus. The tunnel's cross section was that of a horseshoe arch, at its widest, and high from the level of the rails. The construction of the tunnel required the sinking of three shafts, subsequently retained for ventilation. 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. The arch was lined with two courses of brickwork, lengthways to a thickness of 20 inches. In some places three courses were used, depending on the strength of the surrounding ground. Volcanic matter was used in the mortar, to obtain a quick-setting and strong cement. The entrances of the tunnel were faced with stone. This would be the world's longest railway tunnel at opening and the first through which passengers would be hauled by locomotives and there were once reflectors at the base of the shafts, designed to reflect light onto the whitewashed walls of the tunnel. The shafts were found to be useful for ventilation, but the experiment with illuminating the interior with reflect light was of limited utility to passengers; lamps were provided to light the carriages. Despite the efforts, an early passenger reported that on entering the tunnel:

As built, the line had 43 bridges and around 16 level crossings. Ballast was of stone chips; the rails were held in place by keys lodged into iron chairs which rested on and were fixed to stone blocks or larch sleepers. On some parts of the line, a ladder track arrangement of sleepers was used, with longitudinal stone sleepers of held in gauge by transverse cast-iron rods. T or bar-shaped malleable iron rails of were initially used, within a few years rails were being introduced., diagrams of rail and track transverse cross section.

Cuttings and embankments were built to keep the gradient of the line to a minimum. The deepest cutting was , the highest embankment . 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. The line was built as a double-track railway.

Route and stations After of level track outside the Leeds terminus, the line generally ascended for a distance of at a maximum slope of 1 in 160; it was then level for after which it generally descended eastwards towards Selby for with a maximum rate of descent of 1 in 137. The final to Selby was practically level with a rate of descent of only 1 in 3,785. The highest point was above the Leeds terminus, with the whole line having a net descent of towards Selby.

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. The stations served for both passenger and freight, with additional tracks external to the sheds for coal; there was no platform for passengers. Both stations had coal depots, the Leeds station contained the facilities for maintenance of engines and wagons., Station plans reproduced from Brees' Railway Practice, Fourth series, 1847 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.

After the station at Marsh Lane in Leeds were stations at Cross Gates, Garforth, Roman Road, Micklefield, Milford, and Hambleton.

Locomotives The original engines were of the lightweight four-wheeled "Bury" type*Whishaw. F., (1842), London: Weale from Edward Bury of Liverpool. They were shown to lack traction sufficient for the line, and were sold. Replacements were obtained from Fenton, Murray and Jackson of (Leeds) and from Kirtley & Co. of Warrington.

Locomotive list