The Hertford, Luton and Dunstable Railway was a railway affiliated to the Great Northern Railway. It was formed when the Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway (opened 1858) merged with the Luton, Dunstable and Welwyn Junction Railway, partly opened in the same year. The merger and change of title took place in 1860. The line joined the Dunstable branch of the London and North Western Railway at Dunstable.
For some time the HL&DR was the only railway at Luton, and the early industry took considerable benefit from it, and later industry was encouraged by it. Even when the competing direct line from Luton to London was opened, the route via Hatfield held its own for some time. The Hertford extremity did not fare so well, and remained rural and relatively undeveloped throughout its life.
Passenger services on the Hatfield to Hertford line ended in 1951; those between Hatfield and Dunstable ended in 1965. Goods traffic did not last much longer. A guided busway was installed on the trackbed between Luton and Dunstable in 2013.
Background
London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway opened its line in 1838, passing Leighton, later named Leighton Buzzard. Luton and Dunstable were important manufacturing towns, and in 1841 a scheme was put forward for a branch line from Leighton to Dunstable and Luton. George Stephenson planned a scheme for the line, but there was opposition from Luton interests to some of the public land that was to be taken, and the scheme failed.
A shorter line simply reaching Dunstable from Leighton seemed to be less difficult, and as the scheme had the support of the London and Birmingham Railway, proposals were submitted to Parliament. The result that the Dunstable and London and Birmingham Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. xxxvii) was given royal assent on 30 June 1845, with capital of £50,000.Ernest F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959, pages 102 and 103Robin Leleux, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, volume 9: the East Midlands, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1976, , page 30Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador Publishers, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 30Keith Scholey, Bedfordshire's Lost Railways, Stenlake Publishing, Catrine, 2004, , pages 11 to 14G and S Woodward, The Hatfield, Luton and Dunstable Railway, Oakwood Press, Trowbridge, 1971, , pages 6 to 13
In 1846 the London and Birmingham Railway amalgamated with others and formed the London and North Western Railway.
The Dunstable line was opened for traffic on 1 June 1848. There was one intermediate station, at Stanbridgeford, although it was not ready for opening until the year after the line started operation. It was worked from the outset by the London and North Western Railway, and the new line was effectively the Dunstable branch of the LNWR and was purchased by that company on the opening of the line for the sum of £2,952
Great Northern Railway If the London and Birmingham Railway and its successor the LNWR were the great trunk railway to the north on the west side of the country, another was in the process of building on the east side: the Great Northern Railway was to connect London and York, at first by a rather roundabout route. It opened part of its main line, between a London station and Peterborough on 7 August 1850. During the construction process the GNR directors saw that it was important to secure areas of territory for their own railway by building branches within the area. If a company had a useful branch line in an area, Parliament would be reluctant to authorise a rival line in the same area.
Accordingly the Great Northern Railway promoted a line that became known as the Hertford, Hatfield and St Albans Railway; it was not independent, but was promoted directly by the GNR. It was authorised by the Great Northern Railway (Hertford, Hatfield and St. Albans Branch) Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. cclxxii) of 22 July 1847. It was to build a line from Hatfield (on the GNR main line) to St Albans and also from Hatfield to Hertford. Authorised capital was £300,000. The year 1847 marked the end of the Railway Mania, and suddenly money for railway schemes was to become unobtainable, and nothing more was heard of this authorised railway. The St Albans line was built later under a fresh authorisation.There is a confusing passage on Woodward, page 7: The Act of 22 July 1847 "authorised the building of a branch line from St Albans to the Hertford station of the Hertford – Ware branch... with connections to the Great Northern in the Hatfield District. However progress was very slow—purchase of land was still being negotiated in 1853—but eventually it was built and opened on the 21st October 1865." This may refer to the (different) Hatfield to St Albans line, but according to Leleux (page 32), that line opened on 16 October 1865.Ernest F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959, pages 182 and 183Woodward, page 7Leleux, page 32
Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway Hertford already had a railway, completed in 1843. It was the terminus of a branch line of the Northern and Eastern Railway, which was being worked by the Eastern Counties Railway. The Hertford station was somewhat to the east of the present-day Hertford East station.D I Gordon, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 5: the Eastern Counties, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1977, , pages 121 to 123
As the money market stabilised, it became possible to propose new lines. The Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway got the Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway Act 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c. cxxvii) on 3 July 1854; it was to build from the Eastern Counties Railway terminus at Hertford (converting it to a through station).There was no passenger service intended between the Hatfield line and the ECR line, so the new line simply needed to run to the goods yard. The ECR station was relocated 300 yards west in 1888, to form what is now Hertford East station via a Cowbridge station near the centre of Hertford to a new Welwyn Junction station, at the south end of Digswell Viaduct on the GNR. There was to be a triangular junction there, and the new company would have running powers into Welwyn station (now Welwyn North, and located at the north end of the viaduct). Authorised capital was £65,000.Carter, page 251Gordon, page 123John Wrottesley, The Great Northern Railway: volume 1: Origins and Development, B T Batsford Limited, London, 1979, , pages 125 to 127
The line was opened to goods traffic on 28 February 1858 (a Sunday) and to passengers on Monday 1 March 1858.Grant, page 264Woodward, page 9
It was operated jointly by the GNR and the Eastern Counties Railway, and there were some through bookings between their respective stations. The line also provided a useful route to the London docks for goods traffic to and from the GNR; there were sidings at Welwyn Junction where the traffic was exchanged.
Luton, Dunstable and Welwyn Junction Railway Luton was said at the time to be the largest town in England not connected to a railway or a canal.James Dyer, Frank Edward Stygall and John G Dony, The Story of Luton, White Crescent Press, 1977, , page 125, quoting "the compilers of the 1851 census".The Midland Main Line through was not ready for passenger traffic until 1868. Local interests complained that they did not have a good transport system for their products, A meeting in Luton in 1845 resolved that the solution for their town was not a branch line giving a roundabout connection, but a London to Manchester main line railway via Luton. This was an ambitious scheme that would be in competition with the LNWR and to some extent the Great Northern Railway for long distance traffic and for mineral business, and would certainly not be assisted by them. The resolution does not seem to have led to anything.Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador Publishers, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 264
In the following parliamentary session, a branch line to serve Luton was authorised: the was authorised on 16 July 1855. The authorised capital of the LD&WJR was £108,000.Woodward says £120,000, page 8, as does Wrottesley, page 126 Carter, page 264 It would be a single line railway, with earthworks and bridges constructed for later conversion to double track; it would run from a junction with the LNWR at Dunstable to the GNR at Welwyn, where there would also be a triangular junction. There would be a connecting line at Digswell with the Hertford line.The northern curve was never built; nor was the connecting line, which would have crossed the GNR main line on the level. W. F. Cowper MP was Chairman of this company and of the Hertford and Welwyn Junction company, and the clear intention was that the two companies would work collaborativelyWoodward, pages 7 and 8
The (18 & 19 Vict. c. cxlvi) authorised it to raise the capital, it was a more difficult matter to actually get subscriptions. This delayed land acquisition seriously, and the directors approached the LNWR, hoping to lease the line to the larger company; the LNWR were not interested. The next proposal was to merge the two local companies. The two lines could be joined at Welwyn by crossing the Great Northern Railway by a bridge linking them, saving money, instead of connecting into the GNR line. This was opposed by the GNR, who saw that they might lose control of the local lines, and even that the LNWR would get access from Leighton over the line into GNR and ECR territory. The GNR made it clear they would demand onerous conditions for the construction of the bridge, and some shareholders opposed the merger for that reason; however the opposition was voted down and the motion to merge the companies was carried, on 26 January 1858. In fact the bridge was never built.
Amalgamation
The (21 & 22 Vict. c. lxxiv), which authorised the amalgamation of the Hertford and Welwyn Junction Railway and the Luton, Dunstable, and Welwyn Junction Railway, obtained royal assent on 28 June 1858, with combined capital of £185,000; the resulting company was to be called the Hertford, Luton and Dunstable Railway Company. Six months notice was given to the ECR to terminate the working agreement on the Hertford line. The Hertford line was already in operation, having opened to goods traffic on 28 February 1858 (a Sunday) and a passenger service on Monday 1 March 1858.Woodward, page 9
The Luton to Dunstable section was making better progress than before, and on 18 March 1858, Col. Yolland of the Board of Trade visited for the inspection prior to passenger operation. He refused the approval, as there was no turntable at Leighton; there was a policy of forbidding tender engines from running tender first in main traffic. Yolland visited again a month later and this time, the Company undertook not to use tender engines and Yolland passed the line as fit for passenger operation.
Entry to Welwyn