York and North Midland Railway: Difference between revisions
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Parliamentary approval for a line from [[York to Beverley Line|York to Beverley]] was granted to the York and North Midland Railway in 1846 and the line completed as far as Market Weighton by 1847. However, the financial problems following the exit of Hudson delayed the completion to Beverley until 1865. |
Parliamentary approval for a line from [[York to Beverley Line|York to Beverley]] was granted to the York and North Midland Railway in 1846 and the line completed as far as Market Weighton by 1847. However, the financial problems following the exit of Hudson delayed the completion to Beverley until 1865. |
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==George Hudson== |
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[[File:George Hudson - Project Gutenberg eText 17293.jpg|thumb|George Hudson]] |
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During the [[railway mania]] of the mid 1840s many people invested in railway companies, believing it a means of quickly getting rich. In the three years between 1844 and 1846 Parliament passed 438 Acts giving permission for over {{convert|8000|mi}} of line, many in direct competition with existing railways.{{sfn|Allen|1974|pp=88, 98}} By the mid 1840s Hudson was also chairman of the [[Midland Railway|Midland]], [[Newcastle & Berwick Railway|Newcastle & Berwick]] and [[Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railway]]s. Called the "railway king" by the preacher [[Sydney Smith]], he was said to have the favour of [[Albert, Prince Consort|Albert, the Prince Consort]]. So as to better promote the bills submitted by the railway companies he controlled, in 1845 Hudson successfully stood as a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] Member of Parliament for [[Sunderland (UK Parliament constituency)|Sunderland]].{{sfn|Allen|1974|p=89}} |
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In 1848 the GNR had a line to {{rws|Askern}} and the Y&NMR had authority for a branch from [[Burton Salmon]] to {{rws|Knottingley}}, about {{convert|9|mi}} to the north. Hudson and [[Edmund Denison]], the chairman of the GNR, met at the end of 1848 and agreed terms for the GNR to access York via Knottingley, the GNR dropping plans for its own line to York via {{rws|Selby}}. As this plan diverted traffic between York and London away from the London and North Western and Midland railways, these two railways formed an alliance, attempting to divert whatever traffic they could via Leeds and handing it over to the YN&BR at {{rws|Thirsk}}. In response the YN&BR and Y&NMR co-operated to lower prices to keep the traffic flowing via York.{{sfn|Allen|1974|pp=94–95}} |
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At the end of 1848 the dividend paid by the Y&NMR dropped from ten per cent to six per cent and at a subsequent half-yearly YN&BR shareholders meeting the very high cost of certain Great North shares bought during the merger was questioned. The company had purchased them from Hudson; in May 1849 an investigating committee was set up and Hudson resigned as chairman. The committee reported on a number of irregularities in the account, including finding capital items that had been charged to the revenue account, thus paying dividends out of capital.{{sfn|Allen|1974|p=96}} No dividend was paid for the for first half year of 1849, and Hudson was to pay £212,000 settling claims over share transactions.{{sfn|Allen|1974|p=97}} |
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==Operations== |
==Operations== |
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Revision as of 14:12, 11 October 2013
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The York and North Midland Railway (Y&NMR) was an English railway company that opened in 1839, connecting York with the Leeds and Selby Railway and in 1840 with the North Midland Railway at Normanton near Leeds.
The results of a price war in the early 1850s lead to amalgamation and on 31 July 1854 the Y&NMR merged with the Leeds Northern Railway and York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway to form the North Eastern Railway.
Origins
Having seen the success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and, in 1833, Acts of Parliament for lines to London from Lancashire – the Grand Junction and the London and Birmingham, the manufacturers of Yorkshire realised that they would be at a commercial disadvantage.[citation needed]
York and North Midland Railway |
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George Hudson, who was brought up in a farming community and started life as a draper's assistant in York until in 1827, when he was 27 years old, he inherited £30,000. He had no former interest in railways, but saw railways as a profitable investment and instigated a meeting in 1833 to discuss building a railway from York to Leeds. While the route was being planned, in 1835 the North Midland Railway was formed to build a line from Derby to Leeds. This would connect with the Midland Counties Railway at Derby and therefore, via the London & Birmingham Railway, provide rail access to London. The York & North Midlands Railway was formed that year at a public meeting in York to build a railway line to a junction with the North Midland Railway near Normanton.[1][2]
George Stephenson was appointed engineer for the line and a private bill was presented to Parliament seeking permission to build the railway and Royal Assent was given on 21 June 1836,[3] the Act confirming Hudson as chairman.[4]
The line opened the 14+1⁄2 miles (23.3 km) to the Leeds & Selby Railway, with a ceremony on 29 May 1839. After breakfast in York, a train with a steam locomotive at the front and back conveyed the guests in eighteen carriages to South Milford; the train then returned on a dinner in York. The line to Burton Salmon was open on 11 May 1840 and the final section, with the junction at Altofts with the North Midland, opened at the end of June. After 1 July 1840 it was possible to travel between York and London in 14 hours; services left York at 7:30 am.[5] The route taken by the line had required little in the way of earthworks, apart from a cutting at Fairburn, and gave a maximum gradient of 1 in 484 with broad curves. There were 31 bridges, the principal ones being over the Rivers Aire, Wharfe and Calder. They were of stone, with those over the Calder and at Holdgate Lane built on the skew. The station, a joint station with the Great North of England Railway, was within the city walls at York,[6] and these were pierced in such a manner as to placate the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.[citation needed] The track was of straight sided pattern at 54+1⁄4 lb per yard supported either on stone blocks or kyanised wooden sleepers. The gauge was 4 feet 8+1⁄2 inches (1.435 m) over blocks, or 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m) over sleepers.[7] Locomotives were supplied by Robert Stephenson and Company and the carriages were first class, with lamps at night, second class, open at the sides, and third class without cover with longitudual benches.[8]
Expansion
The Leeds & Hull Railroad Company had been formed in 1824 to built a railway from Leeds to the port of Hull, but had failed to raise the necessary funds. The Leeds & Selby Railway was formed in 1829 to build a railway as far as Selby, where goods could be conveyed onwards on barges on the Ouse and Humber to Hull. The line was to be less than 20 miles (32 km) with a maximum gradient of 1 in 135 so that horses or locomotives could be used, and the necessary permission was gained on 29 May 1830. A service started in September 1834, and Hull could be reached from Leeds in about 4+1⁄2 hours.[9] The Hull & Selby Railway received permission in June 1836 to complete the line to Hull, and the 30+3⁄4 miles (49.5 km) line, which crossed the Ouse at Selby with a bascule bridge, opened on 1 July 1840.[10][11]
On 27 July 1840 a curve opened connecting the North Midland Railway at Methley Junction and allowing the Y&NMR direct access to Leeds, in competition with the Leeds & Selby. From 9 November Hudson leased the L&SR for £17,000 per year; from then all traffic between Leeds and Selby was diverted via Methley.[12] However, the management of the Hull & Selby refused any offers from Hudson to lease or operate over their line and in 1844 formed an alliance with the Manchester & Leeds Railway, which was planning a route to Selby. Amalgamation was proposed early in 1845, but at two meetings shareholders overruled the directors, accepting instead a lease from Hudson at ten per cent of the original capital, with an option to purchase, and the H&SR became part of the Y&NMR from 1 July 1845[13]
Hudson bought and upgraded the horse-worked Whitby and Pickering Railway for steam operation, connecting it with his own York to Scarborough Line via a branch to Pickering. In 1851 the Knottingley branch was built with Stephenson's third tubular bridge after the pattern of the one over the Menai Strait and the East & West Yorkshire Junction Railway from Knaresborough to York was taken over.
Parliamentary approval for a line from York to Beverley was granted to the York and North Midland Railway in 1846 and the line completed as far as Market Weighton by 1847. However, the financial problems following the exit of Hudson delayed the completion to Beverley until 1865.
George Hudson
During the railway mania of the mid 1840s many people invested in railway companies, believing it a means of quickly getting rich. In the three years between 1844 and 1846 Parliament passed 438 Acts giving permission for over 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of line, many in direct competition with existing railways.[14] By the mid 1840s Hudson was also chairman of the Midland, Newcastle & Berwick and Newcastle & Darlington Junction Railways. Called the "railway king" by the preacher Sydney Smith, he was said to have the favour of Albert, the Prince Consort. So as to better promote the bills submitted by the railway companies he controlled, in 1845 Hudson successfully stood as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Sunderland.[15] In 1848 the GNR had a line to Askern and the Y&NMR had authority for a branch from Burton Salmon to Knottingley, about 9 miles (14 km) to the north. Hudson and Edmund Denison, the chairman of the GNR, met at the end of 1848 and agreed terms for the GNR to access York via Knottingley, the GNR dropping plans for its own line to York via Selby. As this plan diverted traffic between York and London away from the London and North Western and Midland railways, these two railways formed an alliance, attempting to divert whatever traffic they could via Leeds and handing it over to the YN&BR at Thirsk. In response the YN&BR and Y&NMR co-operated to lower prices to keep the traffic flowing via York.[16]
At the end of 1848 the dividend paid by the Y&NMR dropped from ten per cent to six per cent and at a subsequent half-yearly YN&BR shareholders meeting the very high cost of certain Great North shares bought during the merger was questioned. The company had purchased them from Hudson; in May 1849 an investigating committee was set up and Hudson resigned as chairman. The committee reported on a number of irregularities in the account, including finding capital items that had been charged to the revenue account, thus paying dividends out of capital.[17] No dividend was paid for the for first half year of 1849, and Hudson was to pay £212,000 settling claims over share transactions.[18]
Operations
The York and North Midland was a great success, particularly in its early years when it was part of the trunk route to London, via Derby and Birmingham. In 1845, it was paying a dividend of 10% in line with the top few railway companies.
North Eastern Railway
In 1852 the Leeds Northern Railway reached Stockton, made an alliance with the NY&BR's competitors and a price war broke out, the fare for 238 miles (383 km) between Leeds and Newcastle dropping to two shillings.[a] Harrison, who had become General Manager and Engineer of the NY&BR, looked at merger with LNR and Y&NMR as the answer. Negotiations started first with his own board, where he was able to show the increased profit that amalgamation had brought to the YN&BR. With a proposal that the shares of the three companies remain separate, replaced by Berwick Capital Stock, York Capital Stock and Leeds Capital Stock, and dividends paid from pooled revenue, the agreement of the three boards was reached in November 1852. The deal was rejected by the shareholders of the Leeds Northern, who felt their seven per cent share of revenue too low; joint operation was agreed instead of a full merger and Harrison appointed General Manager. The benefits of this joint working allowed Harrison to raise the offer to the Leeds Northern shareholders and by Royal Assent on 31 July 1854 the three companies merged to form the North Eastern Railway; with 703 (1,131 km) route miles of line, becoming the largest railway company in the country.[20]
The NER inherited the lease on the H&S and it was not until 1872 that it was finally taken over.[citation needed]
As a result of the Railways Act 1921, on 1 January 1923 the North Eastern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Britain's railways were nationalised on 1 January 1948 and the former York & North Midland lines were placed under the control of British Railways.[21]
Legacy
The Leeds and Selby is still open, with the York and North Midland as a diversion, as part of the present day Dearne Valley Line. The York to Beverley Line was closed in 1965 on the grounds that it duplicated the Hull to York Line, which was retained.
Notes and references
Notes
References
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Tomlinson 1915, p. 276.
- ^ Allen 1974, p. 59.
- ^ Tomlinson 1915, p. 292.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 59–61.
- ^ Whishaw 1842, pp. 438–440.
- ^ Tomlinson 1915, pp. 322–323.
- ^ Whishaw 1842, pp. 442–443.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 51–53.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 53–54.
- ^ Tomlinson 1915, p. 290.
- ^ Hoole 1974, pp. 31–32.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 62–63.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 88, 98.
- ^ Allen 1974, p. 89.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Allen 1974, p. 96.
- ^ Allen 1974, p. 97.
- ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
- ^ Allen 1974, pp. 105–107.
- ^ Hedges 1981, pp. 88, 113–114.
Sources
- Allen, Cecil J. (1974) [1964]. The North Eastern Railway. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0495-1.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Hedges, Martin, ed. (1981). 150 years of British Railways. Hamyln. ISBN 0-600-37655-9.
- Hoole, K. (1974). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume IV The North East. David & Charles. ISBN 0715364391.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Tomlinson, William Weaver (1915). The North Eastern Railway: Its rise and development. Andrew Reid and Company.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Whishaw, Francis (1842). The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland Practically Described and Illustrated. J. Weale.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help)
External links
