The industrial revolution saw railways popping up seemingly every day. They were literally everyone. In this not-so-romantic blog, we look at the story of the York and North Midland railway which opened in 1839 to connect York to the Leeds and Selby railway line.
In the 1830s successful railway lines were starting to spring up. The Liverpool to Manchester railway had seen a good deal of success, and others were keen to get aboard the railway money-making machine. (pun intended).
The next wave of railways planned pretty much all came in the south. Lines from London to Birmingham, Lancashire and the Grand Junction Railway would connect Birmingham to Liverpool.
These planned railways put those in Yorkshire on edge, if they didn’t respond they faced being left behind, and if they didn’t get railways they would be left in the commercial wilderness.
In York, James Meek and George Hudson (You can learn the full story of Hudson in my book: The not-so-romantic railways: The railway king) were pushing for a railway line from York to Leeds to take advantage of the cheap coal they could get for Yorks factories.
There was already going to be a line from Leeds to Selby which would transport coal from Selby’s coal mines and York businessmen wanted to use it to their advantage.
The York and North Midland railway started life as just the North Midland railway formed in 1835 to build a line from Derby to Leeds. This would connect them to the Midland Counties railways, which also went to Derby and would give the North Midland Railway access to London- literally the long way round.
The engineer for the railway was George Stephenson who you know, if you’ve read my first volume of the Not-So-Romantic Railways, I’m not the biggest fan of. I’ll hold my typing fingers and spare you all a rant here.
Had the line been built and York not been involved it would have bad news for the city as they would have missed out to Leeds once again. By chance, George Hudson met George Stephenson in Whitby and the two started a conversation which began a friendship which would change the railway world.
Because of Hudson’s vast fortune and ability to gain money to fund railway projects, he was one of the only people who could ensure that Stephenson’s projects would be completed.
At the next meeting of the York railway, Hudson proposed a new plan for the upcoming railway. Instead of connecting York to Leeds directly, Hudson suggested that they should connect to the North Midland railway track near Wakefield. This plan would give York railway access to London and cheaper coal.
There was a vast amount of money to be made with a railway link to London so the rest of the businessmen of York and the railway board quickly agreed to Hudson’s plan.
Opening of the railway
The railway line was built in two sections and the first section of the railway line from York to Milford Junction opened on the 29th of May 1839. George Hudson, who was Lord Mayor of York at the time, put on a lavish party to celebrate the opening of the first railway in York. The future had arrived.
The breakfast Hudson put on was huge and once it had finally been eaten the party of “very important people”, or VIPs as the cool people call them, boarded the special trains put on and travelled down the new railway route where they turned around… and by that I mean the locomotives turned around and bought everyone back to York.
In York, there was yet more food and a party which apparently lasted until 4 o’clock in the morning. That’s one heck of a party in my opinion- but I still think I prefer going to bed at 10 pm and waking up early.
The second, and final, section of the railway line was opened at the end of June 1840 which made it possible to travel from York to London, by train, in just 14 hours. I hope you weren’t in a massive rush to get there.
14 hours may sound slow- and it is- but compared to travelling by horse which may take 2 or 3 days depending on weather and road conditions it is positively light speed.
growth and success
For the next 10 years, the York and North Midland Railway went from strength to strength as Railway Mania took hold of the country. George Hudson was the front runner of Railway mania and set about eliminating competition railways to make the York and North Midland railway the strongest in the land.
A quick note on Railway Mania, it was a period in the 1840s which saw an explosion of railway lines being built all across the country. A lot of people got very rich because of it.
In 1845 the Y&NMR absorbed the horse-drawn Whitby and Pickering railway into the fold and introduced steam power after replacing most of the tracks. This railway is part of the North Yorkshire Moors railway today.
They built a line between York and Scarborough which opened on the 7th of July 1850 and in an unheard level of generosity saw passengers for the first five days allowed to travel for free. This line was then extended to connect with the Whitby and Pickering railway line with a junction built at Rillington.
The line from York to Scarborough was built for “just” £6000, making it one of the cheapest lines ever built.
George Hudson was quickly conquering the East coast with the railways and was an awful lot richer for it.
Lots of smaller branch lines and connections were opened and a railway line opened from York to Harrogate in 1847
After Hudson
In 1849 Hudson was ousted as Railway Mania came toppling down and the York and North Midland Railway changed hands and the ability to build new branch lines was massively restricted due to there not being any more money. Though a new line from York to Knaresborough was built.
end of the line
The York & North Midland Railway was absorbed by the newly started North Eastern Railway company in 1854, and the North Eastern Railway company is a story for another day.
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