Upton and North Elmsall railway station

Upton and North Elmsall railway station, was a railway station on the Hull and Barnsley Railway (H&B) in Yorkshire, England. The station served the communities of Upton and North Elmsall, (both now in the Wakefield District of West Yorkshire). The station closed completely in 1959 and the track was lifted in 1967, however, in 2020, a proposal was forwarded to reinstate over 2 miles (3.2 km) of line for a new heritage railway.

Upton and North Elmsall
Upton and North Elmsall station (dark blue line)
Location	City of Wakefield England
Coordinates	53.611°N 1.286°W
Grid reference	SE475130
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Hull and Barnsley Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
27 July 1885	Station opened
1 January 1932	Station closed to passengers
1959	Station closed to goods

History

Upton and North Elmsall was opened in July 1885 and was closed to passengers in January 1932.[1] The station was 45 miles (72 km) west of Hull Cannon Street, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Kirk Smeaton railway station and 8 miles (13 km) east of the lines' first terminus at Cudworth.[2]

Passenger services were always limited as the line had been built to exploit the South Yorkshire Coalfield, and export the coal through Hull Docks, but part of the Parliamentary approval for the line was conditional on the company providing a passenger service to the communities that the line went through.[3] Bradshaw's timetable from 1906 has seven workings in each direction daily,[4] whereas by 1922, just two services are shown running between Cudworth and Hull Cannon Street.[5] The station lost its passenger trains when the service from Hull only went as far west as South Howden; all other H&B branches being closed to passengers in January 1932.[6]

Although the station closed to regular passenger traffic in 1932, it was still used for rail tours and special traffic such as football excursions until 1954.[7] Closure of the station to goods came in 1959, but the line from the western portal of Barnsdale Tunnel to Cudworth, remained open for colliery traffic until 7 August 1967.[8] The old trackbed in the area is now part of Upton Country Park.[3]

In 1996, a cutting to the east of the station site was designated as a nature reserve.[9]

Heritage site

In June 2020, a proposal was put forward to revamp the site and use it as a heritage railway centre. The proposal also includes laying 2.5 miles (4 km) of track through the 1,226-yard (1,121 m) Barnsdale Tunnel and stopping just short of the A1 road at Barnsdale Bar.[3][10]

References

1. Haigh & Joy 1979, p. 84.
2. Body, Geoffrey (1989). Railways of the Eastern Region. Wellingborough: P. Stephens. p. 89. ISBN 1-85260-072-1.
3. Newton, Grace (23 June 2020). "Heritage line plans to resurrect station". The Yorkshire Post. p. 6. ISSN 0963-1496.
4. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation Guide 1906 at the Internet Archive
5. "Disused Stations: Kirk Smeaton Station". disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
6. Haigh & Joy 1979, p. 39.
7. Quick, Michael (2019). "Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales; a Chronology" (PDF). rchs.org.uk. p. 408. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
8. Batty, Stephen R (1991). Rail Centres: Doncaster. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 110. ISBN 0-7110-2004-3.
9. "Upton Country Park LNR". designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
10. "Barnsdale Tunnel". www.forgottenrelics.co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2020.

Sources

• Haigh, A; Joy, David (1979). Yorkshire Railways. Clapham: Dalesman Books. ISBN 0-85206-553-1.

External links

• Mapping of the station from 1906
• Map of the Hull and Barnsley system
• Image of the station in 1961

Preceding station	Historical railways			Following station
Hemsworth and South Kirkby Station and line closed		Hull, Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway Hull and Barnsley Railway		Kirk Smeaton Station and line closed