Malton and Driffield Railway

Malton and Driffield Railway
The approximate route of the Malton and Driffield Railway. Note that the stations were often a considerable distance from the villages they served.
Dates of operation	1853–Passenger: 1950 Freight: 1958
Successor	Abandoned
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)

[v · d · e]Malton and Driffield Railway
Legend Malton on the York to Scarborough Line Settrington North Grimston Wharram Burdale Tunnel Burdale Sledmere and Fimber Wetwang Garton Yorkshire Coast Line towards Scarborough Driffield Selby to Driffield Line to Selby Yorkshire Coast Line towards Hull

The Malton and Driffield Railway (MDR) ran between the Yorkshire towns of Malton and Driffield. It opened in 1853, with stations at Malton, Settrington, North Grimston, Wharram, Burdale, Sledmere and Fimber,^[1] Wetwang, Garton, and Driffield. In 1854, it was amalgamated into the North Eastern Railway (NER), which in the 1923 grouping of railway companies, became part of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). After nationalisation of the railways (1948), the line briefly became part of the British Railways (North Eastern) network. The route was closed to passenger traffic in 1950, with complete closure in 1958.

The Engineers

The Consulting Engineer for the MDR was John Birkinshaw, who had previously been assistant engineer with Robert Stephenson on the London & Birmingham Railway (L&BR). The engineering of the MDR was supervised by Alfred Lamert Dickens, who was a brother of Charles Dickens.

Locomotives and Rolling Stock

Based on written records and photographic evidence, the following locomotive types are known to have been used on the MDR in the indicated timeframes.

Goods Locomotives

Pre-Grouping (before 1923)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
NER Class 1001[2] (Bouch)	S&DR	0-6-0		Not confirmed but No. 1275 (shown on left) was allocated to Malton (until 1923)

Pre-Nationalisation (1923-1947)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
LNER Class A7 (Raven)	NER Class Y	4-6-2T		(before 1939)
LNER Class F4 (T.W. Worsdell)	GER Class M15	2-4-2T		7578 (after 1945)
LNER Class J3 (Gresley)	GNR Class J4	0-6-0		339 (during World War II) 4035 (during World War II)
LNER Class J25 (W. Worsdell)	NER Class P1	0-6-0		5656 crashed at Settrington (1947)
LNER Class J36 (Holmes)	NBR Class C	0-6-0		9604 (during World War II) 9172 (during World War II)
LNER Class J75 (M. Stirling)	H&BR Class G3	0-6-0T		(before 1939)
LNER Class Q5 (W. Worsdell)	NER Class T & T1	0-8-0		(before 1939)
War Department (WD) Austerity Class 8F (Riddles)	-	2-8-0		(during World War II)

Post-Nationalisation (1948-18 Oct 1958)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
BR Class A8 (Gresley)	LNER Class A8	4-6-2T		69861 at Wharram (1958) [Last train: Malton-Sledmere]
BR Class J27 (W. Worsdell)	NER Class P3	0-6-0		65844 at Settrington (c. 1950) 65849 at Fimber (1956)
BR Class J39 (Gresley)	LNER Class J39	0-6-0		64928 at Wetwang (1958)[3] 64938 at Settrington (1956)[4]
BR Class 2MT (Ivatt)	LMS Class 2	2-6-0		46481 (1958) [Last through goods train]

Passenger Locomotives

Pre-Grouping (before 1923)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
NER Fletcher 0-4-4T[2] of Unknown Type[5] (Fletcher)		0-4-4T
NER Class A[2] (T. W. Worsdell)	later LNER Class F8	2-4-2T
NER Class O[2] (W. Worsdell)	later LNER Class G5	0-4-4T
NER Class W[2] (W. Worsdell)	later LNER Class A6	4-6-2T

Pre-Nationalisation (1923-1947)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
LNER Class J21 (T. W. Worsdell)	NER Class C	0-6-0		Double-headed train (Winter 1947)

Post-Nationalisation (1948-3 June 1950)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
BR Class G5 (W. Worsdell)	LNER Class G5 NER Class O	0-4-4T		67330 at Driffield (1949) 67293 at Driffield (1950) [Final passenger train]
BR Class 4MT (Fowler)	LMS Class 4P	2-6-4T		42324 at Burdale Tunnel[6]

Unusual visitors

Pre-Nationalisation (1923-1947)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
LNER Class C7 (Raven)	NER Class Z	4-4-2		737 at Wharram (c. 1930)[7] [Excursion train]

Post-Nationalisation (1948-1958)

Class (Designer)	Former Class	Wheel Arrangement	Representative Image	Examples Seen (Date)
BR Class A2 (Peppercorn)	LNER Class A2	4-6-2		60534 'Irish Elegance' at Sledmere (1948)[8] [ Royal Train ]
BR Class B1 (Thompson)	LNER Class B1 "Antelope" Class	4-6-0		61010 'Wildebeeste' at North Grimston (1948)
BR Class D20/1 (W.Worsdell)	NER_Class_R	4-4-0		62387? at North Grimston (1957) [ BLS Tour ]
BR Class D49 (Gresley)	LNER Class D49 "Shire" Class	4-4-0		62731 'Selkirkshire' at Wharram (1957)[9] [ RCTS Special ]

Preservation

In October 2008, The Yorkshire Wolds Railway Restoration Project has been formed by a group of enthusiasts with aim to restore at least part of the Malton and Driffield railway line as a heritage attraction, marking it the only heritage railway in the East Riding of Yorkshire.^[10] The YWR could run from Wetwang via "Sledmere & Fimber" and Burdale to as far as Wharram^{[citation needed]}.

Notes and references

1. ^ Opened as Fimber Road in May 1853, renamed Sledmere in March 1858 and became Sledmere & Fimber in May 1859. The station closed in June 1950.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Burton, p.27
3. ^ Burton, p.36
4. ^ Burton, p.15
5. ^ Probably Fletcher 0-4-4T Bogie Tank Passenger (BTP) engines. According to (Jenkins, 2002), these were numerous and widely employed throughout the NER system.
6. ^ Undated postcard
7. ^ Burton, p.39 identified by the author of this page as Class C7
8. ^ Burton, p.53
9. ^ Burton, p.38
10. ^ "Yorkshire Wolds Railway". Yorkshire Wolds Railway Restoration Project. http://www.yorkshirewoldsrailway.org.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2009. 

Bibliography

• Warwick Burton. Malton & Driffield Junction Railway. Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-16-3. 

• Stanley C. Jenkins (2002). The Wensleydale Branch - A New History. The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-587-X. 

External links

• The Yorkshire Wolds Railway Restoration Project
• The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) Encyclopedia
• The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS)