The Selby–Goole line was a standard gauge branch line connecting

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse. At the 2021 Census, it had a population of 17,193. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire; from 1974 until 2023, ...

and

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...

, built in 1910 by the North Eastern Railway. The line closed in the 1960s as part of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

History

A line connecting Goole to the rail network via Selby ( Brayton) was put before Parliament in 1845 ("Brayton and Goole Railway"), proposed by

George Hudson George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the Railway Mania, railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a ...

and the

York and North Midland Railway 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, extended this line to meet the North Midland Railway at Normanton railway station, Norma ...

(Y&NMR); the line was rejected and another rival scheme, the

Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

(later part of the L&YR) was accepted by parliament in the same year, becoming Goole's first rail link. At the time of the branch's construction Goole was served by the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

(L&YR), Selby by the North Eastern Railway, and Drax by the

Hull and Barnsley Railway The Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company (HB&WRJR&DCo.) was opened on 20 July 1885. It had a total projected length of but never reached Barnsley, stopping a few miles short at Stairfoot. The name was changed to The ...

. However a bottleneck at the two-track Selby swing bridge on the already busy

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

from London to Scotland meant that freight trains were often delayed, the building of the line was therefore desirable since it offered another path to the port of

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

via Goole for the coal and other freight that was exported via the port at that time. Construction of the railway began in 1907, with Baldry & Yerburgh chosen as contractors, and A. C. Mitchell and W. J. Cudworth acting as the NER's engineers. The line was built as a doubled tracked railway, with much of it being built on embankments. Freight traffic did not meet expectations and the line was reduced to single track after 1923. The line was closed in 1964.The track from Brayton junction as far as Barlow station remained open, serving a railway tip, and later being used for training track maintenance vehicle operators. Source ''Railway Memories No. 14 Selby and Goole. Stephen Chapman''

Route

The line can be considered to begin at Thorpe Gates Junction Signal box; where the new line branches off to the right from the line of the former

Leeds and Selby Railway The Leeds and Selby Railway was an early British railway company and first mainline railway within Yorkshire. It was opened in 1834. As built, the line ran west/east between two termini, Marsh Lane station, Leeds and Selby railway station. Th ...

when approaching from the west towards Selby, it then crossed over the former

by an overhead bridge. A branch from Selby then met the line from the north; somewhere east of Brayton. Three intermediate stations were served Barlow station, Drax Hales station,The village of Drax now having two stations until 1923 with

Drax Abbey railway station Drax Abbey railway station was a station on the Hull and Barnsley Railway, and served the village of Drax in North Yorkshire, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is locat ...

and Airmyn and Rawcliffe station. The line reached Goole via a junction onto the 1910 diversion of the original L&YR line. The Selby and Goole joined at ''Oakhill junction'' and then ran on the line, where it joined the NER's "Loop line" section of the

Hull and Doncaster Branch The Hull and Doncaster Branch is a secondary main railway line in England, connecting Kingston upon Hull to South Yorkshire and beyond via a branch from the Selby Line near Gilberdyke to a connection to the Doncaster–Barnetby line at a junc ...

(1869) at ''Potter's Grange junction'' just west of

Goole station Goole railway station is a railway station in the port town of Goole on the Hull and Doncaster Branch in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The station and its passenger services are managed and provided by Northern (train operating compan ...

Rolling stock

Initially passenger services railway was operated with steam

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...

s consisting of tank engine and carriage couple, the engine being designed by Edward Fletcher, later

LNER Class G5 The NER Class O (LNER Class G5) was a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotives of the North Eastern Railway, designed by the company's Chief Engineer, Wilson Worsdell. They all survived into British Railways ownership in 1948 and their BR numbers were ...

s were used. Later

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring granit ...

railcars were used, and Diesel multiple units operated the line before closure.

Line following closure

Drax Hales station site geograph-3419210-by-Ben-Brooksbank

North-west of the crossing with the

only parts of the embanked trackbed remain, the bridges and track having been removed. The line to Barlow continued to be used to the WD depot and was extended in October 1966 to provide connection to Drax Power Station when it was being built. That section became Barlow Common nature reserve in 1986. The crossing with the Hull and Barnsley now forms the southern perimeter of

Drax Power Station Drax power station is a large Biomass (energy), biomass power station in Drax, North Yorkshire, Drax, North Yorkshire, England. It has a 2.6 GW capacity for biomass and had a 1.29 GW capacity for coal that was retired in 2021. Its name comes f ...

, which is fed from the H&BR. South-east of the crossing little remains – the route of the line is now mostly replaced by the

A645 road List of A roads in zone 6 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the lar ...

In popular culture

The line is one of the examples of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

mentioned in the

Flanders and Swann Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo and musicians. Michael Flanders (1922–1975) was a lyricist, actor, and singer. He collaborated with Donald Swann (1923–1994), a composer and pianist, in writing and performing comedy music, comic ...

song "The Slow Train".

''No one departs, no one arrives, From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives.''Flanders and Swan online "Slow Train"
lyrics ''nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk''

Notes

References

Sources

Further information

* *

Route locations

*, Thorpes Gates junction *, bridge over Selby Canal *, crossing point with the former East Coast Main Line route *, Brayton east junction *, Barlow station and road crossing *, Crossing of the H&BR and the Selby–Goole line; The freight line supplying Drax power station curves to the north-west onto the former route of the Goole-Selby *, Drax Hales station *, River Aire crossing *, Airmyn/Airmyn and Rawcliffe station *, Oakhill junction with former LY&R

External links

The New Adlestrop Railway Atlas
Map showing former lines in relation to currently operating lines. {{DEFAULTSORT:Selby-Goole line North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom) Rail transport in the East Riding of Yorkshire Rail transport in North Yorkshire Closed railway lines in Yorkshire and the Humber Railway lines opened in 1910 Railway lines closed in 1964