East Coast Mainline
Early History
Thanks to Thomas Spain
Timeline of Events:
1834 York Herald notes application for an Act of Parliament for the construction of a railway over the route. The project remained stillborn
1845 Proposal for a new ‘direct’ mainline to the north from a new terminus in St. Pancras and via Grantham, Swinderby, Thorne and Drax to pass through nearby Cawood, Stillingfleet and Bishopthorpe
The original course of the East Coast Main Line, as established by 1850, went via Askern, Knottingley, Sherburn in Elmet and Church Fenton. It ran over Great Northern, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and York and North Midland Railway routes until the Riccall line was built by the North Eastern Railway (which absorbed the latter company upon formation in 1854) in 1871.
1864 York and Doncaster Branch Bill debated and Act of Parliament passed- objections by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway due to the potential traffic diverted away from their lines around Knottingley. North Eastern and Great Northern Railways enjoyed shared running powers over the new line from opening. Also first reference to the ‘Flying Scotchman’ express service between London and Edinburgh, which travelled the original route via Askern, Knottingley and South Milford
1870 Line construction completed
1871 (2 January) Line opened throughout, ‘…shortening the distance between York and London by three miles’; the time between London and Edinburgh is reduced by 30 minutes.
The Riccall line was presumably faster than the Askern route because it crossed fewer junctions, but another motivation might have been to remove the L&Y’s claim for revenue from trains passing over its section. The route was clearly part of an ongoing programme of work by the NER to remove bottlenecks, hence the time saving. Whilst the 1983 route is slightly longer than the 1871 route, this is compensated by it’s higher speed rating, and the avoidance of the Selby swing bridge, both of which would have reduced the time taken.
1877 The current station at York built which meant that trains heading for Newcastle and further north no longer had to reverse out before proceeding.
1923 The NER is absorbed into the LNER under the Railways Act (1921), which brought the entire ECML under the control of a single company for the first time. The A1 class locomotive No. 1472 is built, and is named ‘Flying Scotsman’ for the British Empire Exhibition the following year
1935 ‘Silver Jubilee’ service commences between London and Edinburgh using A4 class locomotive No. 2509 ‘Silver Link’
1948 The nationalisation of the railways sees the LNER incorporated into British Railways. However, the run-down state of the LNER’s assets in the post-war period sees management over the ECML split between three British Railways Regions, with the Selby-York section becoming part of the North Eastern Region
1952 Riccall crossing accident- level crossing gates and automatic half-barriers
1953 The ‘Capitals Limited’ is renamed ‘The Elizabethan’ in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne
1958 Passenger traffic ceases at Escrick, Naburn and Riccall stations
1961 Escrick station closes to goods traffic; Deltics introduced onto the ECML
1964 Naburn and Riccall stations close to goods traffic
1976 HSTs introduced onto the ECML
1981 Heads of agreement signed for civil engineering contracts; end of the Deltics
1983 Route closes after all traffic is routed via the Selby Diversion
The new route built in 1983, from Doncaster to York, was 32.5 miles in length according to the web resource[PH1] Rail Miles. Of the older routes, Askern was just over 34.5 miles (it still exists, so can be traced online on Rail Miles) and Riccall approximately 32 miles (based upon calculations using a combination of Signalling Records Society mileage data for Selby-York and Rail Miles).