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 near Leeds. Its first chairman was the railway financier George Hudson, who had been called the railway king.
The railway expanded, by building new lines or buying or leasing already built ones, to serve Hull, Scarborough, Whitby, Market Weighton and Harrogate. In 1849 Hudson resigned as chairman as an investigation found financial irregularities in his running of the company. The results of a price war in the early 1850s led to amalgamation and on 31 July 1854 the Y&NMR merged with the Leeds Northern Railway and the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway to form the North Eastern Railway.
Origins
Having seen the success of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and, in 1833, Acts of Parliament for lines to London from Lancashire – the Grand Junction and the London and Birmingham, the manufacturers of Yorkshire realised that they would be at a commercial disadvantage.
George Hudson, who was brought up in a farming community and started life as a draper's assistant in York until in 1827, when he was 27 years old, he inherited £30,000. He had no former interest in railways, but seeing them as a profitable investment arranged a public meeting in 1833 to discuss building a line from York to Leeds. While the route was being planned, the North Midland Railway was formed in 1835 to build a line from Derby to Leeds. This would connect with the Midland Counties Railway at Derby and therefore, via the London & Birmingham Railway, provide rail access to London. Later that year at a public meeting in York, the York & North Midlands Railway was formed to build a railway line to a junction with the North Midland Railway near Normanton.
George Stephenson was appointed engineer for the line, a private bill was presented to Parliament seeking permission to build the railway and Royal Assent was given on 21 June 1836 to the Act that confirmed Hudson as chairman.
The line opened the to the Leeds & Selby Railway, with a ceremony on 29 May 1839. After breakfast in York, a train with a steam locomotive at the front and back conveyed the guests in eighteen carriages to ; the train then returned to a dinner in York. The line to Burton Salmon was open on 11 May 1840 and the final section, with the junction at Altofts with the North Midland, opened at the end of June. After 1 July 1840 it was possible to travel to London in 14 hours by a service that left York at 7:30 am. The route taken by the line had required little in the way of earthworks, apart from a cutting at Fairburn, and gave a maximum gradient of 1 in 484 with broad curves. There were 31 bridges, the principal ones being over the Rivers Aire, Wharfe and Calder. These were of stone, with those over the Calder and at Holdgate Lane built on the skew. The joint station with the Great North of England Railway, was within the city walls at York, and piercing of the walls was required to preserve the upper walkway; designs by G.T. Andrews and by Thomas Cabry (Y&NM engineer) were submitted to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society who chose Andrews' tudor arches. The track was of straight sided pattern at lb per yard supported either on stone blocks or kyanised wooden sleepers. The gauge was over blocks, or over sleepers. Locomotives were supplied by Robert Stephenson and Company and the first class carriages were lit with lamps at night, the second class were open at the sides, and in third class passengers seat on longitudinal benches without cover.
Expansion
The Leeds & Hull Railroad Company had been formed in 1824 to build a railway from Leeds to the port of Hull, but had failed to raise the necessary funds. The Leeds & Selby Railway (L&SR) was formed in 1829 to build a railway as far as Selby, where goods could be conveyed onwards on barges on the Ouse and Humber to Hull. The line was to be less than with a maximum gradient of 1 in 135 so that horses or locomotives could be used, and the necessary permission was gained on 29 May 1830. A service started in September 1834 from a station in Leeds at Marsh Lane, just to the west of a tunnel through Richmond Hill, and Hull could be reached in about hours. The Hull & Selby Railway received permission in June 1836 to complete the line to Hull, and the line, which crossed the Ouse at Selby with a bascule bridge, opened on 1 July 1840.