Traffic on the Wolds Coast line, 1920s - 1950s

[alexl92]

Hi all,
I’ve developed a bit of an interest in the Wolds Coast line (Driffield/Bridlington/Filey etc) recently.

I was hoping someone on here might be able to tell me a bit about the traffic on this line during the Grouping period and early BR - 1920s until the introduction of diesels/DMUs, I suppose?

Presumably the motive Power and stock would have been NER/LNER.
Was it mainly smaller local trains hauled by tank engines? Mixed trains with vans/wagons and carriages?
What were the formations usually like, and which classes were common on this line?

Thanks in advance for any info. If there are any good books with photos on the topic, I’d be interested too!

 

[6Gman]

Hi all,
I’ve developed a bit of an interest in the Wolds Coast line (Driffield/Bridlington/Filey etc) recently.

I was hoping someone on here might be able to tell me a bit about the traffic on this line during the Grouping period and early BR - 1920s until the introduction of diesels/DMUs, I suppose?

Presumably the motive Power and stock would have been NER/LNER.
Was it mainly smaller local trains hauled by tank engines? Mixed trains with vans/wagons and carriages?
What were the formations usually like, and which classes were common on this line?

Thanks in advance for any info. If there are any good books with photos on the topic, I’d be interested too!

I'm no expert but in the 1950s I think it may have involved D49s (Hull, Bridlington and Scarborough all had allocations). I think mixed trains would have been very unlikley.

 

[Rescars]

Presumably Filey Holiday Camp generated some significant traffic, especially on summer Saturdays. There are records of an ecs working running away there in 1956 whilst being manoeuvred (though not properly coupled) by an ex GNR H4.

 

[Magdalia]

I’ve developed a bit of an interest in the Wolds Coast line (Driffield/Bridlington/Filey etc) recently.

I don't know much about the local passenger and freight services, but I've done quite a lot of research on the summer Saturday holiday trains and the summer day excursion traffic in the early 1960s, the period of transition from steam to diesel.

Bridlington and Scarborough were both important destinations, especially from South and West Yorkshire, but also further afield. Filey was important for summer Saturday holiday trains but not for the summer day excursion traffic.

A key feature was lots of trains using the Selby-Market Weighton-Driffield route, which enabled trains to serve all of Bridlington, Filey and Scarborough. The outward journey included Enthorpe Bank to get from Market Weighton up into the Wolds, 4-5 miles of 1 in 95/100, and there is about 5 miles of 1 in 92 out of Bridlington going towards Scarborough.

The traction needed to be able to haul trains of up to 10-11 cars up 1 in 90-100 gradients without needing assistance. In steam days this meant that the summer Saturday and day excursion traffic was mainly handled by ex LNER B1s, B16s and K3s, plus some Standard 5s and Black 5s, the latter mainly on trains coming from the LMR. There were some V2s too, but these were more common on the York-Scarborough route.

In the early 1960s the introduction of diesels changed the picture, especially Dairycoates getting D6730-41 in time for the 1962 summer. By this time both summer Saturday holiday trains and summer day excursion traffic were in decline, and the Market Weighton route was last used in 1963. By 1964 most of the remaining summer Saturday holiday and summer day excursion traffic was diesel hauled.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The June 1955 North Eastern Region timetable is available on 'TimetableWorld' (for free) - can't link as on mobile. The basic service pattern consists of all station stoppers plus a few semi-fasts. Bridlington enjoys through coaches to and from KX via Hull. Beverley has a more intense service to Hull thanks to services off the Market Weighton line plus a few short workings.

The summer Saturday services are also shown, with as mentioned some pretty exotic routings. Until 1950 Driffield also had a line to Malton - a very short section has been revived as the Yorkshire Wolds Rly. They are hoping to extend to the wonderfully named Wetwang station.

 

[Harvester]

Presumably Filey Holiday Camp generated some significant traffic, especially on summer Saturdays. There are records of an ecs working running away there in 1956 whilst being manoeuvred (though not properly coupled) by an ex GNR H4.

The vacuum hose between the loco (ex LNER K3 61846) and the first coach had not been connected. The crew did a good job of reducing speed when approaching the station on the runaway, by putting the engine in reverse and applying its handbrake, while the guard screwed down the handbrake in the end coach. The buffers were hit at about 25 mph, after the crew jumped, and 61846 was brought to an abrupt halt, riding up above the buffers but staying upright.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

The only two books I still have which are relevant are Railways in East Yorkshire by Martin Bairstow, and Railways in Yorkshire volume 2-The East Riding by K.Hoole, both of which should be available secondhand via the various online sellers.
Between them, recollections of other books I used to have and stories from my late father (a lifelong resident of Hull), I can offer the following;

Until the early -1950's Scarborough and Bridlington to Hull trains were mainly hauled by 4-4-0 tender engines. In the 1920s these were classes D17, D20, D21 and D22, allocated to Hull Botanic Gardens and Bridlington (and presumably Scarborough, although this is not mentioned).
From 1932 class D49 locomotives arrived in the area, and these worked most duties into the 50s.
From the early 1950s until DMUs appeared, large tank engines were most common, such as the A8 4-6-2T, L1 2-6-4T and the V1/V3 2-6-2T; Hull also had some A5 4-6-2T engines. Also in the early 50s the class B1 4-6-0 tender engines appeared, and these continued to operate alongside the DMUs into the 1960s.
Class B16 4-6-0s would have also worked on local service from time to time, along with class K3 2-6-0s, and both of these plus B1s and ex-LMS "Black 5" and "Jubilee" 4-6-0s would have been regular sights on excursion traffic.

There was also a local service from Hull to Beverley. Until 1925 this was worked by G6 (aka BTP) 0-4-4Ts working push-pull, sometimes sandwiched between two coaches.
In the later 20s G5 0-4-4Ts took over, augmented in the off-peak by Sentinel railcars (mid morning and mid afternoon according to Ken Hoole). At peak times extra coaches were added and the trains worked normally, i.e with the loco always at the leading end, again with G5s and, from the early 30s, ex-Great Northern C12 4-4-2Ts. I believe the latter were also fitted for push-pull, but I can't confirm this.
By the early 50s I believe the larger tank engines mentioned above worked the Beverley turns as well.

Other useful books to look out for are the Illustrated history of the railways of Hull volumes 1 and 2; volume 2 has locomotive allocations for the Hull depots IIRC (I don't have my copy any more, so I can't confirm).
The RCTS series on LNER locomotives are also useful; each class has an "allocation and work" section which describes the routes they operated on.

Finally, "North Eastern Locomotive Sheds" by Ken Hoole (again!) has locomotive types allocated to the sheds, and a resume of what work they covered.

 

[mike57]

It might be worth joining the Facebook Group 'The Hull to Scarborough line, past and present' https://www.facebook.com/groups/453813081355784/ as various historical snippetts get posted from time to time.

 

[alexl92]

Brilliant, thank you.