Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the
1923 Grouping, although in
1922 it had already entered into a working agreement with the
London and North Western Railway. The two companies were constituents of the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway .
The L&YR was incorporated in 1847, being an amalgamation of several important lines, the chief of which was the
Manchester & Leeds Railway (itself having been incorporated in 1836).
Divisions
The system consisted of many branches and alternative routes, so that it is not easy to determine where its "main line" was. For working purposes it was divided into three divisions:
*
Western Division:
**
Manchester to
Blackpool and
Fleetwood;
** Manchester to
Bolton,
Wigan,
Southport and
Liverpool; and the direct line to Liverpool;
*
East Lancashire or
Central Division** Manchester to
Oldham,
Bury,
Rochdale,
Todmorden,
Accrington,
Barnsley and
Colne*
Eastern Division:
** Todmorden to
Halifax,
Bradford,
Leeds,
Huddersfield,
Wakefield,
Normanton,
Goole, and
Doncaster.
Electrification
Suburban lines in the Liverpool area were electrified to reach a total of 37 route miles:
*
Liverpool Exchange - Southport and
Crossens: April 1904
* Liverpool -
Aintree (two routes): July and December 1906
* Southport -
Meols Cop railway station: 1909
* Aintree -
Ormskirk: 1913
Steamers
The L&YR ran steamers between Liverpool and
Drogheda in
Ireland; between
Hull and
Zeebrugge; and between
Goole and many Continental ports, including
Amsterdam,
Copenhagen,
Hamburg, and
Rotterdam. They also (in joint ownership of the vessels with the
London and North Western Railway) operated ships between Fleetwood,
Belfast and
LondonderryThe routes
The L&YR's principal routes cut through the
Pennines between Lancashire and Yorkshire: because of that there were a number of long tunnels: the longest being
Summit Tunnel, 2885 yd (2597 m) in length, near Rochdale. There were six others over 1000 yd (910 m) long.
Rolling stock
Locomotives were painted black, with red and white lining; carriages red-brown lower panels, light brown upper panels.
Victoria station was one of the largest in the country: it occupied 13.5 acres (55,000 m²), and had 17 platforms.
The
football team of the L&YR engineering works at
Newton Heath, Manchester, evolved into
Manchester United F.C..
Caldervale Line: a service operated by
Metro (West Yorkshire), which uses a large part of the former L&YR.
* Blakemore, Michael: The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Ian Allan, 1984
* Coates, Noel: 150 Years of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Hawkshill Publishing 1997
*
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society*
Map of the LYR
