sheff'd victoria
Member
Please can anyone tell me why this well used section of line closed, and what was the last trains to use it ?
Mainline trains through Normanton had ceased as early as 1970, according to a certain online encyclopedia of indeterminable repute...
It also missed now-important traffic centres such as Doncaster and Wakefield, and so as the Doncaster-Leeds and Doncaster York lines were improved [the latter particularly with the building of the Selby diversion providing a 125mph railway for much of the way], it was realised that faster journeys serving these centres could be offered by using those lines. So main-line Sheffield-Leeds traffic was diverted via Wakefield Westgate, and Sheffield-York traffic via Doncaster.
Is the trackbed still in situ, or has it been lost? But perhaps even now, Wakefield is too important a commercial centre to miss.
severe mining subsidance had some bearing it was like riding on a rollercoaster,plus the general decline of the mining industry and a general loss of traffic, and alternative routes were vastly superior.
if any more routes were to be reopened in the Sheffield area, I'd prefer it to be the Woodhead route.