The East and West Yorkshire Union Railway was promoted in 1883 to connect the Hull and Barnsley Railway at Drax with Leeds. The company was unable to raise the money it needed to build the line, and it substantially reduced its scope to connecting collieries around Rothwell with the existing main line network nearby. This was successful, with trains running from 1890, but the company decided it would find a way to connect to Leeds and operate a much truncated passenger service, from Rothwell. It sponsored the South Leeds Junction Railway to make a connection from Rothwell to the Midland Railway at Stourton; the SLJR was soon re-absorbed by the E&WYUR. The passenger service started on 4 January 1904 but it was a disastrous failure, and it was soon withdrawn from 1 October 1904.
The E&WYUR continued as a successful mineral railway, being taken into the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping of the railways in 1923. The network closed in 1966 as the collieries had ceased operation.
Background
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century there was a considerable upsurge in the coal industry in Yorkshire. At the same time there was dissatisfaction with the facilities provided by the established railway companies, and indeed with their charges. From the railways' point of view, huge capital investment in rolling stock and in infrastructure was being called for at a time when money was limited.
The Hull and Barnsley Railway (H&BR) was authorised by Act of 26 August 1880 with the principal object of providing a direct link for mineral traffic from West Yorkshire coalfields to the Port of Hull; the project was partly motivated by resentment at the monopoly of the North Eastern Railway in serving Hull. The Parliamentary Bill for the H&BR had asked for wide-ranging running powers over existing railways to Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, Manchester and Liverpool, but these had all been struck out when the Act received the Royal Assent. The line was a considerable engineering project at this time, and as work progressed, it became obvious that the company was unable to raise the money it needed, and in fact it never completed its network.
E&WYUR promoted
The H&BR thought it essential to get access to Leeds for passenger traffic from Hull, and it encouraged promotion of a line from Drax, on its own main line, to Ardsley on the Great Northern Railway. The line was to cross the Midland Railway at Woodlesford and make a connection there, and also connect a colliery network at Rothwell, four miles south-east of Leeds. At Ardsley, it was hoped, running powers over the Great Northern Railway would be granted to Leeds and Bradford. The Woodlesford connection would allow for an alternative route to Leeds. Rothwell was the focus of a group of collieries owned by Henry Charlesworth of J & J Charlesworth & Co Limited; high quality stone was quarried locally as well. The Charlesworth group of collieries had connections to railways, but there was considerable attraction for them in a new direct railway to Hull docks.
The result was the Parliamentary authorisation on 2 August 1883 of the East and West Yorkshire Union Railway. The hoped-for running powers over the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway were refused. The main line from Drax was an ambitious project of about 30 miles of railway across difficult terrain. The E&WYUR soon found that raising the considerable capital sum for its main line was impossible, and in 1886 it got an abandonment Act. The intended line to Drax was to be abandoned, but short branch lines to Lofthouse (near Ardsley) on the GNR and Woodlesford on the Midland Railway were added (or modified), so that the proposed network was about nine miles in extent including siding complexes. Running powers from Lofthouse to Leeds Central over the GNR were requested—passenger operation was still contemplated on the abbreviated system—but these were refused.
Opening of a limited network
By November 1890 the line was nearly ready at the Ardsley end, so that some coal could come from the Rothwell collieries over the E&WYUR onto the GNR. However, there was a dispute with the GNR over the junction, and it was only resolved when the GNR were given running powers on the E&WYUR. On 19 May 1891 the line was fully open as far as Rothwell. Robin Hood Colliery was a collection point for other collieries, and GNR engines worked to and from that point; the colliery engines moved the wagons beyond that point. Considerable volumes of coal were now brought to the GNR for onward transit.