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 .

Early history

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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).

The system

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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 Londonderry

The 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.

Manchester Victoria station

Victoria station was one of the largest in the country: it occupied 13.5 acres (55,000 m²), and had 17 platforms.

Trivia

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The football team of the L&YR engineering works at Newton Heath, Manchester, evolved into Manchester United F.C..

See also

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Caldervale Line: a service operated by Metro (West Yorkshire), which uses a large part of the former L&YR.

References

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• Blakemore, Michael: The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Ian Allan, 1984
• Coates, Noel: 150 Years of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Hawkshill Publishing 1997

External links

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• Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society
• Map of the LYR

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway | Pre-grouping British railway companies | LMS constituents