Hull Docks Branch

Hull and Barnsley Railway

The later H&BR armorial device
Formerly called	Hull, Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company pre 1960
Fate	Merged as part of the Grouping Act
Successor	NER, LNER
Founded	1880
Founder	Col. Gerald Smith and others
Headquarters	Kingston upon Hull, England
Key people	Matthew Stirling – Chief mechanical engineer Edward Watkin – General manager (1905–23)

The Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company (HB&WRJR&DCo.) was opened on 20 July 1885. It had a total projected length of 66 miles but never reached Barnsley, stopping a few miles short at Stairfoot. The name was changed to The Hull and Barnsley Railway (H&BR) in 1905. Its Alexandra Dock in Hull opened 16 July 1885.

The main line ran from Hull to Cudworth, with two other lines branching off at Wrangbrook Junction, the South Yorkshire Junction Railway to Denaby, and The Hull & South Yorkshire Extension Railway, an eight-mile branch to Wath-upon-Dearne, opened 31 March 1902. The company also had joint running powers on the Hull and Barnsley and Great Central Joint Railway (Gowdall and Braithwell Railway).

Before the Grouping of 1923, the line was taken over by the North Eastern Railway (NER). Following incorporation into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), duplicated infrastructure was closed or reduced in function – notably Cannon Street station and the Springhead Locomotive Works.

Closure of the greater part of the main line itself came during the time of British Railways. As of 2011 the elevated line in Hull with some of the extensions and alterations added by the NER and LNER are still in use and referred to as the Hull Docks Branch and has the Engineers' Line Reference of HJS.

By the 19th century the coalfields of southern Yorkshire were producing large amounts of coal, the industrialised midland region was making manufactured goods, and the new industrial towns of the West Riding of Yorkshire and of Lancashire were producing cloth and other goods. Thus opportunities for trade, export and profit existed along the east coast of England as well as along the Humber and the tributary rivers feeding it.