Good morning all I'm going to propose a BR era route today from Doncaster to Hull. The route is 51.8 miles long, and takes 53 minutes to traverse on a passenger service. The route should feature the 123/4 DMU, the class 31 for freight operations at Tilan Aggregates, the class 55 would also be a welcome addition and would perform other freight services along the line, the class 37 and/or class 47 could also be included. Thanks for reading this suggestion.
Hi, can I just add some more details about this route proposal. Regarding the route, Hull Paragon is the terminus at the end of the line, with its famous overall roof. Before the 1984 rebuild, the track layout was quite complex with a good number of carriage sidings. A half mile outside the station was Botanic Gardens depot (BG), which had classes 03 and 08 allocated to it in the early 1980's. Also classes 101 and 123/4 DMU's (TransPennines). The docks to the east of the city were served by a freight-only loop line that was once part of the Hull and Barnsley Railway. Several smaller stations were served on the route out to Doncaster, including Hessle, North Ferriby, Brough, Gilberdke, Goole, Thorne North. There was a junction at Gilberdyke for Selby, Leeds and York. Passenger services were served by Class 55 and MK2 aircon sets for the London trains until 1982, class 101's on services to Doncaster and beyond (Sheffield). The TransPennine units ran from Hull to Manchester / Liverpool via Leeds. A junction at Thorne allowed South Humberside trains (from Cleethorpes) to run into Doncaster and these also employed the TransPennine units. Later in the 1980s, class 31/4s appeared on transpennine services. Freight into / out of Hull consisted of the daily Tilcon aggregates from Skipton with their unique wagons, a daily Freightliner from the terminal at Dairycoates (West Hull) to Leeds (I think), Acetic Acid tanks from BP chemicals, and various other commodities that ran onto the docks. Locos regularly seen at this time on freight included Classes 20, 31, 37, 40, 45, 46, 47, all of which could be seen on BG at various times. Signalling until quite recently was by local signal boxes and employed a mix of colour lights and semaphores. The line from Thorne to Doncaster also generated interesting freight, including coal from Hatfield colliery and steel from Scunthorpe. Although limited perhaps in landscape potential (no mountains or long viaducts) there is plenty of shoreline up the Humber Estuary and of course the Humber Bridge would make for a very interesting highlight!
