1846. Dec. 15. Turnpike roads impassable with snow. Scarborough mail coach unable to proceed beyond Bridlington. Narrow escape of several persons from being frozen to death on the highways.
Ten years before stage coaches reached the height of their prosperity, a new era had begun—the era of the Railway. The first railway to be used for passenger traffic was one between Stockton and Darlington, and in the year of its opening another from Leeds to Selby was being planned by the great engineer, George Stephenson.
This, as originally planned, was to be of a length of 20 miles. Near Leeds there were to be three inclines, up each of which the train was to be hauled by a fixed engine stationed at the summit. The rest of the line was to be worked either by a travelling engine or by a horse.
The latter could, it was calculated, be very profitably employed. For his work would only be needed on the flat and up the slight inclines; and for six or seven miles on the journey from Leeds to Selby he could be ‘thrown off’ and could ride ‘in his own carriage behind the train of waggons,’ until his services were again required. Such was Railway Engineering in its infancy.
The Leeds and Selby Railway Company having been formed, work was proceeded with on plans drawn up by another engineer, Mr. James Walker, and the line was declared open for traffic in 1834.
In the following year a new Company, known as the Hull and Selby Railway Company, was formed, with Mr. Henry Broadley as Chairman. An Act of Parliament ‘for making a Railway from Kingston-upon-Hull to Selby’ was then obtained, and the work of constructing the new railway was pushed forward rapidly.
This, the first terminal railway to be constructed in the Riding, was expected to bring with it great advantages. By it Hull would be linked to Manchester, and Manchester was already linked to Liverpool. Thus there would be direct railway communication across England from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.
But, for all this, the scheme met with great opposition. Hull and Selby were already served by steam packets travelling along the Humber and the Ouse, and this service was deemed so satisfactory that there was little chance of the new railway’s proving a commercial success.
Objections were also raised by some of the large landowners, who feared that the introduction of the railway would very largely decrease the value of their properties along its route. Such objectors had, of course, to be conciliated—as was Mr. Raikes of Welton, by a gift of £10,000 and an undertaking to build a station at Brough instead of at Welton.