The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-06 00:00:00

Joseph Ogdin March, Esq., Beech-grove, Leeds
George Peel, Esq., Horbury, near Wakefield, Director of the
Wakefield and Harrogate Junction, and the Bradford, Wake-
field, and Midland Railways
Sidney Roberts, Esq., Sheffield
John Robinson, Esq., Silcoates Cottage, near Wakefild, Director of
the Bradford, Wakefield, and Midland, and the Leeds, York,
and Midland Railways
E. W. Rudgard, Esq., Lincoln
Edward Rook, Esq., King-street, Leeds
James Reffit, Esq., Leeds
Edward Spence, Esq., Tilworth, near Hull, Director of the York.
shire and Glasgow and the Rugby, Leamington, and Warwick
Rail ways
Thomas Sidney, Esq., Sheriff and Alderman of London
Edw. Sidebottom, Esq., Piedwick-hall, Sandal Magna, Wakefield
'Benjamin Smith, Esq., Duckmanton• lodge, near Chesterfield, Di-
rector of the North Derbyshire Union, and the Sheffield, Bux.
ton, Leek, and Potteries Railway
Richard Sully, Esq., Sandon-place, Sheffield
William Starkey, Esq., Wakefield, Director of the Leeds, York,
and Midland Railways
Thomas Burdett Turton, Esq., Alderman of Sheffield
John Tall, Esq., Hull
John Taylor, Esq., Belle Vue.terrace, Hull, Director of the Direct
Western Railway
George Turton, Esq., Bagden-lodge, Clayton West, near Hudders.
field, Director of the Bristol and Dove Railway
Joseph Turton, Esq., Brook-hill, Sheffield
Edward Vickers, Esq., Firs-hill, Sheffield
Benjamin Vickers, Esq., West Cliffe, Sheffield
James Wall, Esq., Osgathorpe-hills, Sheffield, a Director of the
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
Joseph Wood, Esq., Sandal, near Wakefield, a Director of the
Wakefield and Harrogate Junction Railway
George Walker, Esq., Osgathorpe Cottage, Sheffield
George Wall, Esq., Woodside, Sheffield
Rev. George Atkinson Walker, Alverthorpe, near Wakefield, Di-
rector of the Bradford, Wakefield, and Midland, the Leeds, York,
and Midland, and the Gloucester, Aberystwlth, and Central Wales
Railways
John Ward, Esq., Machon Bank, Sheffield, Director of the Direct
Western Railway
ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF.—John Urpeth Rastrick, Esq., F. R. S.,
London.
SOLICITORS.
Messrs. Upton and Clapham, Leeds
Messrs. Smith and Wightman, Sheffield
BANKERS,

London : Sir Richard Carr Glyn, Halifax, Mills, and Co.
Leeds : Messrs. Beckett and Co.
Sheffield : The Sheffield and Hallamshire Banking Company
Wakefield : Messrs. Leatham, Tew, and Co.
Barnsley : The Wakefield and Barnsley Union Banking Company.
SECRIITARY.—Henry Jubb, Esq.

The main line of this railway will be about fifteen miles in
length. Commencing at the Wortley Station, on the Sheffield and
Manchester Railway, it will pass through the town of Silkston, and
near to Dodworth, accommodating the whole of that ♦aluable
mining district with the most ready outlet for its celebrated coal to
all parts of the kingdom. It proceeds by Darton, Chapelthorpe,
and Sandal to —l--.l* —ln
cnester, and the newly projected railways to Leeds and Harrogate,
and to Pontefract and Goole.
The inhabitants of Barnsley will also be accommodated by a
branch to that town, from the main line, giving them direct and
...inunloetuin with the north and south.
The distance from Leeds to Sheffield by this line, and its con-
nexions northwards, will be only thirty-two miles ; by the present
route it is thirty-eight miles. The distance from Wakefield to
Sheffield by this line will be only twenty-three miles ; it is now, by
way of Normanton, thirty-one miles ; and by way of Oakenshaw,
twenty-eight miles, between two and three of which are by omni-
bus. Besides this saving of actual distance, the tedious stoppages
at Masborough and Normanton, the delays of which are often equal
to twenty miles of travelling, will be avoided,
A careful survey has been made, by an experienced surveyor,
who reports that the line from Wakefield to Silkston will
run with easy gradients nearly on the surface of the ground for

the greater part of the way; and that the only work of any mag-
nitude will be a tunnel, about six hundred yards long, at Woolley.
common, which will occasion in the approach to it from Wake-
field an ascending gradient of 1 in 108. The works between
Silkston and Wortley are of a heavier character, but in no
part will the gradient be more than 1 in 112. The ruling
gradielit will be about 1 in 180.

This undertaking, in connexion with other railways, is in-
tended to accomplish the following very important objects :—First,
a direct line of communication between London and Leeds, the
Northern Counties and Scotland. Secondly, the opening of the
extensive and valuable coal-fields of Silkston, Dodworth, Barns..
ley, and the adjacent districts, to the manufacturing and other
towns of Yorkshire, the ports of Hull, Selby, Goole, Great
Grimsby, and Boston, and also to the Metropolis, and the Mid-
land, and Western counties. Thirdly, the accommodation of the
inhabitants of the places through which this railway will pass,
with those facilities of conveyance for passengers, of
which, from the almost entire absence of good roads,
as well as railways, they have hitherto been destitute.
An examination of the Map will show how well these objects
will be attained by means of this railway. At its northern termi-
nus, Wakefield, it will be connected with the Leeds and Manches-
-

ter Railway, continued to the Midland and the lines extending
from it to the north and east, with the projected Wakefield and
Harrogate and Wakefield and Leeds lines (the latter a branch of
the Leeds and Dewsbury from Churwell), and through it with
the Leeds and Thirsk, the Leeds and Bradford, and other railways,
to the northwest and Scotland. And at Wortley, its southern
terminus, it will be connected with the Sheffield and Manchester
Railway, the projected Manchester, Midland, and Great Grimsby,
and the Sheffield and Lincolnshire lines, the Sheffield and Great
Grimsby Railway, the projected Sheffield and Chesterfield Railway,
and the •arious new projects from Sheffield to the northern parts of
Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and the west.

The quantity of coal which this railway will make directly
accessible to all parts of the kingdom may be estimated from the
following statements given In evidence before a Committees of the
House of Commons :—The township of Barnsley contains 2,010
acres of coal bed, Barughs 5,080 acres, Dodworth, 6,219 acres,
Silkston, 4,040 acres. The quantity of coal in the Silkston main
alone is thirty.seven millions three hundred and fourteen thou-
sand tons, and the quantity likely to be raised from the entire dis•
trict through which the railway will pass, is not less than seventy.
eight millions of tons.

Pits nay be sunk close by the railway, and will require only
an engine to lift the coals perpendicularly, and pout them into the
trucks.

In addition to this, an opportunity will be afforded of turning
to better account a bed of ironstone underlying a space of 5,080
acres.

nrii,:t) infrriiliVriulT: and all. intermediate towns to the north
and east, and westward to Glossop, Ashton, Manchester, Stock-
port, and other towns in Cheshire, that the owners of this valu-
able mineral would be able successfully to compete with those of
Durham and Lancashire.

The inexhaustible mineral traffic which will thus be developed
—the means which this railway will afford of improved transit be.
tween Leeds and Sheffield, so long a desideratum to the inhabitants
of these, the two largest towns in Yorkshire—the opening of direct
railway communication with Barnsley, from which that important
manufacturing town has hitherto been excluded—its con-
nexion with the line projected to Harrogate, whither
so many thousands of visitors annually resort in pur-
suit of health and pleasure, constitute a summary of
advantages which cannot fail to recommend this project to
public favour and support. It is calculated that the traffic in
minerals alone will yield a lucrative return to the Shareholders;
while the extraordinary increase of travelling which every ad-
ditional facility creates, and the surprising influx of trade which
every new railway brings to the district through which it passes,
adding largely to the profits of the undertaking, render it pro-
bable that the advantages which will actually be realised by this
project will exceed the most sanguine expectations of its pro.
moters.

Applications for Shares may be made, in the subjoined form,
to the Solicitors ; and also to Messrs, Ridsdale, Myers, and Bailey,
Messrs. Smith and Perfect, Messrs. John Everard Upton, Share.
brokers, Leeds; Messrs. Ridsdale and Rogers, Sharebrokers,
Wakefield; Messrs. Garton and Wright, Mr. George Eadon, jun.,
and Mr. John May, Sharebrokers, Sheffield; Messrs. C. Wilkin..
son and Earle, Sharebrokers, Hull; and Messrs. Peet and Son,
Sharebrokers, Nottingham.