page_title: Hull and Barnsley Railway
section_title: Use of closed parts of the line
hierarchical_section_title: Hull and Barnsley Railway / Use of closed parts of the line
caption_attribution_description: English: Weedley Tunnel, Low Hunsley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.The western entrance to the short tunnel on the dismantled Hull &amp; Barnsley Railway at Low Hunsley in the Yorkshire Wolds. Officially 'Weedley Tunnel' it has become known as 'Sugar Loaf Tunnel', a name presumably given to it by walkers on the nearby Yorkshire Wolds Way (there are other Sugar Loaf Tunnels including those on the Heart of Wales and the Richmond Vale railway lines). The reason for this nickname is obvious: there's a constant supply of white chalk dust spilling down from the hillside above the tunnel entrance. The Hull &amp; Barnsley Railway was built in the 1880s together with Alexandra Dock in Hull, to break the monopoly of the North Eastern Railway Company and provide an additional trading route inland from the busy Humber port. The railway didn't last long. Services west of South Howden station were withdrawn from 1st January 1932 and the regular service between Hull and South Howden ended on 30th July 1955, although some excursion traffic continued to use this picturesque route through The Wolds until about 1958. After that only a short section of the railway remained in Hull serving the local chemical works until the 1970s when another short stretch of the line just south of Selby was reopened for delivering coal to the newly built Drax Power Station. The steep-sided cutting through the sandstone and chalk between Weedley Tunnel and Drewton Tunnel later became a quarry, operated by Stoneledge Plant &amp; Transport of Cottingham.
context_page_description: The Hull Barnsley & West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company 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 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.
  Before the Grouping of 1923, the line was taken over by the North Eastern Railway. Following incorporation into the London and North Eastern Railway, 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.
context_section_description: Drapers Metal merchants used the Sculcoates, and later part of the former Neptune Street goods yards as part of their scrap metal business – during the 1960s many steam locomotives were dismantled there.
  The cutting at Little Weighton, and nearby chalk quarries were used after closure (from 1969) as a landfill facility; filling of the quarries and cutting was approaching completion by 2008. After 2008 a site on the cutting near Willerby has been used as a recycling facility.
  In rural areas the embankments and earthworks remain as boundaries between fields, the trackbed west of Weedley Tunnel forms part of the Yorkshire Wolds Way and High Hunsley Circuit walks, and a section of the embankment between Kirk Ella and Hull also carries a footpath whilst a section further west is covered by the B1232 road. A section over 2 miles long north of Newport is now part of the eastern end of M62 motorway. A number of the stations have been converted into private residences.
  The areas of disused land west and east of Calvert Lane in Hull (formerly Springhead works and sidings and the land between Springbank East, West and South junctions) have become a wildlife habitat, the area between the junctions being assessed as "ecologically outstanding". and are classed as Sites of nature conservance importance and is a candidate site for "Local Nature Reserve status". The disused railway bridge giving walkers access to the western site was removed in August 2009. The former sidings at Calvert Lane were developed into a small housing estate "The Sidings" in the 2010s.
caption: The line at Weedley Tunnel in 2008; the line in the Yorkshire Wolds was a scenic section of the line, and featured in the railway's promotional material for passenger traffic
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