Post is back on track

The season has also seen the railways reach two milestones - one marking a new beginning, the other a sad end: the 150th birthday of the NER and 40 years since the closure of the Ryedale line.

The North Eastern Railway's birthday was marked with a ceremony in the foyer of York Railway Station on the anniversary itself, Saturday, July 31.

Sir William McAlpine, chairman of the Railway Heritage Trust, unveiled a replica of the station's zero post in the presence of Janet Looker, the Lord Mayor of York. The post has since been fixed to its permanent position on the present platform five, under the footbridge. A plaque is placed above to explain its presence.

The original zero post had long since disappeared.

"We assumed it was put into storage and then it was lost," says Patrick Howat, the York author of railway books who has been working on the zero post project for the North Eastern Railway Association for three years.

"It could have been stolen, destroyed in the air raid in 1942 or melted down in the wartime drive for scrap metal.

"There are very few zero posts left in stations. I know of one in Newcastle."

So what was the zero post?

In 1905, the North Eastern Railway set out to systematically measure each one of its rail lines, as required by law. The cast-iron quarter-mile, half-mile, three-quarter-mile and mile posts that were erected can still be seen throughout the former NER area.

The measurement of each line started at a point where a cast-iron post bearing the word "Zero" was erected.

The exact centre of York station, on the present-day platform 5, was the zero point for ten lines, which meant the zero post bore ten identifying plates. These were:

LO. LP. - Longlands Loop (down), from Longlands Junction, Northallerton, on the York and Newcastle, to the Leeds Northern line. Opened in 1901.

M.W. & B. - Market Weighton and Beverley, from Market Weighton, at the end of the York and Market Weighton line to the Hull and Scarborough line at Beverley. Opened in 1865, closed in 1965.

MIC. BR. - Micklefield Branch, from Church Fenton, on the York and North Midland line to the Leeds and Selby line at Micklefield. Opened in 1869.

R. CV. - Raskelf Curve, from Pilmoor, on the York and Newcastle line, to the Thirsk and Malton line. Opened in 1871, closed in 1959.

S. BR. - Sherburn Branch, from Sherburn Junction on the York and North Midland line, to the Leeds and Selby line. Opened in 1839.

Y. & H. - York and Harrogate, from Poppleton Junction on the York and Newcastle line, to Harrogate. Opened in 1848.

Y. & M.W. - York and Market Weighton, from Bootham Junction, on the York and Scarborough line, to Market Weighton. Opened in 1847, closed in 1965.

Y. & N. - York and Newcastle, from York to Newcastle. Opened in 1841, 1844, 1868, 1871.

Y. & N.M. - York and North Midland, from York to Normanton. Opened in 1839, 1840.

Y. & S. - York and Scarborough, from Waterworks Junction, York, to Scarborough. Opened in 1845.

Although most of these were short connecting lines, the list demonstrates the importance of the NER.

It was formed in July, 1854, when it controlled several important main lines. By taking over other companies it created a near monopoly in the region.

This didn't always please the customers who felt they were being palmed off with "pretty duff coaches and were charged too much," says Mr Howat.

However, the NER was hugely beneficial to York. This was a time when the railways had an impact on almost every walk of life and employed thousands of people.

"It was said you would find every profession and skill except midwifery and undertaking on the railways."

At first York lost out, Mr Howat explains. "Newcastle was probably more important than York for many years. Board meetings were held at Newcastle."

But the balance of power shifted when the magnificent NER headquarters were built on Station Rise, York, in 1906.

The NER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway in a massive shake-up of the industry which came into effect on January 1, 1924.

Mr Howat does not describe himself as a rail enthusiast "in what I would call the classic sense". But he always enjoyed family holidays in the Dales, travelling by rail.

His railway career lasted 33 years, however, and he rose to take charge of InterCity marketing.

In the early days, as a trainee, he found he had time to spare and started to root around in the basement of Station Rise, looking through the archives to trace the history of the Ryedale railway.

Those efforts were forgotten as he pursued his career. He only found time to return to the project in the 1980s. The result was The Railways Of Ryedale And The Vale Of Mowbray, a book published in 1988.

Mr Howat is now finishing a new edition of the book which is due out in September.

It charts the origins of two railway routes, with a combined length of 41 miles: the Thirsk and Malton, opened in 1853, and the Gilling and Pickering, which opened in three stages between 1871 and 1875.

While Mr Howat had to rely on the records for most of his account, he was there himself for the story's end. "Closure of the line, except for the three and a half miles between Amotherby and Scarborough Road, was announced for August 10, 1964, with the last day of operations on the preceding Friday, August 7," he wrote.

"In the weeks leading up to the closure several articles appeared in the press.

One article read: "The guard's van thumps over the single track behind a diesel locomotive and a clamorous string of goods wagons with a disconcerting backward and forward bucking action combined with a sway from side to side...

"The train does not run through the countryside; it runs among it."

Updated: 08:53 Monday, August 09, 2004