Spurn Point Military Railway

The Spurn Point Military Railway[note 1] was a railway line in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It extended for 3 3⁄4 miles (6 km), connecting Kilnsea with Spurn Point in the Humber Estuary.[3] The line was built to supply military installations along this stretch of coast.

Spurn Point Military Railway
The course of the old trackbed looking south.
Overview
LocaleHolderness
Dates of operation1915[1]–1951[2]
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length3 3⁄4 miles (6 km)
Spurn Head railway track embedded in concrete near the lighthouse in 2017, 66 years after closure

Spurn Point is a narrow spit of land which protrudes south and south-westwards from the eastern edge of Yorkshire into the Humber Estuary.[4][5] It is shifting and unstable, being mostly composed of sand and shingle.

Opening and operation

Spurn Point had been militarised in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars. When the First World War was declared, the number of military personnel on Spurn Point increased greatly overnight.[6][note 2] The War Department decided that a railway line between Kilnsea and Spurn Point would be the best option for a supply chain[7] and so purchased the land from the local land-owning family.[8]

The line was constructed by C. J. Wills and Company with rails and other secondhand materials from the Great Central and Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railways. The contractors also brought five standard gauge steam locomotives (tank engines) to help build the line, one of which was left behind after to work the line.[9] It opened in 1915 with the rails extending onto the jetty at Spurn Point.[10] Transhipment of goods and materials from boats would then supply the fortifications and batteries along the stretch of railway up to Kilnsea. Rail transport was chosen as the roads in the area were narrow and twisting[10] and supplies could be easily delivered by boat to the jetty. Whilst the jetty was only constructed to serve the railway building efforts, when the contractors left, the War Department took over that too and left it in-situ.[8]

Most trains were operated by small locomotives but some diesel and petrol railcars were used too, especially after the only resident locomotive (Kenyon - a Vulcan Foundry built engine) was scrapped in 1929.[11] Local people who lived on the point used windpower to 'sail' small home made bogie wagons up and down the railway,[12][13] with some notable crashes off the rails and into trains coming the other way.[3] The railway was also home to an adapted Itala racing car with flanged wheels that was capable of going at 60 miles (97 km) per hour.[11] Guns were also transported along the line, with at least one incident where the train broke down at the narrowest point and the train was buffeted by the Humber on one side and the North Sea on the other.[14]

The railway was isolated from the rest of the mainland railway network[15] and was not furnished with stations. The line had a two-track engine shed a short distance north of the lighthouse.[16]

Closure

The line closed in 1951 as a post-war time economy, being replaced by a road, which ironically was built with materials brought in by the railway. Spurn Head was also demilitarised in stages between 1956 and 1959,[17] though many Cold War features were still extant further up the coast.

Apart from some small sections of rails sunk into tarmac and concrete, very little is left to show that this railway existed. The road sections with rails embedded in them get misaligned with the storms that batter the headland. This is what makes the remains of the railway look as if it is heading straight into the water.

The concrete from disused roads, buildings and the railway are now seen to be littering the beaches on Spurn and making it unsightly.[18]

Notes
  1. Widely known as the Spurn Head Railway and occasionally the Spurn to Kilnsea Railway. As its construction was authorised and funded by the War Department and its traffic was military related, the title of Spurn Point Military Railway has been retained.
  2. The BBC reference mentions that the track was narrow gauge; every other source, including several books, maintain that the railway was standard gauge. The photo in the infobox of the leftover line seems to reflect this, as do the photographs of an unmodified LNER Y8 0-4-0T locomotive No 559 being transferred to the line in 1940.

References
  1. May, V J. "Spurn Head" (PDF). defra.gov.uk. p. 3. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  2. Grantham, Andrew (24 June 2009). "Remains of the Spurn Head Railway". Andrew Grantham. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  3. Redman, Ronald (1979). Railway Byways in Yorkshire. Clapham: Dalesman Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-85206-556-3.
  4. "Spurn and its railway". NLoS. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  5. "The line on an interactive rail map". Rail Map Online. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  6. "World War One: Spurn Point's military relics at sea's mercy". BBC News. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  7. "Spurn Railway". Skeals. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  8. Mason 1990, p. 51.
  9. Jones, Robin (2012). Britain's bizarre railways. Wellington: Halsgrove. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-85704-022-0.
  10. Historic England. "Spurn Point Military Railway (931916)". PastScape. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  11. Bates, Chris (2007). "The Spurn Head Railway". In Bairstow, Martin (ed.). Railways in East Yorkshire Volume 3. Farsley: Bairstow. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-871944-32-7.
  12. "Spurn Head Railway". Railway Magazine. Vol. LXXXVI no. 522. December 1940. pp. 654–655. ISSN 0033-8923.
  13. "Spurn Head Railway". Railway Magazine. Vol. 88 no. 540. December 1942. p. 200. ISSN 0033-8923.
  14. Thomas, Leslie (December 2013). "Spurn Head". Sutton & Wawne Museum. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  15. Duck, Robert (2015). On The Edge - Coastlines of Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-0-7486-9762-5.
  16. Griffiths, Roger; Smith, Paul (2000). The Directory of British Engine Sheds and Principal Locomotive Servicing Points: 2 North Midlands, Northern England and Scotland. OPC Railprint. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-86093-548-3. OCLC 59558605.
  17. Scott-Morgan 1980, p. 56.
  18. "Spurn national nature reserve; new wildlife visitors centre" (PDF). Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. 16 December 2015. p. 42. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 25 February 2016.

Sources
  • Mason, P.G. (1990). Lost Railways of East Yorkshire. Driffield: Wold Publications. ISBN 0-9518832-1-6.
  • Scott-Morgan, John (1980). British Independent Light Railways. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-7933-2.

Further reading
  • Hartley, Kenneth E.; Frost, Howard M. (1981) [1976]. The Spurn Head Railway. Withernsea: Lunart Productions. ISBN 978-0-906971-05-5.
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