York engine sheds and locomotive works facts for kids

York has always been an important place for trains in England. For a long time, it was home to many engine sheds (where trains were kept and fixed) and railway works (factories where trains were built or heavily repaired). One of the biggest engine sheds, York North, even became the famous National Railway Museum in 1975!

Train Homes and Repair Shops in York

York had several places where trains were looked after and repaired. Think of them as garages and workshops for giant railway machines!

Engine Sheds: Where Trains Rested

Engine sheds were like parking lots and basic repair shops for locomotives. Here are some of the main ones in York:

• York North steam shed (1878 – 1967): This was a big one for steam trains.
• York South steam shed (1847 – 1967): An older shed, also for steam trains.
• York Diesel Depot (1967 – 1982): For diesel trains after steam trains were retired.
• York Layerthorpe (1913 – 1981): A smaller shed on a local railway line.
• Siemens Train Maintenance Centre (2007 – today): A modern facility for newer trains.
• Rowntrees (1909 – 1987): Even the famous chocolate factory had its own engine shed for its industrial trains!

Railway Works: Train Factories

Railway works were much larger places where trains were built, rebuilt, or had major repairs. York had three important ones:

• Queen Street locomotive works
• York Wagon works
• Holgate Road carriage works

Railway Companies: Who Ran the Trains

Before 1923, many different railway companies ran trains to York. The North Eastern Railway (NER) was the biggest one by 1853. Other important companies included:

• Midland Railway
• Great Northern Railway
• Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
• Great Eastern Railway
• London and North Western Railway
• Great Central Railway

After 1923, many of these companies joined together in a big change called "The Grouping." The NER and Great Northern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), which then became the main train company in York. Other companies joined the London Midland & Scottish Railway.

York North: From Shed to Museum

The North Eastern Railway opened York North in 1878, a year after the main York station we know today was built. It made sense to have a train shed at the north end of the station because many trains changed locomotives in York. It was also close to freight yards and carriage sheds.

When it first opened, the shed had three roundhouses. A roundhouse is a circular building where trains are parked around a central turntable. A turntable is a spinning platform that turns a train around so it can go in a different direction or into a specific parking spot. Each roundhouse had a 45-foot turntable and a place to load coal onto the trains.

Over the years, York North grew and got more modern.

• In 1891, a bigger 50-foot turntable was added.
• In 1911, a fourth roundhouse was built, and the old turntables were replaced with electric ones.
• In 1923, the LNER took over the shed.
• In 1932, a huge 70-foot turntable and a mechanical coaling plant were installed. Before this, coal was loaded onto trains by hand!

The North shed eventually had four roundhouses. When trains arrived, their ash would be cleaned out, and they would be refilled with coal and water, ready for their next journey. If a train needed repairs, this was sometimes done after the repairs.

During World War II, in April 1942, the shed was hit by a bomb during an air raid, and some trains were destroyed.

In 1954, parts of the shed were rebuilt. Roundhouses 1 and 2 were taken down and replaced with a straight shed. Roundhouses 3 and 4 were given new roofs, and the 70-foot turntable was replaced.

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  In this 1961 view, you can see different types of steam locomotives and the large mechanical coaling plant.

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  A large steam locomotive, A3 Pacific No. 60056 'Centenary', is near the 70-foot turntable in 1960.

The roundhouses stopped being used for steam trains in 1967. The straight shed then became the York diesel depot. In 1970, they tried to blow up the old mechanical coaling plant, but it just leaned over! It took a crane with a wrecking ball to finally knock it down.

After being renovated, the roundhouses became the National Railway Museum, which opened in 1975. When the diesel depot closed in 1983, the museum also took over that area. Today, part of it is still used to fix up old preserved trains.

Trains at York North: A Changing Fleet

Over the years, York North was home to many different types of trains, from small shunting engines (which move trains around yards) to large express locomotives (which pull fast passenger trains).

In 1923, when the LNER took over, York North had a mix of steam locomotives, mostly from the North Eastern Railway. After 1923, some Great Northern Railway locomotives also moved to York North. In total, York North had 143 engines at this time.

By 1943, during World War II, York North had its highest number of trains. It had many powerful steam locomotives, including some from other parts of the country that were moved around during the war.

By 1964, things were changing. York North still had many steam locomotives, but it also had a growing number of diesel locomotives. Just four years later, all the steam locomotives were gone, replaced by diesels. You can see how the smaller steam shunting engines were replaced by diesel shunters.

York South: The First Train Home

The very first engine sheds in York were built at the York South site. These sheds were designed for the original York station, which was a "dead end" station inside the city walls. This meant trains had to back out to leave, which took extra time. Because of this, a new, bigger station was built outside the city walls in the 1870s.

The oldest shed at York South was a straight shed, built around 1840. It was used until 1963. The York and North Midland Railway also built sheds here. Two roundhouses were built in 1849 and 1851, each with 16 stalls and 42-foot turntables. One of these roundhouses was damaged by fire in 1921.

A third, larger roundhouse was built in 1863. It was 172 feet wide and could hold 18 locomotives. This one closed in 1961 and was taken down in 1963.

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  This picture from 2012 shows an inspection pit at one of the old York South roundhouses.

Once the bigger York North shed opened in 1878, York South became less important. However, some trains still stayed there. For a while, visiting trains from other railway companies used the Queen Street site, but then they returned to York South in 1925.

After the buildings were demolished in 1963, the site was mostly empty. In 2012, the old turntable pits and parts of the shed foundations were dug up before a new Network Rail signalling centre was built there.

York Diesel Depot: The Modern Era

After the last steam roundhouses at York North closed in 1967, the remaining diesel locomotives were kept and maintained in the straight shed that had been built in 1954.

This depot was home to many different types of diesel locomotives, including the famous Class 55 "Deltic" locomotives from 1979 until they were retired in 1982. These powerful engines used to pull express trains on the East Coast Main Line.

The depot officially closed in January 1982, but trains were still parked in the nearby sidings for about another year and a half. Today, this area is where a modern depot for Trans-Pennine Express trains was built in 2005.

York Layerthorpe: A Small Local Line

There was a small engine shed on the Derwent Valley Light Railway at York (Layerthorpe) railway station. This was a single-track shed, first made of wood, then later of corrugated iron.

The railway had a few special trains in the 1920s, like a "rail lorry" and "railbuses" (which were like buses on train wheels!). However, most of the freight trains were pulled by locomotives from the main railway companies.

Later, the Derwent Valley Light Railway bought its own diesel shunting locomotives to move freight. They even bought a steam locomotive called "Joem" for a short time to run passenger trips.

The railway line closed on September 27, 1981. Today, there are no remains of the shed or station, and the old track is now a cycle path.

Siemens Train Maintenance Depot: Keeping New Trains Running

The Leeman Road railway depot in York was built between 2005 and 2007 for Siemens. Its job is to maintain the new Class 185 diesel multiple units (modern passenger trains) that are used on the Transpennine routes.

Train Building and Repair Factories

York Queen Street Works: From Building to Museum

Queen Street Works around 1850. This map shows the railway works on the left.

In 1839, a small repair shop opened on Queen Street. It grew quickly and by 1849, it was repairing many locomotives. In the early days of railways, trains needed a lot of repairs because the technology was still new. This factory also built and repaired carriages and wagons. By 1864, it was making 100 wagons a week!

Most of the locomotives built here were put together by other companies, not by the York and North Midland Railway itself. In 1853, this railway joined with others to form the North Eastern Railway.

The North Eastern Railway decided to build new, better facilities for wagons in 1865 and for carriages at Holgate Road in the late 1870s.

The Queen Street works had many different workshops, including places for building and painting trains, and shops for working with metal.

Locomotive repairs continued here until 1905. Later, some of the old workshops were turned into an engine shed. This shed was used by trains from other railway companies that visited York.

In 1925, after the 100th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the LNER opened a railway museum on this site, using the old workshops. This museum closed in 1973 to prepare for the opening of the National Railway Museum in 1975.

Many of the original buildings at Queen Street still exist today, and some are used as a gym.

York Wagon Works: Building Freight Cars

The York Wagon Works was built by the North Eastern Railway in 1867. It replaced an older wagon shop at Queen Street. This factory built and repaired railway wagons (freight cars). Wagon manufacturing stopped here in the 1960s.

Today, the works are used by Freightliner (UK) to maintain their freight trains.

York Carriage Works: Making Passenger Coaches

The Holgate Road carriage works started being built in 1880. It was meant to be a bigger and better place to build carriages than the old Queen Street site. The factory began making carriages in 1884 and was expanded a lot around 1897-1900. It continued to be modernized over the years.

This factory was owned by several different railway companies and then by private companies after British Rail was privatized.

The works closed in 1996 because there weren't enough orders for new carriages. From 1998 to 2002, another company used it to make freight wagons, but then it closed again. Later, Network Rail used parts of the works.

Shunt Turns: Moving Trains Around

A "shunt turn" is the name for a job done by a shunting locomotive. Shunting locomotives are small engines that move trains around railway yards, putting them in the right order or moving them to different tracks. Some shunt turns involved moving trains between different yards.

Here are some of the places around York where shunting locomotives used to work:

• York Station (moving trains around the platforms)
• York North and South Depots (moving trains within the sheds)
• Clifton Carriage Sheds (moving passenger carriages)
• York freight yards (moving freight wagons)
• Dringhouses Yard
• Layerthorpe Goods Yards
• Rowntrees (at the chocolate factory)
• Skelton Yard
• Carriage Works and Wagon Works (moving trains in and out of the factories)
• Branches yard
• Holgate Down Sidings

Today, York doesn't have many dedicated shunting locomotives. Usually, the train's main locomotive does any shunting needed.

Routes for York Train Drivers

In the days of steam trains, drivers based in York usually drove as far north as Newcastle and south to Peterborough or Grantham. When diesel trains came along and could go faster, York drivers started driving all the way to London King's Cross because they could do it within a typical 8-hour work shift.

For passenger trains, York drivers covered many local lines, including those to Bridlington, Hull, Scarborough, and Whitby. They usually drove as far west as Leeds.

For goods (freight) trains, drivers went a bit further, to places like Grimsby, Leicester, Manchester, and Burton-on-Trent.

Rowntrees: Chocolate and Trains

One of York's most famous industries is the Rowntrees chocolate factory. This factory had its own railway connection off the Foss Islands Branch Line. It even had its own platform, and trains served the factory until 1988.

The factory, which is now part of the Nestle group, opened in 1909. At one point, it had seven miles of railway track within its grounds, plus a small 18-inch narrow gauge line!

The factory had its own engine sheds. An older single-track shed was near the Haxby Road roundabout. In 1964, a new, modern two-track shed was built at the northern end of the site.

Rowntrees used a number of its own steam and then diesel locomotives to move materials and products around the factory. These included small steam engines like "Newton" and "Swansea," and later diesel engines like "No. 1" and "No. 3." One of their diesel engines, "No. 3," is now preserved and can be seen at the Derwent Valley Light Railway!

Today, neither of the engine sheds at Rowntrees have survived.

Images for kids

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  In this 1961 view prominent locomotives are V2 2-6-2 No. 60858, A1 4-6-2 No. 60129 'Guy Mannering' and K1 2-6-0 No. 62005. Note the mechanised Coaling Plant.

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  A3 Pacific No. 60056 'Centenary' is on the line to the 70-foot turntable at the end of the Yard. Beyond is the main ECML coming away from the north end of York Station alongside the Clifton Carriage Sidings. In the left background can be seen an ex-North Eastern A8 4-6-2T.11 April 1960

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  Inspection pit at one of the former York South roundhouses. April 2012.

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  Queen Street Works c.1850 (left). South of York-Normanton mainline ; green lines are boundaries