Woodhouse railway station

Woodhouse railway station, is a railway station serving Woodhouse and Woodhouse Mill in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The station is 5.25 miles (8 km) east of Sheffield station on the Sheffield to Lincoln Line.

Not to be confused with Mansfield Woodhouse railway station or Quorn and Woodhouse railway station.

Woodhouse
The station in 2005
Location
Place	Woodhouse
Local authority	City of Sheffield
Coordinates	53.36382°N 1.35753°W / 53.36382; -1.35753
Grid reference	SK428854
Operations
Station code	WDH
Managed by	Northern Trains
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	33,890
2015/16	33,602
2016/17	33,522
2017/18	34,542
2018/19	33,396
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Travel South Yorkshire
Zone	Sheffield
History
Original company	Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
October 1850	First station opened as Woodhouse Junction
11 October 1875	Resited 640 m west and renamed Woodhouse
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Woodhouse from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The next station east was Waleswood, until its closure in 1955, and is now Kiveton Park. The next station west is Darnall. Beighton railway station, originally adjacent to the junction with the Midland Railway, but rebuilt by the MS&LR when it began work on its "Derbyshire Lines", was until 1954 the next station south.

Woodhouse Mill, Orgreave and Fence were served by a station on the North Midland Railway named Woodhouse Mill.

From 1955 until removal in 1981, the Barnsley Junction-Rotherwood segment of the Manchester – Sheffield – Wath electrification terminated slightly west of the Woodhouse station platforms, within sight of the station.[1]

History

The present station is the second built to serve the community of Woodhouse, then separate from and not under the governance of Sheffield. The railway line between Sheffield and Gainsborough was proposed by the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway (S&LJR); upon authorisation of this line in August 1846, the S&LJR amalgamated with other railways to form the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR).

The first section of the S&LJR line, between Sheffield and Beighton (on the Midland Railway) opened on 12 February 1849; the second section, which left the first near Woodhouse and ran to Gainsborough, opened on 17 July 1849. A station at the junction was opened by the MS&LR in October 1850, named Woodhouse Junction.[2][3][4]

The original station was at the bottom of Junction Lane, adjacent to the present Woodhouse Junction, formerly East Junction, signal box and was built to serve the communities of Beighton, then within Derbyshire, and Woodhouse. This station was closed on 11 October 1875 and replaced on the same day by a new station 700 yards (640 m) to the west, named Woodhouse.[4] The new station was one of the earliest examples of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's Double Pavilion designs at its present location.

Platforms

The current station has two platforms; what looks like a third disused and overgrown platform on the Down Side (Sheffield bound side) is a former Goods loading bay, whilst on the Up side (Worksop bound), again what looks like a disused platform is actually the truncated former Up Goods line that ran behind the Up Main platform.[5][6] A number of goods sidings exist immediately to the east, which see sporadic use by engineers trains.

Colliery lines

Woodhouse was the hub of two colliery branches: to the west a branch to Orgreave Colliery, which was extended to reach Treeton Colliery under the MS&LR (Extension to London) Act 1893 and opened on 10 October 1898, and, to the east, from Woodhouse East Junction, the Birley Branch, which served the Birley Collieries, belonging to the Sheffield Coal Company.

Facilities

The station is unmanned and has no ticket provision - these must be bought in advance of travel or on the train. The buildings on both sides remain intact and each have waiting areas within. Train running information is provided by a customer help point on platform 1, display screens and timetable posters. Step-free access is only available to platform 1, as the footbridge from there to platform 2 has steps.[7]

Services

Northern Trains operates an hourly westbound service to Sheffield and an hourly eastbound service to Gainsborough Central. At peak times, a small number of extra trains run to Lincoln and Leeds. On Saturdays, three of the Gainsborough trains continue through to Cleethorpes via Brigg.[8]

A more limited service runs from the station on Sundays, with an hourly service westbound to Sheffield, with some trains continuing to Huddersfield, whilst seven trains run eastbound to Retford and Lincoln.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Darnall		Northern Trains Sheffield-Gainsborough Central		Kiveton Bridge
Historical railways
Darnall Line and station open		Great Central Railway Derbyshire Lines		Beighton Line open, station closed

References

1. Johnson, EM. Scenes from the Past 29 (Part Three): Woodhead The Electric Railway. Stockport: Foxline. p. 140. ISBN 1-870119-81-9.
2. Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. p. 160. CN 8983.
3. Dow, George (1959). Great Central, Volume One: The Progenitors, 1813-1863. Shepperton: Ian Allan. pp. 122, 127. ISBN 0-7110-1468-X.
4. Butt, RVJ (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 254. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
5. Scenes from the past:43 Sheffield Victoria to Chesterfield Central: Vol 1 p. 51 by Ken Grainger
6. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/woodhouse/index2.shtml
7. Woodhouse station facilities National Rail Enquiries
8. Table 30 National Rail timetable, May 2019

Further reading

• Milnes, Roger. "East of Sheffield". Forward. Great Central Railway Society (16). ISSN 0141-4488.
• Grainger, Ken. Scenes from the past:43 Sheffield Victoria to Chesterfield Central, The 'Derbyshire Lines' of the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway Part One ISBN 1-870119-83-5

External links

• "Woodhouse (WDH)". National Rail enquiries. – station information