York engine sheds and locomotive works

There were a number of engine sheds and railway works located in York. The large York North engine shed became the National Railway Museum in 1975.

Overview

Engine sheds

The following engine sheds were located in York:

York North steam shed 1878 – 1967
York South steam shed 1847 – 1967
York Diesel Depot 1967 – 1982
York Layerthorpe 1913 – 1981
Siemens Train Maintenance Centre 2007 – present day
Rowntrees 1909 – 1987
Railway works

To get a complete picture of activity in the York area the three railway works located in the city are also included in this survey as at one time they have been responsible for the maintenance of locomotives.

Queen Street locomotive works
York Wagon works
Holgate Road carriage works
Railway companies

Prior to 1923 several railway companies ran trains to York. By 1853 the North Eastern Railway was the dominant operator and by the 1870s the other significant operators were:

After 1923 the North Eastern Railway and Great Northern Railway were taken over by the London and North Eastern Railway which remained the dominant operator in the area. The other three companies became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway. Prior to 1922 the Great Eastern Railway had come to an arrangement with the NER who had worked their trains through from Lincoln.

York North

York North was opened by the North Eastern Railway in 1878 the year after the current York station was opened. With the relocation of the station outside of the city walls, it made operational sense to have an engine shed at the north end of the station as many trains changed locomotives at York. It also had good access to the freight yards and the carriage sheds located at Clifton.
On opening, the shed consisted of three roundhouses each with a 45-foot turntable linked to a coaling stage.
In 1891 the original 45-foot turntable in no 2 roundhouse was replaced by a 50-foot turntable. A new water tank was provided in 1909. In 1911 a fourth roundhouse was built and the two existing 45-foot turntables were replaced with electrically operated turntables. All these improvements were complete by 1915.
In 1923 operation of the shed became the responsibility of the London and North Eastern Railway.
In 1932 further modernisation took place with the fitting of a 70-foot Mundt type turntable built by Ipswich firm Ransomes & Rapier and the installation of a mechanical coaling plant. Prior to this the coaling would have been done by hand.
The North shed eventually contained four roundhouses. Locomotives were stabled around these under cover and would move off the shed onto their next duty. Normal procedure was that arriving locomotives would have their ash cleared out from the firebox before being coaled and watered in anticipation of the next duty. If a locomotive required repair, the coaling and watering was sometimes done after the repair had been effected.
As the organisational structure of the railways changed in 1923 with The Grouping and with nationalisation in 1948 so the importance of York North shed rose and York South shed fell.
In April 1942 the shed was hit by a bomb during an air raid during the Baedeker Blitz and a number of locomotives were destroyed.
The British Railways depot code allotted in 1949 was 50A. These codes are allocated to locomotives to show the depot responsible for the maintenance of the locomotive.
Rebuilding of the shed followed in 1954 with roundhouses 1 and 2 being demolished and replaced by a straight shed. Roundhouses 3 and 4 were re-roofed and the 70-foot turntable in roundhouse 4 was renewed.
The roundhouses were closed to steam traction in 1967 and the straight shed became York diesel depot. In March 1970 an attempt was made to demolish the mechanical coaling plant, but the explosives used left the structure leaning over. Attempts were made to pull it over with hawsers attached to locomotives, but they proved fruitless and it was only in May that a crane equipped with a wrecking ball finished the job.
Following renovation of the roundhouses, the premises were occupied by the National Railway Museum which opened in 1975. When the diesel depot closed in 1983 this was also taken over by the museum and part of this area is still used to overhaul preserved locomotives and rolling stock.

1923 allocation

The allocation of locomotives to York North covered many classes of locomotive, ranging from small shunting engines to main line locomotives capable of hauling major express services. The table below shows the allocation on 1 January 1923. The LNER locomotive classification has been used with the North Eastern Railway locomotive classification in brackets. No Great Northern class numbers have been included.

Class	Wheel Arrangement	Railway	Number allocated
A7	4-6-2T	NER	2
B15	4-6-0	NER	6
B16	4-6-0	NER	16
C6	4-4-2	NER	4
C7	4-4-2	NER	13
–	4-4-2?	NER	1
D20	4-4-0	NER	15
D21	4-4-0	NER	7
E5	2-4-0	NER	15
-	2-4-0	NER	1
-	2-4-0	NER	1
G6	0-4-4T	NER	5
–	0-6-0	NER	6
J21	0-6-0	NER	8
J24	0-6-0	NER	1
J26	0-6-0	NER	11
J27	0-6-0	NER	5
J71	0-6-0T	NER	11
J72	0-6-0T	NER	9
J77	0-6-0T	NER	6
X3	2-2-4T	NER	1

The following Great Northern Railway locomotives were allocated to the area. Before 1923 these would have been looked after at York South but after that date they were looked after at York North. Including these, York North had an allocation of 143 engines.

Class	Wheel Arrangement	Railway	Number allocated
C2	4-4-2	GNR	3
D2	4-4-0	GNR	8
D3	4-6-0	GNR	3

1943 allocation

The Second World War saw the highest number of locomotives allocated to York North. This was the allocation in March 1943:

Class	Wheel Arrangement	Railway	Number allocated
A1	4-6-2	LNER	5
A7	4-6-2T	NER	5
B16	4-6-0	NER	69
C1	4-4-2	GNR	2
C7	4-4-2	NER	10
D20	4-4-0	LNER	4
D49	4-4-0	LNER	13
J21	0-6-0	NER	13
J71	0-6-0T	NER	14
J72	0-6-0T	NER	11
J77	0-6-0T	NER	9
V2	2-6-2T	LNER	20
Y8	0-4-0T	NER	1
D	4-4-0	SECR	2

Of special note is the 2 Southern Railway D class locomotives – it was not unusual for foreign locomotives to be transferred around the country. There is some doubt about what these locomotives are. Hoole states they are D class 4-4-0s from the London Brighton and South Coast Railway whilst Appleby states they are D class 4-4-4 locomotives. The only southern railway D class engine was a former South Eastern and Chatham 4-4-0

1964 allocation

By 1964 there were a number of diesel locomotives as well as steam locomotives. Four years later the steam locomotives had been withdrawn.

Class	Wheel Arrangement	Railway	Number allocated
4MT	2-6-0	LMS	4
A1	4-6-2	LNER	13
B1	4-6-0	LNER	11
B16	4-6-0	NER	5
J27	0-6-0	NER	2
K1	2-6-0	LNER	18
V2	2-6-2	LNER	26
WD	2-8-0	WD	7
9F	2-10-0	BR	8
40	1CO-CO1	BR	33
03	0-6-0DM	BR	15
04	0-6-0DM	BR	4
08	0-6-0DE	BR	15
24	Bo-Bo	BR	4
25	Bo-Bo	BR	1

Note that almost all the small tank engines such as the J77 class have been replaced by diesel shunters of class 03,04 and class 08. 42 years after the first survey, York still had an allocation of NER locomotives – 2 x J27 and 5 x B16. As well as the main line diesels there were some powerful steam freight locomotives allocated to York such as the WD and 9F class. Total allocation at this time was 166 locomotives.
LMS – London Midland and Scottish
WD – War Department
DE = Diesel Electric
DM – Diesel Mechanical