Kestrel Railway Books is delighted to have been asked by the North Eastern Railway Association (NERA) to publish its latest book on the line between Hull and Scarborough. The book is researched, written and printed to the same high standards that we have become used to with previous NERA publications.
The line opened in 1846-7 to serve an agricultural area adjacent to the East Riding coast, but soon developed a booming tourist trade for Bridlington and Filey. Tourism peaked around the early 1900s, but gradually declined to almost disappear by the late 1960s. Following the Beeching Report of 1963 on British Railways’ finances, the railway from Hull to Scarborough was extremely lucky to avoid complete closure. After a hard fight, common sense prevailed and the line was reprieved to become grant-aided from 1969. This was entirely justified as it now carries many more passengers than it did 100 years ago.
This new history covers the line’s story from its authorization, the architecture of its buildings and details of each station’s development. The traffic it carried is fully explained, and there are comprehensive chapters on train services, proposed railways to connect with it, signalling and level crossings, and how the line avoided complete closure. This A4 size book is printed on gloss paper and is casebound. There are 160 photos (40 in colour), maps, line drawings, tables and an appendix detailing the changes in signalling throughout its life.
