York is one of the most important railway junction stations on the British railway network, approximately halfway between London and Edinburgh; it is also a few miles north of the point where the Cross Country and Trans-Pennine routes via Leeds leave the ECML. The junction was historically a major site for rolling stock manufacture, maintenance and repair.
History
The first York railway station was a temporary wooden building on Queen Street outside the walls of the city, opened in 1839 by the York and North Midland Railway. It was succeeded in 1841, inside the walls, by what is now York old railway station. In due course, the irksome requirement that through trains between London and Newcastle needed to reverse out of the old York station in order to continue their journey necessitated the construction of a new through station outside the walls. This was the present station, designed by the North Eastern Railway architects Thomas Prosser and William Peachey, which opened in 1877. It had 13 platforms and was at that time the largest station in the world. As part of... Read More