Gascoigne Wood Junction railway station
Gascoigne Wood Junction railway station was a railway station near Sherburn-in-Elmet in North Yorkshire, England. It was originally opened as a junction station, enabling transfers for passengers between trains. It was later a private halt station for the staff who worked at the Gascoigne Wood marshalling yard. It opened in 1839, and was closed, renamed and re-opened several times before closing completely in 1959. The station was from Leeds New Station, and from . History The station, called York Junction, was originally opened in 1839 at a point near to where the Leeds and Selby Railway (L&S) crossed over the York & North Midland Railway (Y&NMR). A north to east curve was built linking the two railways with a station at the east end of the junction. This was closed in 1840 when the L&S became part of the Y&NMR, and traffic for Leeds was diverted to run via and Methley into Leeds Hunslet Lane. Whilst Hunslet Lane was nearer to the centre of Leeds than the Marsh Lane terminus of the L&S, the route to Hunslet Lane from Gascoigne Wood Junction was longer. In December 1850, the station was re-opened as Old Milford Junction (or Old Junction), to allow services to work from the station to Leeds, which was three times per day. The locomotive had no access to a turntable, and rather than turn it on the triangle, it simply worked tender backwards towards Leeds. Until the line between and opened in 1869, services between York and Leeds that were not going through Burton Salmon, were required to reverse at Old Junction. As the line westwards towards Micklefield from Old Junction was on an uphill gradient of 1-in-130, often trains would be split, then reformed between Micklefield and stations (which was on a level section). In April 1867, it was renamed from Old Junction to Milford Old Junction, and on 1 November 1879, the station was renamed again, this time to Gascoigne Wood Junction. Gascoigne Wood was east of Leeds New Station, west of and to Milford Junction to the south, and the same distance to Sherburn-in-Elmet in the North. The station was located at the western end of the marshalling yard built at Gascoigne Wood for the transfer of coal trains. Land had been bought up surrounding the station, and the yard was built around 1907, when the station was re-opened as a private staff halt, though permission was granted for the families of railway persons working at Gascoigne Wood to use the station. A map from the 1890s shows the station having two platforms with access to all three lines west, south and north, however, the map of 1950 shows a single platform accessible only from the Leeds line. The yard at Gascoigne Wood was the largest on the NER when it opened, with over of sidings. One signal box was adjacent to the west end of the station, whilst at the eastern end, another signal box was located at Hagg Lane crossing. Combined, along with