Darnall railway station is on the

Sheffield to Lincoln Line Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and ...

and was built in 1849 to serve Darnall, a community about from the centre of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, and which later became a suburb of the city. As of March 2020, Darnall is the least used railway station in the county of South Yorkshire.

History

The station was built by the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...

(M.S.& L.R.) with two platforms flanking the main lines. The main station building, on the

Cleethorpes Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England with a population of 38,372 in 2020. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then develo ...

-bound side, contained the usual facilities, and was situated at the top of Station Road; a waiting shelter on the

-bound platform gave passengers some comfort. Widening took place in the area just before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and two goods lines were laid around the back of the platforms. This was to increase capacity of the line and aid the movement of coal traffic towards

Immingham Dock The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the larges ...

s, opened in 1912. This work required the removal of Darnall tunnel about to the east of the station. The tracks through Darnall were

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

from 1955 to 1981, though only to allow electrically hauled goods trains to reach Rotherwood Yard. There was also a chord line round to Attercliffe Junction on the former

South Yorkshire Railway The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster an ...

line towards and Doncaster until the late 1980s - this was removed after the closure of the old Darnall West

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

in 1989.

Present station

The station itself was rebuilt in 1928 to an

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular o ...

design, much favoured by the Great Central, which the M.S.& L.R. had become on the opening of its extension to London (Marylebone) in 1899. In this redesign the tracks in the centre of the layout, the "Down Main" (in the direction of Sheffield) and the "Up Goods" (in the direction of Cleethorpes) became the "Up" and "Down" main lines and served the platform faces; the original "Up Main" (in the direction of Cleethorpes) and the "Down Goods" (in the direction of Sheffield) became the "Up Goods" and "Down Goods" respectively. Darnall was one of the first stations in the area to be destaffed since tickets are now sold on board. The station is a shadow of its former self, with just a simple waiting shelter on its platform. Passenger numbers are low and rumours of closure regularly circulate.

Services

All services at Darnall are operated by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

using and DMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to via The station is also served by a single morning and evening peak hour service to and from . On Sundays, the station is served by an hourly service between Lincoln and Sheffield, with some services continuing to .

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darnall Railway Station Railway stations in Sheffield DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Woodhead Line Northern franchise railway stations 1849 establishments in England