Last Halt At Denaby

Little Train Makes History On New Year’s Eve

At 2.23 p.m. on New Year’s Eve the last train to stop at Denaby Halt pulled up at this tiny “station” on the Dearne Valley Railway.

No Footprints

The virgin snow was proof of the fact that nobody got on and nobody got off “as usual.” For the past 14 years there has been an average of only one passenger per fortnight.

The shelter for this “passenger” has been an old railway coach, with no wheels and no glass in the windows.

On New Year’s Eve the snow lay thick on the line and a cold wind a chilled the air as our reporter clapped his hands and stamped his feet in wait for the one coach train (the “Push-and-Pull” as it is knownlocally) which does the 20-mile run between Edlington and ‘Wakefield.

At precisely 2-23 the little train chugged round a bend in the line and halted for the last time at Denaby Halt.

This must be a unique acquisition for British Railways. No tickets are issued at the halts’ along the line; the traveller boards the train and a conductor comes round and punches his ticket in the same way as a bus conductor serves his passengers. On the up journey from Wakefield the engine Edlington hauls the single coach. On the way back the coach leads the way with its own motor and driving gear.

Denaby Halt has been in operation since 1915 and the line itself has been open over 40 Years.