Drapers Hull Yorkshire 20th July 1968

            I hesitated making this one public because it looks a pretty poor offering. However, on the grounds that I find it of interest plus it shows what was an important railway site in the Hull docks, I thought someone else out there might too. I am standing beneath the footbridge seen on the previous photo & the view is westwards with Albert Dock & William Wright Dock to the left with the River Humber beyond left. The trawler Arctic Freebooter is tied up in William Wright Dock - for discussion see below.

At one time the expanse of grassed area stretching off to the distance was a maze of railway tracks. The once very busy fish train traffic had been relinquished to the roads and by 1968 very little trackwork remained. 

The North Eastern Railway from Dairycoates ran on the left hand side serving the docks mentioned above and continued eastwards to English Street Goods & Humber Dock. In fact Hull's first station was on the Hull & Selby Railway that passed through here en route to its Railway Street terminus. The few remaining rails are these ex-NER tracks serving Drapers scrapyard and in fact there are two Stanier 8F steam locomotives waiting to enter the yard, possibly the ones seen in the photo before last, are in the centre distance.

The Hull & Barnsley Railway Neptune Street Branch from Springhead was on the right hand side. Prior to 1914 virtually no traffic was exchanged between these two competitors and although a through siding from Subway Junction in the vicinity of the square building on the right connected them it was kept gated and locked. Access to Drapers yard would still have been via this siding in 1968.

In the far distance the overbridge was built to give better road access to the docks as prior to its building the only route was through a narrow tunnel called Dairycoates Subway. Both subway & bridge gave access to the former St Andrew's Dock which is now filled in & partially built on. The square building by Subway Junction with what appear to be flags on the roof on the right of this view was the last herring smoking shed in Hull which, given Hull's long history in the fishing industry, perhaps should have been preserved. It wasn't and after many years of neglect was demolished at the end of the 1990s.

I should finish this caption by saying that today there is no railway within miles of here - the closest being the shunting neck by Dairycoates shed. Worse still the A63 trunk road has been built right through the middle of this view so 100s of trucks thunder away from Hull over the bones of the NER & HBR every day. 

The remains of the approach ramp to the road bridge in the distance are still there but with no railway to cross the bridge itself was demolished. The Subway is still there, now passing beneath the A63 but pedestrian only although hardly a very attractive prospect for them.

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Hull (show map)

Taken on: November 23, 2013

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