Electrification by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 1915-21 ITTL
ITTL
@fastmongrel and I have had the Company electrify a total of 240 route miles on 1,500V DC overhead between 1902 and the end of 1914, which is an average rate of 20 route miles per year.
In my case the 240 route miles consist of the 191¼ route miles that make up Phases 1 to 6 and about 50 miles of Phase 7 in the chart in Post 137.
The completed sections of Phase 7 were Rochdale - Todmorden - Milner Royd Junction - Dewsbury Junction - Wakefield Kirkgate: Milner Royd Junction - Halifax - Bradford Exchange: and the Dewsbury branch.
ITTL I think the L&YR would be able to complete the rest of Phase 7 (27½ miles from Wakefield Kirkgate to Goole Docks: 3¾ miles of branches around Goole; and 19½ miles of lines in the Halifax area) by the end of 1917 in spite of the Great War.
The point of this electrification was to save the Company money because electric traction was cheaper to operate than steam traction. ITTL the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway had electrified 293¼ route miles by the end of 1918 (instead of 51 IOTL) which approached 50% of its network so that the amount of money that the Company was saving by this time aught to be considerable. Therefore, in early 1919, the Company's board of directors authorised the implementation of Phase 8 and preparatory work to be done on Phase 9.
Phase 8 was completed by the end of 1921, which meant that the Company had electrified 363 route miles since the approval of the Liverpool to Southport scheme in 1902 and that 60% of the Company's 601¼ route miles that were open for traffic were being worked electrically.
Phase 9 was for the electrification of the lines from Daisy Hill, Hindley and Lostock Junction to Preston, including the branch to Horwich (Phase 9A) and Preston to Blackpool (by all 3 routes) and Fleetwood (Phase 9B). The lines in Phase 9B actually belonged to the Preston & Wyre Railway and Dock Company, a joint line owned by the LNWR and L&YR. According to its Wikipaedia entry the LNYR owned one-third of the firm and the remaining two-thirds. I haven't worked out the distances for this scheme and if approved it wouldn't have been completed until at least 1923 which is after when the Grouping came into effect.
Going back to the tables in Post 137 the L&YR had 1,650 steam locomotives, 119 electric motor cars carrying passengers and 18 rail motor vehicles at the end of 1921 IOTL.
However, ITTL there will be many fewer steam locomotives, more electric motor cars carrying passengers and more electric locomotives. The following is a crude calculation and should only be taken as an extremely rough guide.
The OTL L&YR had 1,650 steam locomotives and about 600 route miles = 2.75 locomotives per route mile.
- If the 360 route miles electrified IOTL were exclusively worked electrically only 660 steam locomotives would be required to work the remaining 240 route miles.
- By 1921 the North Eastern Railway was working on the formula that one electric locomotive could do the work of two steam locomotives due to the electric locomotive's higher availability rates. (In 1921 it had worked out a programme where its current stock of 2,024 locomotives (2,012 steam and 12 electric) would be reduced to 1,547 (1,063 steam and 484 electric) by the end of 1943. But that, as they say is another story).
- If the NER's formula was applied the L&YR would have 495 electric locomotives to work the 360 route miles that had been electrified. Or there would be a mix of 495 electric locomotives and electric motor cars for carrying passengers.
However, this doesn't allow for the: traffic densities on the lines; that there would still be some steam working on the lines that had been electrified because trains that worked the electrified and non-electrified zones would probably be steam worked throughout to avoid the inconvenience of changing engines; and I didn't take the 51 route miles that had already been electrified in OTL.
I should also have added that the L&YR had "running powers" over the lines of some other railways and would have had to keep some steam locomotives so that it could continue to work those lines.
Electrification by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway 1921-25 ITTL
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) became part of the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) on 1st January 1922 and exactly one year later (i.e. 1st January 1923) the LNWR became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (abbreviated as LMS not LMSR). Most of the LNWR became the Western Division of the new company and the former L&YR became its Central Division.
The completion of the L&YR's Phase 8 electrification scheme was completed the year before the Company was absorbed by the LNWR and I think Phase 9 would have been approved before the takeover took place. Phase 9 would be a joint scheme with the LNWR because most of the lines that were electrified were jointly owned by the two companies.
In Post 146 I wrote that Phase 9 would be divided into two parts as follows:
- Daisy Hill, Hindley and Lostock Junction to Preston, including the branch to Horwich (Phase 9A) and;
- Preston to Blackpool (by all 3 routes) and Fleetwood (Phase 9B).
I have since calculated that the entire scheme would require the electrification of 82 route miles of which 35 route miles were Phase 9A and the remaining 47 route miles were in Phase 9B. Assuming that the L&YR's new owners maintained the established rate of conversion (20 route miles per year) the scheme would be completed by the end of 1925. However, I now think that Phase 9B would be implemented before Phase 9A. This is because it would allow early electric working from Blackpool to the following destinations:
- Blackpool to Liverpool and Soutport (via Burscough Bridge - the Crossens to Preston line was not electrified);
- Blackpool to Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Todmorden, Wakefield & Goole plus the Halifax-Bradford branch and the Dewsbury branch;
- Blackpool to Manchester, via Blackburn and Bolton;
- Blackpool to Manchester, via Blackburn, Accrington and Bury.
The LMS Central Division had 445 route miles electrified at the end of 1925, but that did not mean that 75% of the former L&YR had been electrified. This is because the 601¼ route miles that the Company owned at the end of 1921 included its share of joint lines and over half of Phase 9 included lines that were jointly owned with the LNWR. That is the 5½ route miles between Euxton Junction and Preston which was part of Phase 9A belonged to the Northern Union Railway and all but about half a mile of the lines in Phase 9B belonged to the Preston & Wyre Railway & Dock Company, both of which were jointly owned by the L&YR and LNWR.
Further Electrification by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway
After the completion of Phase 9 the only former L&YR lines on the Lancashire side of Todmorden that were worth electrifying were the lines from Miles Platting to Stalybridge (which forms part of the LNWR route from Manchester to Leeds via Huddersfield) and Miles Platting to the Junction with the LNWR line into Manchester London Road.
Further electrification of the former L&YR lines west of Todmorden depends upon how much extra electrification the companies that made up the LNER had done ITTL and in particular the North Eastern Railway, which had done the most electrification IOTL and was likely to have done even more ITTL.
Towards the end of its existence IOTL the NER had long term plans to electrify its line from York to Leeds and Normanton via Church Fenton. This was of interest to the L&YR because it had running powers over the NER from Normanton to York so if the NER had electrified this line or the LNER had the line near the top of its "to do list" it would make sense to electrify the L&YR line from Wakefield to Normanton.
The NER also had long term plans to electrify line from Micklefield Junction to Selby and Hull, which would have allowed electric working from Leeds to Hull. The L&YR had powers to work the NER's line from Goole to Hull so if the LNER/NER electrified the line from Goole to Staddlethorpe the L&YR would have been able to work Goole to Hull electrically. If the NER/LNER did electrify that line it would probably have been part of a larger Staddlethorpe-Goole-Thorne-Doncaster scheme.
The final realistic candidate for electrification would be the line from Knottingley to Askern Junction north of Doncaster. However, that would only be electrified if the GNR/LNER electrified the section from Doncaster to Askern Junction.
Electrification by the other LMS Constituents ITTL
IOTL the London Midland and Scottish Railway inherited 102¾ route miles of electrified railway from its constituents, which was 28½ per cent of the 361 route miles electrified in the whole of Great Britain. (The Southern Railway had 87 route miles (including the East London Railway and Waterloo & City Railway); the Great Western Railway had 7¾ route miles; the London & North Eastern Railway had 56¼ route miles; the would be London Passenger Transport Board had 93¼ route miles; and the other railways (which included the Liverpool Overhead and Mersey Railways) had 18 route miles.)
51 route miles which was nearly half of the total was provided by the L&YR. The remainder consisted of 37¼ route miles from the LNWR (including its share of the West London Railway) around and 14½ route miles electrified by the Midland Railway.
ITTL the LMS inherited the 363 route miles from the L&YR which had been electrified 1902-21 plus the 82 route miles of Phase 9 that were in progress and I think that the LNWR and Midland Railway would have electrified more lines ITTL too.
In an earlier post I suggested that the LNWR would be forced to electrify its line from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria if enough traffic was lost to the L&YR's route. However, I now think that the LNWR Board would authorise the electrification of all 3 of its routes from Liverpool and Manchester even if it did not loose a great deal of traffic to the L&YR. The scheme would be authorised in 1906 and completed by the end of 1914. The L&YR and LNWR were allies so I think they would deliberately buy the electrical equipment from the same suppliers to maximise the cost reductions that might be brought about via economies of scale.
When the L&YR approved Phase 7 of its electrification programme (Rochdale-Todmorden-Wakefield-Goole Docks and branches) the LNWR decided to follow suit and electrify its line from Manchester to Leeds via Huddersfield. According to Mile by Mile the former LNWR route from Liverpool Lime Street to Leeds is 75½ route miles long and about 40 per cent of this (31½ route miles) had already been electrified as part of the Company's Liverpool to Manchester scheme. Of the remaining 43 route miles the short stretch of 1½ route miles between Manchester Victoria and Miles Platting had already been electrified by the L&YR and the 2¼ route miles between Heaton East Junction and Thornhill was being electrified by the Y&LR as part of Phase 7, which reduced the length of line the LNWR had to electrify to 39 route miles. I think the scheme would be completed by the end of 1916.
I wrote earlier that the L&YR's Phase 9 would be a joint scheme with the LNYR because both companies owned the lines from Euxton Junction to Blackpool and Fleetwood. I think the LNWR would electrify the WCML between its junctions with the former Liverpool & Manchester Railway to Euxton Junction so that it could run electric trains from Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria to Blackpool. The LNWR would also be running electric trains from Leeds to Blackpool by using its running powers over the L&YR's line from Thornhill to Preston via Todmorden, Burnley, Accrington and Blackburn.
IOTL the Midland Railway's Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham electrification scheme which was authorised in 1906 and completed in 1908 used the 6,600V, 25Hz single-phase alternating current, overhead line system. However, ITTL it decided to electrify the line on 1,500V DC overhead because the L&YR and NER had decided to electrify on 1,500V overhead instead of 630V DC third rail in 1902 and had completed their first schemes in 1904.
The Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham scheme is often quoted as a trial for a projected scheme to electrify the Midland Main Line from Derby to Manchester. ITTL the Midland Railway's board of directors approved the electrification of the Derby to Manchester line in 1909 using 1,500V DC overhead because the L&YR and NER had been using the system successfully since 1904. The scheme might be interrupted by the First World War, but would have been completed by the Grouping.
The Midland Railway bought the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway in 1912 and in order to obtain Parliament's permission to electrify the line. Merz and McLellan made a feasibility study for the Midland which included the electrification of the Midland Main Line from St Pancras to St Albans and the Tottenham branch. The enabling bill was passing through Parliament when World War One broke out. I think there would be no change ITTL.
Electrification by the London Midland & Scottish Railway
IOTL the LMS only electrified 21 route miles between 1923 and the end of 1938. Half of this was the electrification of the Wirral Railway completed in 1938, 3 miles were added to the former LNWR's London suburban lines in 1927 and the rest was East Ham to Upminster completed in 1932. It also conducted another feasibility study for the electrification study for the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in the 1920s but it wasn't carried out.
Not included in the above was the Manchester, South Junction & Altrincham Railway a joint line with the LNER. Its electrification was approved in 1928 and completed in 1931. 8¾ route miles were electrified on 1,500V DC overhead in 1931. Electrification was considered in the 1900s IOTL and ITTL might have been carried out then because one of its two pre-Grouping owners was the LNWR (the other was the Great Central Railway).
ITTL the LMS would have completed the schemes it inherited from its constituents (which I have already described) but I'm not sure that it would electrify any additional lines beyond those that were electrified IOTL. The schemes already completed should be saving the Company a considerable sum of money, which would make a strong case for further electrification and provide some of the money. I think its "wish list" would be to electrify:
- The Midland Main Line from Derby to St Pancras so that its London to Manchester trains could be electrically hauled for the whole journey;
- Then Derby-Sheffield-Leeds so that the London to Leeds trains could be electrically hauled for the whole journey;
- Then Manchester to Sheffield by the former Midland Railway route.
- The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway
- The Wirral Railway (electrified in 1938 IOTL)
- The Birkenhead Railway (a joint line with the GWR) from Birkenhead to Chester and Ellesmere Port
- The Ellesmere Port from Warrington to Widnes
However, whether they were electrified is another matter.