Sheffield District Railway

Sheffield District Railway and connecting lines

The Sheffield District Railway was a 3+12-mile (6 km) railway line in South Yorkshire, England. It was built to give the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway access to Sheffield, primarily for goods traffic, for which a large goods depot at Attercliffe, in Sheffield, was built. The construction was sponsored by the LD&ECR and the Great Eastern Railway together, with the support of the Midland Railway, which agreed running powers over sections of its own lines. The Sheffield District Railway opened in 1900. The LD&ECR operated the passenger service, although the Midland Railway later ran passenger trains too. The SDR did not have rolling stock and did not operate trains itself. The LD&ECR was absorbed by the Great Central Railway in 1907, and the GCR inherited the LD&ECR running powers.

In the 1960s British Railways sought to rationalise freight operations in the Sheffield area, and needed to build a marshalling yard that had good access to both the former Midland Railway and former Great Central Railway networks in the area, and Tinsley Marshalling Yard on the former Sheffield District Railway was constructed, opening in 1965. This was a large scale scheme, but by this time wagonload freight was in decline on British Railways, and the new yard had a limited life. As of 2020 small-scale activity continues on part of the site, but rail access has been heavily cut back, and only a very small part of the former Sheffield District Railway remains in use.