South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway (GCR), the Great Northern Railway (GNR), the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR), the Midland Railway (MR) and the North Eastern Railway (NER) to oversee the construction of a new railway in the Doncaster area of South Yorkshire, England. The five companies had equal rights over the line, each of the companies regularly working trains over it.
As one of only two railways in England with 5 partners the South Yorkshire Joint Railway was the most "joint" of joint railways.
The line ran from Kirk Sandall Junction on the Great Central's Doncaster-Cleethorpes line to a junction with the Midland and Great Central Joint Railway, just south of Dinnington. The N.E.R. had access over the G.C.R. from Hull, the M.R. had access from the Nottingham-Worksop line, over G.C.R. metals from Shireoaks, the L&Y joined at St. Catherine's Junction from their Dearne Valley Railway and the G.N.R. had connections to the south of Doncaster. As opened the S.Y.J.R. was 21.25 miles (34km) in length, including its colliery branch lines and connections to the several lines it crossed in its path. It opened to freight on 1 January 1909, and to passengers on 1 December 1910.The capital cost was almost £411,000.
In the grouping of 1923, the Midland and L&YR were grouped into the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), whilst the GCR, GER and GNR were all grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). It thus remained an LMS(²/5)-LNER(³/5) joint line until nationalisation into British Railways in 1948.
The line opened to [eventually] serve eight collieries, Markham main, Yorkshire main, Dinnington Main, Maltby colliery, Thurcroft Colliery, Harry Croft colliery and it remains open today, although only Maltby colliery was still producing coal in 2010 [around 1.2 million tonnes pa according to the owners, Hargreave Services. The largest amount of coal traffic originating on the line was recorded in 1929, almost 3 million tons. This was the result of the new Firbeck and Harworth collieries coming into full production and their branch lines being part of the SYJR. This production total produced a net revenue for the SYJR of £81k - equal to about £4.3 million in 2008 prices, an astonishing figure for a line [excluding sidings] of just under 30 miles [47.4km.] By the end of 1929 capital expenditure on the SYJR had reached more than £710,000.
There were three stations on the railway, these being Dinnington and Laughton, Maltby and Tickhill and Wadworth, all of these being situated away from the villages in their title. Passenger trains were originally operated by the Great Central Railway and the Great Northern Railway and ran between Doncaster and Shireoaks, calling at all stations on the S.Y.J.R. and Anston, on the Midland and Great Central Joint line. This joint passenger service operated for just one year before the G.N.R. left for the G.C.R. to continue on its own. From April 1920 the service was extended to Worksop. Passenger traffic over the line was never great, with the largest total number of travellers - 60,220 being recorded in 1913. The service became Saturdays-only in June 1917 until April 1920 but was suspended from April 1926 to July 1927 due to the General Strike and finally closed on 2 December 1929.
The route used encounters hilly country, and there are several large viaducts, the largest being at Brookhouse and, a rising gradient for most of its journey. The station site at Maltby has been built on although the platforms are still evident, also at Tickhill and Wadworth the station site is full of sleepers and the platforms exist. The station masters house at Tickhill station is a now private residence.
The Railway Magazine, August 1922 pp. 94-96
B J Elliott, The South Yorkshire Joint Railway and the Coalfield [Oakwood Press, 2002]°