Woodburn Junction
Coordinates: 53°23′11″N 1°25′59″W / 53.38642°N 1.43303°W
Woodburn Junction is a railway junction in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, situated about halfway between Sheffield Victoria and Darnall.
The junction is situated about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Sheffield Victoria and is controlled from a portable signal cabin on the ‘down’ (Sheffield bound) side of the line below where the line is crossed by a road bridge, which carries Woodbourn Road (Note the difference in spelling).
From the beginning
The first junction at this point was built when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, having taken over the South Yorkshire Railway, constructed a line to Rotherham, opening on 1 August 1864. Traffic from the South Yorkshire Railway’s Barnsley line joined the Rotherham line at Tinsley South Junction and both services entered Sheffield Victoria through this junction.
The L.N.W.R. came to Sheffield in 1895 when they opened a goods depot, known as City Goods, in the Nunnery area. The line which left the M.S.& L. went around the rear of the signal box, which controlled its junction.
New lines
In the 1940s, with the opening of Darnall engine shed a new junction, controlled by the Woodburn Junction signalman, gave access, by a flyover junction from the up goods line and egress to the down goods line. In the 1960s, with the opening of the new Wholesale Markets a short spur, known as the Parkway Goods branch, was opened, again controlled from Woodburn Junction box.
Rationalisation
From November 1991 the layout was reduced in keeping with the requirements of traffic, the Rotherham/Tinsley Yard line being reduced to single track. In 1992 both Shepcote Lane and Tinsley East Junction signal boxes were closed and the controlling panel installed in Woodburn Junction box, still, at that time, the old brick based, wooden box of Great Central vintage.