Dovecliffe railway station was situated on the South Yorkshire Railway

South Yorkshire Railway

The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company which was based in the south of the former West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Its first section of line opened on 10 November 1849 between Swinton Junction and Doncaster...

's Blackburn Valley line between and Wombwell

Wombwell

Wombwell is a small town near Barnsley, located in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 15,180.Its name's origin may mean "Womba's Well", or "well in a hollow"....

 Main Junction.

History

The station opened with the line on 4 September 1854 and closed on 7 December 1953. The line through the station remained open until the 1986 to allow freight access to Barrow colliery, although the through line to Sheffield was severed between Birdwell and Westwood in the late 1960s with the construction of the M1 motorway.

The station was originally named Smithley for Darley Main & Worsborough but its name was changed by the end of 1855 to Darkcliffe and again in early 1860 to Dovecliffe. It was controlled by a signal box which sat on the station roof. When the line opened, as a single line, there was no block working and when a box was needed it was required to be placed on the outer side of a bend to give better visibility. With the station buildings being very close to the level crossing the only place where the box could be erected was on the station roof.

References

• "The South Yorkshire Railway", D. L. Franks. Turntable Enterprises, 1971. ISBN 0-090284-404-4
• Various articles by D. L. Franks which appeared in "Forward", the journal of the Great Central Railway Society, ISSN 0141-4468

Route