Humber Dock - Ian Everett
In only a very slightly alternative universe, the North Eastern Railway extended the Hull Victoria Dock branch, to run back over the river Hull and rejoin the old Hull and Selby Railway near its original terminus beside Humber dock. This created both a circular suburban railway and an alternative, low-level route to the eastern docks, which avoided all the level crossings, which plagued Hull's main radial roads until the 1960s. It also gave access to the Riverside Quay, which, in this chosen universe, was built adjacent to the Feny terminal, at Corporation Pier Station.
Where this line crosses the entrance to Humber Dock it runs as a street tramway, with track inset into the roadway and flagmen protecting trains and road traffic. The immediate area is dominated by warehouses, pubs, factories etc, most of which date from the early 19th century when the dock was built.
The railway carries all the wealth of traffic which flows through the Hull docks in the 1950s, such as coal, grain, fish, oil, general merchandise etc. As well as freight trip workings between the docks and the Hull's main Inwards and Outwards yards, which are pulled by main line goods engines, there are the suburban passenger trains, much valued by the dock workers who thereby avoid a bus change in the City Centre. Less frequent trains from further afield connect with passenger services to Zeebrugge and the Hook of Holland from the Riverside Quay. Small NER and Sentinel shunters, both typical of Hull's docks, break up the main line trains and take wagons in small numbers to be loaded or unloaded on the dockside or in rail-connected works.
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