compulsory purchase and construction by two and five years respectively. As a result of the York and North Midland Railway's inquiry into George Hudson's fraud the company found itself needing to reduce expenditure; and construction of the Market Weighton to Beverley section was postponed. In 1851 two landowners brought a case against the Y&NMR, attempting to compel them to construct the Market Weighton to Cherry Burton Section; the court (Queen's Bench) found in the plaintiffs' favour, but the decision was rejected as erroneous on appeal to the Court of Exchequer Chamber; the court ruled that the act of 1849 used permissive (and not imperative) terms and so the company was not compelled to complete the line. In 1862 the Y&NMR's successor the North Eastern Railway applied to renew the powers to build the line to Beverley, local interests raised £40,000 towards the cost of the line through the purchase of NER stock. An act, the North Eastern Railway (Beverley Branch), was obtained in 1862. The line ran roughly east-northeast out of Market Weighton, turning eastward towards Goodmanham; here the ground was boggy and prone to springs; the line ran on the bed of a diverted stream; there was a skew bridge east of Goodmanham, followed by a climb into the Yorkshire Wolds towards Kiplingcotes, a third of which was at a gradient of 1 in 160, with a peak east of Kiplingcotes at . Beyond the peak of the wolds the line ran east to Cherry Burton, then roughly southeast to Beverley; from the peak to Beverley the route was downhill, with gradients between 1:161 and 1:185. Most of the roads were crossed by bridge or underpassed, with the exception of Pighill crossing outside Beverley. The branch was opened on 1 May 1865; the line was built as a single track line, with a double track section at Kiplingcotes. Operations (1865–1965) After the opening of the Beverley section in 1865 trains could run through from York to Hull; by 1870 the standard service had also increased to four trains per day; additionally an express train running from Hull and connecting at York for the express to Scotland had to be run, stopping only at the main stations: Beverley, Market Weighton, Pocklington and Stamford Bridge. In 1890 the Scarborough, Bridlington and West Riding Junction Railway from Market Weighton to Driffield opened, with a junction on the line to Beverley just east