WHITBY RAILWAY STATION

'Whitby railway station' serves the town of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. It is terminus of the Esk Valley Line 56 km (35 miles) south east of Middlesbrough railway station and is operated by Northern Rail who provide all of the station's National Rail passenger services.

Contents

Services

History

Image Gallery

External links

Services

Four trains per day leave Whitby on weekdays and Saturdays, with five trains on summer Sundays, trains call at all stations to Middlesbrough.
As of 3 April 2007 services along the Heritage North Yorkshire Moors Railway have commenced from Whitby to Pickering running along the Esk Valley line to Grosmont railway station where they join the NYMR's own line. The summer peak service consists of three departures (Monday to Friday only).

History

Whitby's original 'station' stood near to the end of the remaining platform, in the form of the offices, workshop and carriage shed of the Whitby and Pickering Railway, a single track horse worked line opened throughout in 1836, its Engineer was George Stephenson.
In 1845 the W&P was taken over by the York and North Midland Railway and converted into a double track, steam worked, line. The Y&NM built the present Whitby station to the design of its architect George Townsend Andrews, who also designed the locomotive shed and the goods shed (demolished to make way for a supermarket, although a German bomber made a start during WW2). Andrews station included a fine 'Euston Truss' overall roof, unfortunately this was removed by British Railways in 1953 and replaced by the present awnings.
In 1854 the Y&NM helped form the North Eastern Railway, who later added two more platforms (also replaced by the supermarket) to help deal with traffic from the other branch lines that served Whitby. Block signalling replaced the time interval system in 1876 and brought Whitby an unusual three storey signal box (to make it high enough to see over the adjacent goods shed).
The NER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping of the railways in 1923 and the LNER became part of British Railways with the nationalisation of the railways in 1948. The only changes brought to Whitby were in locomotives, rolling stock and signalling; the basic structure remained unchanged.
With the publication of the Beeching Report in 1963 change, indeed oblivion hung over Whitby station and its railways; the report recommended closure of all three lines that still served Whitby (the fourth line going north up the coast had already closed in 1958).
There was strong local resistance to the closure of the three lines but in the event only one line, that up the Esk Valley to Middlesborough was saved. It may seem strange that Whitby's 'main line', the largly double track line to Pickering, Malton with connections to York was not the one to survive but the saviour of the Esk Valley Line was the steep and narrow roads to the villages that it served, making replacement bus services impractical, especially for bringing school children to and from school in Whitby.
With the closure of all but the Esk Valley Line Whitby lost almost all of its staff and in time the pickup goods train was withdrawn; the remaining double track as far as Grosmont was singled and the signal box closed and later demolished. It was only a spirited case put by an ex-Whitby signalman that allowed retention of a basic facility for running round loco-hauled trains, so as to allow for excursions and as it turned out todays through steam services over the NYMR.

Image Gallery

External links

★ Train times and information from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway