The sad fate of region’s railway stations
THE RAILWAY boom in the UK started from around the 1840s. Thereafter many railway companies were established, main lines and branch lines laid and stations large and small were built. Hundreds of stations were constructed in rural areas and provided a means of transporting goods and livestock. It also gave the public a welcome opportunity to move around the country. The introduction of electric trams, trolley buses and motorised transport put branch lines and their stations under threat and inevitable closures followed.
From 1948, under British Railways, there was an urgent need to increase the efficiency of the UK’s nationalised railways system. Two reports appeared: The Reshaping of British Railways (1963) and The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes (1965), written by Richard Beeching and published by the British Railways Board. Protests resulted in the saving of some stations but around 2,000 were closed.
Yorkshire mirrored the national trend for both opening and closing railway stations.
Alne railway station in North Yorkshire was opened by the Great North of England Railway on March 31, 1841. It was on their main line between York and Darlington. The Yorkshire Gazette of March 31, 1877 ran a story under the heading ‘Explosion of a Locomotive’: ‘A locomotive engine belonging to the North Eastern Railway company exploded at Alne station [Wednesday March 28], the accident being fortunately unattended with any loss of life or injury to any person.’ The locomotive was hauling a goods train and had pulled up at the station to take water. The explosion occurred while the driver was turning on the water and the fireman was attending to the delivery pipe. A portion of the engine was blown across the line, striking a wall with great force and knocking down several feet. The engine was a complete wreck. From July 27, 1891, Alne station was at the junction of the Easingwold Railway, thus providing a connection to the main line. A bay platform was in use at Alne for the Easingwold traffic. Alne station closed to passengers on May 5, 1958 but continued with freight traffic until August 10, 1964. Later, the station buildings were demolished.
Aysgarth station was opened by the North Eastern Railway on the section of the Wenslydale Railway between Leyburn and Askrigg. This occurred on February 1, 1877. A day later, the York Herald reported: ‘The contractors were Messrs J Gibb & Son, Aberdeen…and they have carried out their work in the most able and finished manner. The stations are neat, but very substantial and admirably arranged buildings, composed for the most part of native stone, there being an abundant supply of excellent limestone in the district.’
On the line’s opening, the newspaper added: ‘The trains at every station were besieged with delighted crowds, who scrambled, and struggled in the best for seats…’ On Monday April 19, 1954, the North Eastern Region of British Railways announced that ‘owing to heavy losses incurred in running the service’, passenger trains would cease to run on the branch line from Northallerton to Hawes along Wenslydale from Monday April 26, 1954.
The stations between were to be closed to all, but parcels and freight traffic, and only one passenger train a day in each direction, would travel between Hawes and Garsdale. Aysgarth was amongst a number of stations closed and the track was lifted through the site. During 2017, Aysgarth station was sold by the Wenslydale Railway Association.
Easingwold station was established by the Easingwold Railway on July 27, 1891. Ideas for a railway in the area had been suggested as early as 1836. By 1880 the proposal gathered momentum and a consortium of local farmers and merchants formed the Easingwold Railway Company. The line was two and a half miles in length and cost around £17,000 to construct.
According to www. disusedstations. org.uk: ‘The station had a single platform with a small timber building; there was also an extensive goods yard comprising four sidings, passing loop, goods sheds, weighbridge, coal drops, cattle dock and an engine shed large enough for one loco owned by the company.’ The station closed to passengers on November 29, 1948, with closure to all traffic affected on December 30, 1957. The station site is lost under a new road and housing.
One of Yorkshire’s earliest stations was at Brightside, Sheffield. It was opened by the Sheffield & Rotherham Railway on November 1, 1838, at the same time as their line. The station comprised two platforms and four tracks. The station buildings were replaced by bus shelter-type structures in the early 1980s. Closure came on January 28, 1995, with a poster announcing that trains could be caught at Meadowhall. The bus shelters were removed in later years though the platforms remain.
The North Midland Railway from Derby to Leeds was built in the late 1830s. George Stephenson was the line’s engineer and his practice at the time was to plan the route to follow the land which was most favourable. Unfortunately, in this instance, his line bypassed several important Yorkshire places on the way, such as Barnsley and Sheffield. The former was missed by some three miles and a station was built at Cudworth, but was named Barnsley when opening in 1840. Fourteen years later, the station was renamed Cudworth for Barnsley and was also rebuilt at this time. In 1870 ‘for Barnsley’ was dropped and the station remained open until 1968.
The original Chapeltown station, mainly constructed of wood, opened on the South Yorkshire Railway in 1854. A new station was completed nearby under the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway on November 5, 1877. It featured the company’s ‘Double Pavilion’ style and comprised a station master’s house, booking office, goods office, and first, second and third class waiting rooms. Chapeltown Central station, as it became known, closed to passengers in 1953 and to all traffic a year later. Onwww. para normal hauntings. blog, it was noted in November 2021 by Simon Wilson: ‘The Victorian station master’s house is even reputed to be the home to the ghost of a man killed during a World War Two air road while loading tanks on to a goods train.’
The Scarborough Whitby Railway was first proposed in the late 1840s but the adverse terrain and resulting high cost of construction deterred many potential investors. After finally going ahead in the late 1860s, numerous construction problems were encountered. The line finally opened in July 1885 with Cloughton station as the second stop out of Scarborough. Originally, it only had one platform but another one was added in 1891. Cloughton had a cattle dock and small goods shed. Goods traffic was withdrawn from May 4, 1964, and passenger traffic on March 8, 1965. The stationmaster’s house has since found other uses.
The York & North Midland Railway was authorised to construct a line from York to Beverley in 1846. The track was laid as far as Market Weighton by the end of 1847. The intermediate station of Burnby appeared in the timetable during mid-1848. The station was designed by, G.T. Andrews. From the beginning of 1873, the name was changed from Burnby to Nunburnholme and this remained in use until closure on April 1, 1951.
The trains at every raileway station were besieged with delighted crowds.