Whitby railway station

For the railway station in Whitby, Ontario, see Whitby GO Station.

Whitby
General information
Location	Whitby, Scarborough England
Coordinates	54.485°N 0.615°W / 54.485; -0.615
Grid reference	NZ898108
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	WTB
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Original company	Whitby and Pickering Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
8 June 1835 (1835-06-08)	First station opened as Whitby
4 June 1847	Station resited
3 December 1883	Renamed Whitby Town
by July 1938	Renamed Whitby
30 September 1951	Renamed Whitby Town
?	Renamed Whitby
Passengers
2015/16	0.137 million
2016/17	0.132 million
2017/18	0.138 million
2018/19	0.131 million
2019/20	0.135 million
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Town Railway Station
Designated	4 December 1972
Reference no.	1261393
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Whitby railway station is a Grade II listed station which serves the town of Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. It is the terminus of the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough. The station is situated 35 miles (56 km) south-east of Middlesbrough and is operated by Northern Trains, which provides all of the station's National Rail passenger services. The station is also served during the summer months by the heritage North Yorkshire Moors Railway, whose line connects with the Esk Valley line at Grosmont.

History

Historic tile map at Whitby Station showing North Eastern Railway routes across North Yorkshire

Whitby in the 1970s with all four platforms still in use

Whitby's original railway station stood near to the end of the current 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 tracked, 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 the Second World War). Andrews' station included a fine 'Euston Truss' overall roof which 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; the Esk Valley Line finally opened throughout to a junction at Grosmont in 1865. The coast line from Loftus opened in 1883 and from Scarborough in 1885. 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.

In 1900, the NER authorised the installation of Tile Maps at 25 of their stations. Whitby is one of nine stations left to have their map still in situ and intact. The other eight are at Beverley, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Morpeth, Saltburn, Scarborough, Tynemouth and York.

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 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 Middlesbrough was saved. It may seem strange that Whitby's main line, the largely double tracked route to Pickering and Malton, with connections to York, was not the one to survive. Instead, the saviour of the Esk Valley Line were 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, as was the goods shed. It was only a 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. This run-round loop was used by the regular NYMR services from 2007 until 2014.

Platforms 3 and 4 were entirely removed and the site sold off, to be occupied by a supermarket. Platform 2 was cut back to what remains of the trainshed and its track removed, leaving only platform 1 rail served. Apart from the roofless and truncated station, Whitby's only other surviving railway buildings are the two track engine shed, originally built by the York and North Midland Railway and extended by the NER and the neglected remains of one of the pair of Whitby and Pickering Railway 1835 weighbridge houses.

In 2013, it was announced that an application for major development work around the station had been successful. This included the rebuilding and restoration of platform 2, to a somewhat longer length than the original. When the rebuilding of platform 2 was complete in 2014, the NYMR increased their service to four trains per day (five in peak periods) to and from Whitby. In December 2019, Northern increased their services from four trains per day to six.

Services

The station in 2017 with both platforms restored to use

Northern Trains Esk Valley Line
Middlesbrough – Whitby via Nunthorpe
Middlesbrough James Cook University Hospital Marton Gypsy Lane Nunthorpe Great Ayton Battersby Kildale Commondale Castleton Moor Danby Lealholm Glaisdale Egton Grosmont Sleights Ruswarp Whitby

As of December 2019, six Northern Trains return services operate between Middlesbrough and Whitby, one of which continues along the Durham Coast Line to Newcastle. Four trains operate on Sundays, two of which continue to Newcastle.

From April to early November, the heritage North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs services from Whitby to Pickering, running along the Esk Valley line to Grosmont where they join the NYMR's own line. The NYMR's service consists of four or five arrivals and departures each day.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Ruswarp		Northern Trains Esk Valley Line		Terminus
	Heritage railways
Grosmont		North Yorkshire Moors Railway		Terminus
	Disused railways
Whitby West Cliff		Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway		Terminus

Further reading

• Williams, Michael Aufrère (2010). 'A more spectacular example of a loss-making branch would be hard to find.' A financial history of the Whitby-Loftus line 1871-1958 (M.A. thesis). University of York.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère. (2012). The Whitby-Loftus Line. Jet Coast Development Trust. ISBN 978-0-9567890-1-3.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (March 2013). "The Whitby - Loftus line: "a more spectacular example of a loss-making branch would be hard to find." Is this really the case?". Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society (216): 33–46.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (November 2013). "The Viaducts and Tunnels of the Whitby-Loftus Line". Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society (218): 33–47.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (January 2014). "The Tunnels and Viaducts of the Whitby-Loftus line". Forgotten Relics of an Enterprising Age.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (March 2014). "A Difficult Year in the History of the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway". Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society (219): 32–41.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (November 2014). "Closing a line before Beeching: the end of the Whitby-Loftus line". Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society (221): 149–58.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (November 2015). "The importance of fieldwork in researching railway history". Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society (224): 377–87.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (Summer 2016). "The Suez Specials". The Gresley Observer (169). The Gresley Society: 19–27.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (Summer 2017). "How the Coast Line could have been saved". The Gresley Observer (172). The Gresley Society: 32–33.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (November 2018). "The costs of working a failing branch line: a financial study of the Whitby – Loftus line, 1910–1933". Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society (233): 351–62.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (2019). The Whitby-Loftus Line. The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-542-2. Locomotion Papers 244.
• Williams, Michael Aufrère (Autumn 2019). "Seconds from disaster". The Gresley Observer (179). The Gresley Society: 88–92.

External links

• Train times and station information for Whitby railway station from National Rail
• Train times and information from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway
• Historic England. "Whitby Engine Sheds (1239954)". National Heritage List for England.

This station offers access to the Cleveland Way
Distance to path
Next station anticlockwise	Saltburn 19 miles
Next station clockwise	Scarborough 21 miles