Ruswarp railway station

Ruswarp railway station serves the village of Ruswarp in North Yorkshire, England. It is located on the Esk Valley Line and is operated by Northern Trains who provide all of the station's passenger services. The station is 33.5 miles (53.9 km) from Middlesbrough and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Whitby.[1] It opened in 1848.

Ruswarp
Ruswarp Station
LocationRuswarp, Scarborough
England
Coordinates54.470°N 0.628°W / 54.470; -0.628
Grid referenceNZ890091
Managed byNorthern Trains
Platforms1
Other information
Station codeRUS
ClassificationDfT category F2
History
Original companyWhitby and Pickering Railway
Pre-groupingNorth Eastern Railway
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
1848Station opened
Passengers
2015/16 2,966
2016/17 2,568
2017/18 2,686
2018/19 2,404
2019/20 3,064
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Immediately to the west of the station is a level crossing and then a bridge over the River Esk.

History

The line through Ruswarp was opened in June 1835, as the initial section of the Whitby and Pickering Railway between Whitby and Grosmont.[2] The station first appears in a timetable for May 1848, though it was used before that; in July 1835, over 1,000 people were carried between Pickering and Ruswarp for the Ruswarp Fair Day.[3][note 1]

The main railway building, which remains to this day and is now grade II listed, was designed by the architect G T Andrews and was built in 1850 at the request of the York and North Midland Railway who owned the line through acquisition.[6][7] Immediately to the west of the station is an automatic barrier level crossing and a lattice-work iron bridge over the River Esk.[8] The original Whitby and Pickering Railway bridge was made from Baltic pine and covered a distance of 312 feet (95 m), crossing the river on a diagonal compared to its flow.[9][10] The design of the station was similar to that at Sleights railway station, but with Tudor arches and Tudor chimneys.[11]

Behind the main station building was a three-road goods yard, with a connection facing towards Whitby. The yard was listed as forwarding flour and bran as it chief commodities - the village had a large mill powered by the river.[12][13] A camping coach was positioned here by the North Eastern Region from 1959 to 1964.[14] A second goods siding was located just across the river (on the south bank) with access to both directions of the running line. This was Sneathonthopre Siding and dealt mostly with cattle. Both goods sidings were closed in early August 1965.[15][16][17]

In the early 1980s, rationalisation of the Esk Valley Line led to the singling of the line between Grosmont and Whitby. The down line through the station was kept open, whilst the up line and platform were removed.[16] The signal box was kept open as control for the level crossing until 1986 when it was automated.[18]

Services
Route 5:
Esk Valley Line
 Middlesbrough
 James Cook
 Marton
 Gypsy Lane
 Nunthorpe
 Great Ayton
 Battersby
 Kildale
 Commondale
 Castleton Moor
 Danby
 Lealholm
 Glaisdale
 Egton
 Grosmont
Sleights
 Ruswarp
 Whitby

Following the September 2020 timetable change, Ruswarp is currently served by five trains per day (four on Sunday) towards Whitby, and four trains per day towards Nunthorpe and Middlesbrough.[19]

Heritage services operated by the North York Moors Railway also serve the Esk Valley Line between Whitby and Grosmont, however these do not call at Ruswarp or Sleights.[20]

Notes
  1. Different sources state different opening times. Hoole states 1847 (three years before the station building, when the line was fully converted from horse operation to steam). Bairstow states that the station opened on 15 May 1835.[4][5]

References
  1. Body, Geoffrey (1989). Railways of the Eastern Region. Wellingborough: P. Stephens. p. 122. ISBN 1-85260-072-1.
  2. Young, Alan (2015). Lost stations of Yorkshire; the North and East Ridings. Kettering: Silver Link. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-85794-453-2.
  3. Quick, Michael (2019). "Railway Passenger Stations in England, Scotland and Wales; a Chronology" (PDF). rchs.org.uk. pp. 349, 450. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  4. Hoole, Ken (1985). Railway stations of the North East. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 64. ISBN 0-7153-8527-5.
  5. Bairstow 2008, p. 111.
  6. Historic England. "Ruswarp Station  (Grade II) (1239952)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  7. Hoole, K (1974). A regional history of the railways of Great Britain. Vol. 4, North East England. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 67. ISBN 0-7153-6439-1.
  8. Padget, David (2016). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2: Eastern (4 ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. 48C. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.
  9. Whitworth, Alan (1998). Esk Valley Railway : a travellers' guide ; a description of the history and topography of the line between Whitby and Middlesbrough. Barnsley: Wharncliffe. pp. 25–26. ISBN 1-871647-49-5.
  10. Hoole, Ken (1984). North-Eastern branch lines : past and present. Poole: Oxford Pub. Co. 139. ISBN 0-86093-189-7.
  11. Ellis, Norman (1995). North Yorkshire railway stations. Ochiltree: R. Stenlake. p. 30. ISBN 1-872074-63-4.
  12. Waters, Colin (2011). A history of Whitby & its place names. Stroud: Amberley. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-4456-0429-9.
  13. Hoole, Ken (1985). Railway stations of the North East. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 185. ISBN 0-7153-8527-5.
  14. McRae, Andrew (1998). British Railways Camping Coach Holidays: A Tour of Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part Two). Foxline. p. 40. ISBN 1-870119-53-3.
  15. "Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  16. Hoole, K (1983). Railways of the North York Moors : a pictorial history. Clapham: Dalesman Books. p. 36. ISBN 0-85206-731-3.
  17. Chapman, Stephen (2008). York to Scarborough, Whitby & Ryedale. Todmorden: Bellcode Books. p. 89. ISBN 9781871233193.
  18. Bairstow 2008, p. 90.
  19. "Train times: Middlesbrough to Whitby (Esk Valley Railway)" (PDF). Northern Trains. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  20. Bairstow 2008, p. 106.

Sources
  • Bairstow, Martin (2008). Railways Around Whitby, Volume 1. Farsley: Bairstow. ISBN 978-1-871944-34-1.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Sleights   Northern Trains
Esk Valley Line		   Whitby
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