Battersby is a railway station on the Esk Valley Line, which runs between

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

via

Nunthorpe Nunthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. It is part of the historic county of Yorkshire, North Riding. It is near to the village of Great Ayton and formerly part of the Ayton anci ...

. The station, situated south-east of Middlesbrough, serves the village of Battersby, Hambleton in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and managed by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

History

Battersby is unusual on the British railway network, due to the layout of the tracks. Formerly the place where the branch from Middlesbrough joined the through route from Whitby to (on the to portion of the former

Leeds Northern Railway The Leeds Northern Railway (LNR), originally the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, was an English railway company that built and opened a line from Leeds to Stockton via Harrogate and Thirsk. In 1845 the Leeds and Thirsk Railway received permission for ...

), the closure of the

direct line Direct Line is an insurance company based in Bromley, England. Founded in 1985, as the country's first direct car insurance company, it has since expanded to offer a range of general insurance products. Its policies are underwritten by the regul ...

west of Battersby in 1954 means that all services have to reverse in the station. Until the rationalisation of the signalling in 1989 it was common for two trains to do so at the same time, in order to pass each other on the single track Esk Valley line. Trains can still pass each other in the one remaining platform, using the "first in, last out" principle, as the platform line is signalled to permit two trains to occupy it at once. In its early years Battersby was known as Ingleby Junction, and opened on the Picton to Grosmont line in 1858 when the Ingleby Mining company's

private line In telecommunication, a private line is typically a telephone company service that uses a dedicated, usually unswitched point-to-point circuit, but it may involve private switching arrangements, or predefined transmission physical or virtual path ...

first linked to the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway. The station was renamed to Battersby Junction in 1878 to avoid confusion with Ingleby station, on the Picton Branch, which ran from Battersby to the main line at Picton. The station was simplified to "Battersby" in 1893 (The NER had a dislike of "Junction" suffixes and removed most of them). Despite being located along single track routes, Battersby became a major hub with extensive marshalling sidings and three-road engine shed with turntable. Two terraces with 30 cottages along with two houses were built and still stand today. Battersby used to have three platforms: two long through platforms connected by a central footbridge and a shorter bay platform with a run-round loop. Water towers were located at both ends of the station. Only the one at the current "junction end" remains today. The signal box located here has long since vanished, but traces of the third platform are still visible and a run-round loop is available for loco-hauled trains.

Services

As of the May 2021 timetable change, the station is served by six trains per day (four on Sunday) towards

. Heading towards

via

, there are eight trains per day (four on Sunday). Most trains continue to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

via Hartlepool. All services are operated by

. Rolling stock used: Class 156 ''Super Sprinter'' and Class 158 ''Express Sprinter''

References

External links

{{Railway stations served by Northern Trains Railway stations in North Yorkshire DfT Category F2 stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1858 Northern franchise railway stations Railway depots in Yorkshire

History

Services

See also

References

External links