Saltburn is a railway station on the

Tees Valley Line The Tees Valley Line is a rail route, in Northern England, following part of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway route of 1825. The line covers a distance of , and connects to via , and 14 other stations in the Teesdale. The secti ...

, which runs between and Saltburn via . The station, situated east of Middlesbrough, serves the

seaside town A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the German ' ...

Saltburn-by-the-Sea Saltburn-by-the-Sea, commonly referred to as Saltburn, is a seaside town in Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England, around south-east of Hartlepool and southeast of Redcar. It lies within the historic boundaries of the North Ridin ...

Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a borough with unitary authority status in North Yorkshire, England. Its main settlements are Redcar, South Bank, Eston, Brotton, Guisborough, the Greater Eston part of Middlesbrough, Loftus, Saltburn and Skelton. Th ...

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

The station was opened by the Stockton and Darlington Railway as the terminus of their line from Redcar on 17 August 1861 (although the ornate station building was not finished until the following year). Eleven years later, the North Eastern Railway opened a line towards

Brotton Brotton is a village in the civil parish of Skelton and Brotton and situated approximately south-east of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, 9 miles from Redcar, east of Middlesbrough and north-west of Whitby. In 2011, the village had a population of 5,39 ...

(the

Whitby Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway The Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway (WRMU), the Whitby–Loftus Line, was a railway line in North Yorkshire, England, built between 1871 and 1886, running from Loftus on the Yorkshire coast to the Esk at Whitby, and connecting ...

) from the town, but this diverged from the original route some west of the 1861 station in order to avoid excessively steep gradients further east. This meant the passenger trains from the town to Loftus 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 ...

that started in 1875 had to reverse into and out of the terminus before regaining the correct direction at Saltburn West Junction. This line is still in operation today to serve the

Skinningrove Steelworks Skinningrove steelworks is a steel mill in Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, England. The business was formed in 1874 as the ''Loftus Iron Company'', after a liquidation of the company reformed in 1880 as the ''Skinningrove Iron Company''. The work ...

and the Boulby potash mine, although passenger trains ceased in 1958. In its heyday, the station had four platforms and a sizeable number of carriage sidings to handle the large quantities of excursion trains that ran there – these included services from as far away as

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

and Blackpool. There was also a short siding extension (approximately ) from the main station to another platform at the rear of the railway-owned Zetland Hotel (opened in 1863) where passengers in first class carriages could disembark directly into their accommodation. A 1974 remodelling scheme saw the station reduced in size with the two main platforms and signal box being taken out of use along with most of the sidings and one of the two running lines from West Junction. Today both of the two surviving excursion bay platforms are used for scheduled services (though most trains use platform 1) but neither the main station building nor the Zetland Hotel is in rail-related use – the former having been converted into a photographic studio, cafe and various other retail outlets and the latter into luxury flats.

Facilities

It is unmanned, and has two

acrylic glass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

passenger shelters, bench seating and an electronic information board. A self-service ticket machine has also been installed to allow intending passenger to buy tickets prior to travel or collect pre-paid tickets. Step-free access is available from the main entrance to both platforms. Station facilities here were improved in Summer 2012. The package for this station included new waiting shelters, decorative planting schemes, renewed station signage, a digital information screen displaying live departures, and the installation of CCTV. The long-line Public Address system (PA) has been renewed and upgraded with pre-recorded train announcements.

Services

As of the May 2021 timetable change, the station is served by two trains per hour between Saltburn and Darlington via

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 ...

, with one train per hour extending to Bishop Auckland. An hourly service operates between Saltburn and Bishop Auckland on Sunday. All services are operated by

. Northern operates Class 156 and Class 158s. In May 2022,

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

extended a few services from Redcar Central to Saltburn. It is planned to introduce hourly services to Manchester Airport in December 2022.Cautious changes for post Covid era ''

Modern Railways ''Modern Railways'' is a British monthly magazine covering the rail transport industry which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012, and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was originally based in She ...

'' issue 884 May 2022 page 64

References

Sources

*Binns, D. (1981), ''Railways Around Skipton'', Wyvern Publications, Skipton. *Body, G. (1988), ''PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Eastern Region Volume 2'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Wellingborough,

External links

* * {{Railway stations served by TransPennine Express Railway stations in Redcar and Cleveland DfT Category F1 stations Former North Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1861 Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations served by TransPennine Express 1861 establishments in England William Peachey railway stations Saltburn-by-the-Sea