Thornton Dale railway station

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Thornton Dale railway station was situated on the North Eastern Railway's Pickering to Seamer branch line. It served the village of Thornton-le-Dale. The station opened to passenger traffic on 1 May 1882, and closed on 3 June 1950.

The station remained open for freight traffic to Pickering after the rest of the Forge Valley Line was closed and pulled up. A daily train took limestone (brought by lorry from a quarry north of the village) to Pickering from where it was taken forwards to Skinningrove Ironworks. Unfortunately the quarry company lost the contact to supply the ironworks and this traffic ceased in the early 1960s. The last traffic into the station was two Presflo wagons of bulk cement for repairs to the village hall.

The station finally closed completely with no ceremony in 1963. Shortly afterwards two Whickam Railmotors from Pickering visited the line to check that all the fences were stock-proof and in due course contractors arrived and removed the track.

The station building was cleared and converted into offices for a company building a (short lived) gas pipeline to Pickering and later the station site was converted into a caravan site, with the station buildings divided and refurbished as three holiday cottages.

[edit] References

• Lidster, J. Robin (1986). The Forge Valley Line - A Railway Between Pickering And Scarborough. Hendon Publishing Co. Ltd.. ISBN 0-86067-103-8. 

• Bairstow, Martin (1989 & 1998). Railways Around Whitby Volume One. Martin Bairstow. ISBN 1-871944-17-1. 

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Ebberston		Forge Valley Line		Pickering