Commondale railway station

Commondale railway station serves the village of Commondale 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.

Commondale
Location
Place	Commondale
Local authority	Scarborough
Coordinates	54.4818°N 0.9750°W / 54.4818; -0.9750
Grid reference	NZ665100
Operations
Station code	COM
Managed by	Northern Trains
Number of platforms	1
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	4,602
2015/16	5,232
2016/17	3,754
2017/18	1,888
2018/19	2,344
History
1891 (1891)	Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Commondale from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

History

The North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway opened an extension line from Battersby to Grosmont in stages between 1858 and 1865.[1] Even though the line through Commondale was opened in April 1861, it would be some years before the North Eastern Railway furnished the remote dale with a station.[2] As the area was populated with small hamlets mostly engaged in agriculture, no station was provided immediately, but a siding was furnished for the Cleveland Fire Brick & Pottery Company (CFBaPC).[3] The CFBaPC attracted a workforce which led to a significant rise in the population, which in turn prompted a station to be built in 1891.[4][lower-alpha 1][5] Previous to this, a signal box had been installed to control the west facing branch to the brickworks and the junction was used to board passengers with the name of Commondale Siding being used as a station name.[6] Records indicate that in 1885, six years before Commondale was given full official station status, 3,555 passenger tickers were sold totalling a revenue of £99.[2][7]

Even with the increased population, passenger numbers were low and apart from the freight siding, the station did not handle any goods during its lifetime.[8] It did have several station masters (eight between 1891 and 1954) though they resided at the other station that they had responsibility for (Castleton Moor) from 1930 onwards.[7] The station became the first in the area to become an unstaffed halt; this was effective from 16 January 1950.[9]

The station is now on the Esk Valley Line and is just short of 18 miles (29 km) from Middlesbrough to the west, and 13 miles (21 km) from Whitby to the east.[10] The single platform, on the northern side of the line, has a single brick building, in the same style as other buildings in the hamlet, as opposed to stone built buildings at most other places on the line.[2][11]

Services

Northern Trains Route 5: Esk Valley Line
Durham Coast Line to Newcastle & Tees Valley Line to Bishop Auckland Middlesbrough Tees Valley Line to Saltburn James Cook Marton Gypsy Lane Nunthorpe Great Ayton Battersby Kildale Commondale Castleton Moor Danby Lealholm Glaisdale Egton North York Moors Railway to Pickering Grosmont for North York Moors Railway Sleights Ruswarp Whitby

The station has four departures per day (including Sundays) each way to Middlesbrough and Whitby.[12] There is also a late Friday evening service in summer.

Notes

Some sources state 1894 and 1895

References

1. Bairstow 2008, p. 39.
2. 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. p. 52. ISBN 1-871647-49-5.
3. Maynard 2015, p. 62.
4. Hoole, Ken (1985). Railway stations of the North East. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 159. ISBN 0-7153-8527-5.
5. Hoole, Ken (1983). Railways of the North York Moors : a pictorial history. Clapham: Dalesman Books. p. 21. ISBN 0-85206-731-3.
6. 1891 North Eastern Railway Working Timetable at the Internet Archive
7. Maynard 2015, p. 63.
8. Bairstow 2008, p. 89.
9. Bairstow 2008, p. 43.
10. Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (2016). Railway track diagrams. Book 2, Eastern (4 ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. 48. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.
11. Whitworth, Alan (2011). Esk Valley railway through time. Stroud: Amberley. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4456-0645-3.
12. "Commondale, North Yorkshire: travel and leisure information". www.eskvalleyrailway.co.uk. Retrieved 26 April 2019.

Sources

• Bairstow, Martin (2008). Railways around Whitby; volume one (4 ed.). Farsley: Bairstow. ISBN 978-1-871944-34-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Maynard, Peter (2015). North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway. Northallerton: North Eastern Railway Association. ISBN 978-1-873513-98-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Pastscape webpage
• Esk Valley Railway webpage for Commondale

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Kildale		Northern Trains Esk Valley Line		Castleton Moor