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
Location
Place	Ruswarp
Local authority	Scarborough
Coordinates	54.470°N 0.628°W / 54.470; -0.628
Grid reference	NZ890091
Operations
Station code	RUS
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	3,228
2015/16	2,966
2016/17	2,568
2017/18	2,686
2018/19	2,404
History
Original company	Whitby and Pickering Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
1848	Station 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 Ruswarp from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

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

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

There are four services per day in each direction towards both Whitby and Middlesbrough Monday to Saturday, with two through trains to Sunderland and Newcastle Central. Sunday services of four trains in each direction also operate throughout the year.[19]

Gallery

• 
  The bridge over the River Esk just to the west of the station
• 
  A Class 156 in Northern Rail livery
• 
  River Esk Railway viaduct, Ruswarp

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. Table 45 National Rail timetable, December 2019

Sources

• Bairstow, Martin (2008). Railways Around Whitby, Volume 1. Farsley: Bairstow. ISBN 978-1-871944-34-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Train times and station information for Ruswarp railway station from National Rail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Sleights		Northern Trains Esk Valley Line		Whitby