Thirsk Town railway station

Thirsk Town was a railway station that briefly served passengers for Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England in the 1840s and 1850s. The railway station was closed to passengers in 1855 but continued in freight use until October 1966. Trains could only leave the site going south-eastwards onto the Leeds Northern Railway towards Ripon, but a reversal was possible into Thirsk railway station after crossing the main line between York and Darlington.

Thirsk Town
Location
Place	Thirsk
Area	Hambleton
Coordinates	54.2308°N 1.3471°W / 54.2308; -1.3471
Operations
Original company	Leeds and Thirsk Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
History
1 June 1848 (1848-06-01)	Opened as Thirsk Town
June 1852	Renamed Thirsk
December 1855 (1855-12)	Closed to passengers
3 October 1966	closed for freight
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

History

The station was opened with the line in January 1848 and initially only served freight traffic with passenger trains starting in June of the same year.[1] Passenger trains continued to use the station for seven years until all workings were diverted to serve Thirsk railway station (on the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway) leaving only freight trains serving Thirsk Town terminus.[2]

The station was part of the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, which became the Leeds Northern Railway and in 1854 amalgamated with other companies to form the North Eastern Railway (NER).[3] The NER was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923[4] and became part of the North Eastern Region of British Rail upon Nationalisation in 1948.[5]

The original Leeds and Thirsk line was closed in 1958 and lifted in 1959. The goods station at Thirsk Town stayed open until October 1966[6] with trains travelling down to Thirsk Town Junction and then reversing northwards for 0.5 mi (0.80 km) onto the East Coast Main Line and into Thirsk railway station.[7]

The site was used as an agricultural merchants after closure and was renovated into a supermarket, which still occupies the site.[8]

References

1. "Disused Stations:Thirsk Town Station". www.disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
2. Burgess, Neil (2011). The lost railways of Yorkshire's North Riding. Catrine: Stenlake. p. 27. ISBN 9781840335552.
3. Weaver Tomlinson 1915, pp. 525–526.
4. King, David. "At The Grouping". nbrstudygroup.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
5. "British Railways: North Eastern Region – Graces Guide". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
6. Cobb, M H (2005). The railways of Great Britain, a historical atlas at the scale of 1 inch to 1 mile (2 ed.). Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Pub. p. 424. ISBN 9780711030022.
7. Weaver Tomlinson 1915, p. 489.
8. Barron, Peter (24 March 2017). "Righting Beeching's wrong". Darlington & Stockton Times (12–2017). p. 33. ISSN 2040-3933.

Bibliography

• Weaver Tomlinson, William (1915). The North Eastern Railway; its Rise and Development. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Andrew Reid & Co. OCLC 8890833.

Preceding station	Historical railways			Following station
Topcliffe Line and station closed		North Eastern Railway Leeds Northern Railway		Terminus

External links

• Station on a 1947 navigable map. The line it is on is clearly shown as a freight line