Whitby and Pickering Railway

Whitby-Pickering
NYMR special steam train in the Esk Valley
Route length:	29 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Whitby Town to Whitby West Cliff Scarborough – Whitby railway line from Whitby West Cliff Ruswarp River Esk , 9 bridges Sleights Middlesbrough-Whitby railway line Grosmont (NYMR station) formerly: " Tunnel " Murk Esk Grosmont tunnel Depot Route from 1836 Beck Hole Beck Hole Ramp Murk Esk, 5 bridges each Goathland Murk Esk Fen Bogs Pass height 150 m Newtondale stop Levisham Oberbau depot Repair shop wagon Pickering to Pilmoor, York and Scarborough

The Whitby and Pickering Railway ( W&PR ) is a railway line designed by George Stephenson and the name of a railway company that operated this line.

location

It is located in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom and connected the port city of Whitby with Pickering inland . After a route branching off to Middlesbrough was connected in Grosmont , the main traffic shifted to the Whitby – Middlesbrough route .

history

Whitby Town station reception building

The route was planned by George Stephenson in 1831 in order to better connect the port town of Whitby on the North Sea to its hinterland. The destination was the market town of Pickering. In between there were iron ore deposits that also had to be developed. In addition, a low mountain range and moor landscape had to be crossed. This led - also in view of the steam locomotives that were not yet very powerful at the time - to the decision to build the line as a horse-drawn tram and to some technical features of the railway infrastructure (see below). The first section of the line between Whitby and Grosmont was opened on June 8, 1835, the entire line after more than five years of construction on May 26, 1836. From the beginning, passenger transport was also offered on the line.

In 1845 the line was bought by the York and North Midland Railway . In order to integrate it into its network, it was technically upgraded for operation with steam locomotives. This included stronger rails and replacing the original wooden bridges with stone or steel bridges. The line was extended south towards York and was thereby connected to the York and North Midland Railway and the national rail network. In addition, station buildings were built, most of which are still intact.

In 1854 the York and North Midland Railway merged with the North Eastern Railway . From around 1860 it built a bypass around the Beck-Hole ramp, the steepest section of the route that steam locomotives could not drive, and thus enabled locomotives to be used continuously over the entire route from 1865 onwards. With this, the line had reached the level of expansion that still exists between Whitby and Pickering today. Only the second track on the line was dismantled during the First World War .

In 1923, the North Eastern Railway went into the first wave of consolidation of British railway companies due to the Railway Act of 1921 in the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER).

With the nationalization of the railways in Great Britain in 1948, the line became part of the British Railways network . The relatively insignificant branch line received hardly any investment and was largely preserved in a condition from the first half of the 20th century. From 1958, however, diesel locomotives replaced traction with steam locomotives. Freight traffic dropped drastically around this time. Due to the alleged lack of profitability, based on the Beeching report in 1965, passenger traffic between Grosmont and Pickering was initially shut down, and freight traffic a year later. The Grosmont – Whitby section remained to this day as part of the Whitby – Middlsborough link, which narrowly escaped closure. In 1967 the NYMR Preservation Society was formed , which in 1969 let a locomotive drive along the route for the first time. From these beginnings, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway was born , now one of the largest museum railways in Great Britain. For their development see: here .

Technical features

Three major engineering structures were required in the 1830s to build the line:

Grosmont tunnel

Old tunnel in Grosmont

Grosmont station and new tunnel

There are two parallel tunnels: the original one, built 1833-1835, with a small profile for the horse-drawn railway and a second, which was built immediately to the west of it from 1860 and had an enlarged clearance that was designed for a double-track railway line. The place and the station Grosmont were originally called tunnels after the structures .

The smaller, original tunnel has also been preserved and now serves as a public footpath that connects the station and the depot of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway . The depot can be viewed and the tunnel can be entered. The tunnel is one of the oldest rail tunnels in the world and the oldest through which passenger traffic took place.

Beck Hole Ramp

To overcome the difference in height between the hills at the foot of the North Yorkshire low mountain range and its height, George Stephenson's concept envisaged a ramp on which the wagons were pulled up with a winch on hemp ropes . While the train to be transported was suspended from one end of the rope , the other end - as a counterweight - was weighed down with flat wagons on which water tanks were mounted. Brake cars were also installed in the trains in order to better regulate the speed of the trains being transported. The water could then be drained again in the valley. (The Nerobergbahn in Wiesbaden still operates according to a similar system .)

In 1845, the facility received a stationary steam engine to move the cars over the ramp and the hemp ropes were replaced by steel ropes. Nevertheless, there were several accidents :

• On the morning of August 29, 1860, several trains coming from the coast carrying fish had been carried up the ramp. The dripping water and fat had made the rails very slippery. A passenger train traveling down the valley with seven passenger cars and leading its brake car at the rear of the train slipped - despite the brakes on - and hit the locomotive waiting in the valley at about 6 km / h. Three people were injured and the property damage was minor.
• On the evening of October 12, 1861, the wagons of a freight train loaded with dolerite were supposed to be carried up the ramp. Since the eight wagons were too heavy to be pulled up all at once, they were divided into two groups of four wagons each. The first four cars weighed more than 54 (metric) tons . The wagons were hung on the brake truck, to which the pull rope was attached. After the train had covered a little more than 100 meters, the pulling rope broke. The brakeman immediately tightened the brake, but its power was not enough to stop the train. He jumped off and tried to push wooden planks that had been specially carried for this purpose between the spokes of the wheels in order to block them, but failed. The train rolled back into the valley station and collided with the other cars parked there. Nobody was injured. The brake car and two cars each of the rolling down and two cars of the train section still waiting in the station were smashed.
• On February 10, 1864, there was an accident with two dead and 13 injured when a rope in the facility broke, the train that had just been transported rolled down the ramp and could only be braked with the handbrake in its baggage car , which was completely inadequate was.

On July 1, 1865, the bypass route was completed, which replaced the ramp and could be used by locomotives. The ramp has been shut down. Today there is a hiking trail on their route, the Historic Rail Trail .

Fen Bogs

In the area of ​​the Fen Bog, the route crosses a moorland, now a nature reserve . In order to keep the superstructure stable in the 12 meter deep bog, the subsoil was stabilized with layers of wickerwork and sheepskins stuffed with heather . The construction has proven to be very effective, although - or because - the moor moves vertically: When there is large amounts of precipitation, the surface rises, and when the water level falls, it also falls. The railway line rises and falls with it.

traffic

Sir Nigel Gresley streamlined locomotive entering Pickering

In the first year of operation, 1835/36, the railway carried 10,000 tons of stones from Grosmont to Whitby and 6,000 passengers. Closed carriages were used as vehicles for passenger transport . The travel time between Whitby and Pickering was two and a half hours, the fare was 1  shilling (12  pence ) for an outside seat and 1 shilling 3 pence (= 15 pence) for an inside seat.

literature

• David Joy: Line Guide .
• Chris Potter et al. a .: Guide Book . Leeds 2008.

Web links

Commons : Whitby and Pickering Railway  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• North Yorkshire Moors Railway website
• NYMR - Local Photo Gallery

Individual evidence

1. ↑ At the beginning of the opening ceremony, the steam locomotive “ Lady Hilda ” derailed three times and was then left behind. The passengers of the wagons pulled by her changed to vehicles drawn by horses (Walter Strauss: Von eisernenhors und Pfaden . Hannover 1924, p. 39).
2. ↑ A contemporary report on the opening is reproduced in: Walter Strauss: From iron horses and paths . Hanover 1924, p. 39f.
3. ^ Captain of the Pioneers HW Tyler: [ accident report ]. Excerpts published in Railways Archive - Accidents Archive .
4. ^ Railways Archive - Accidents Archive .
5. ^ Railways Archive - Accidents Archive .
6. ↑ Captain HW Tyler: [ accident report ]. Excerpts published in Railways Archive - Accidents Archive .