Hawes railway station

Hawes
Location
Place Hawes
Area Richmondshire
Coordinates 54°18′17″N 2°11′34″W / 54.3047°N 2.1929°W / 54.3047; -2.1929Coordinates: 54°18′17″N 2°11′34″W / 54.3047°N 2.1929°W / 54.3047; -2.1929
Grid reference SD875899
Operations
Original company Midland Railway
Pre-grouping Midland Railway
Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Platforms 2
History
1 October 1878[1] Opened
16 March 1959[1] Closed to passengers
April 1964 closed for goods traffic
Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom
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Hawes railway station is a disused railway station that served the town of Hawes in North Yorkshire, England. It was closed in 1959 and now forms part of the Dales Countryside Museum.

History

The station was opened in October 1878 by the Midland Railway (MR) as the terminus of their 6-mile (9.7 km) branch line from Hawes Junction. The MR branch made an end-on junction here with the North Eastern Railway (NER) line from Northallerton via Bedale which had been opened as far as Leyburn by 1856 and then extended onwards to Hawes in the summer of 1878. Although the station belonged to the Midland, the NER (and later the LNER) operated most of the passenger services from there — the MR section being worked as an extension of the service to/from Northallerton. The only exception to this was a single daily return service between Hawes and Hellifield that for much of its life was known by the somewhat unusual nickname of Bonnyface.[2]

The NER section of the line lost its passenger service in April 1954, but the station retained a nominal service of one train each way from Hawes Junction (by now renamed Garsdale) until final closure to passengers on 16 March 1959. Goods traffic from the Leyburn direction continued until complete closure in April 1964,[3] after which the track was lifted and the buildings left to fall into disrepair. However, after many years of disuse, the site was purchased by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and converted into a museum and tourist information centre in the early 1990s, a role it continues to fulfil to this day.[4] As part of this scheme, the station buildings and platforms were refurbished, a short length of track relaid and a preserved industrial tank locomotive, cosmetically painted in British Railways colours, together with a pair of ex-BR Mark 1 coaches were installed as a static exhibit (as can be seen from the accompanying photo).

Although isolated from the national rail network for over fifty-five years, the Wensleydale Railway hopes to one day eventually rebuild, re-instate and re-open the currently abandoned and derelict section of line between Redmire and Garsdale (thus would involve restoring the station to its former glory and active use).[5]

However the train with three carriages which currently reside in the platform would have to be removed and be placed in a new-built siding out of harms way as the project would involve re-instating the entire station to its former use.

Preceding station Disused railways Following station
Terminus   North Eastern Railway   Askrigg
Line and station closed
Garsdale
Line closed, station open		   Midland Railway
Hawes Branch		   Terminus
  Proposed Heritage railways
Garsdale
Line closed, station open		   Wensleydale Railway   Askrigg
Line and station closed

Notes

  1. 1 2 Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
  2. ↑ Houghton & Foster; p. 51
  3. ↑ Body; p. 144
  4. ↑ "Dales Countryside Museum Website". Retrieved 5 November 2008.
  5. ↑ "Wensleydale Railway Association - History & Heritage". Retrieved 5 November 2008.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.