Thirsk railway station

Thirsk
View north from the footbridge, showing the lack of platforms for the two centre tracks
Location
Place	Thirsk
Local authority	District of Hambleton
Coordinates	54°13′42″N 1°22′21″W / 54.228240°N 1.372620°WCoordinates: 54°13′42″N 1°22′21″W / 54.228240°N 1.372620°W
Grid reference	SE409816
Operations
Station code	THI
Managed by	TransPennine Express
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.142 million
2005/06	0.147 million
2006/07	0.148 million
2007/08	0.161 million
2008/09	0.182 million
2009/10	0.174 million
2010/11	0.189 million
2011/12	0.189 million
2012/13	0.191 million
2013/14	0.194 million
2014/15	0.212 million
History
Original company	Great North of England Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
31 March 1841	Station opened as Newcastle Junction
?	Renamed Thirsk
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Thirsk from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Thirsk railway station serves the town of Thirsk in North Yorkshire, England. The station is 22.25 miles (36 km) north of York on the East Coast Main Line. The station is about 1.5 miles (2 km) outside the town centre and is actually on the edge of the village of Carlton Miniott.

There are four tracks, but only the outer two have platforms. From satellite imagery it can look as if there are platforms on the inner two tracks, but examination on the ground shows this not to be true; the platform faces serving the innermost pair of tracks were removed in the 1970s in preparation for higher-speed main-line running using InterCity 125 trains.^[1] The railway station is operated by First TransPennine Express. Other train services are provided by the open-access operator Grand Central Railway.

History

The railway line between York and Darlington was built by the Great North of England Railway, most of which was authorised in 1837; the line was formally opened on 30 March 1841.^[2] The station at Thirsk, which opened to the public on 31 March 1841, was originally named Newcastle Junction.^[3]

In 1933 Britain's first route-setting power signal box using a switch panel rather than a lever frame opened at Thirsk, to the specification of the LNER's signalling engineers A.F. Bound and A. E. Tattersall, forming the template for many such future installations on the nation's railway network.^[1] Larger schemes to a similar design followed at other locations on the former North Eastern Railway network, such as Hull Paragon (1938), Northallerton (1939) and York (1951 - the resignalling project was interrupted by the Second World War and not completed until after nationalisation). Thirsk signal box itself, after various alterations over the course of its life, eventually closed around 1989 under the York IECC signalling scheme.^[4]

Services

There is generally an hourly service northbound to Middlesbrough and southbound to York, Leeds, Huddersfield and beyond (usually Manchester Airport). Some northbound Newcastle TransPennine services also stop at Thirsk as well as Grand Central Railway services between London Kings Cross and Sunderland.^[5]

Sundays generally have two-hourly service towards Middlesbrough and York.

Events

• 1841 Station opened at the same time as the York - Darlington line.
• 1847 permanent water tower built.
• 1855 Connection to Leeds & Thirsk Railway line to Ripon via Melmerby opened.
• Accidents occurred in 1867, 1870, 1875, 1879 and 1882.
• 1933 Britain's first "panel" route-setting power signal box opened at Thirsk.
• 1954 The first four carriages of the "Heart of Midlothian" express from King's Cross to Edinburgh composed of thirteen coaches derailed. The four carriages derailed after problems with signalling and points, no one was injured.
• 1959 Ripon services cease in September with closure of Melmerby branch line to all traffic.
• 1967 A goods wagon derailed which led to a collision with an express, 7 people were killed, 45 injured.

See also

• Thirsk rail crash (1892)
• Thirsk rail crash (1967)

References

1. Appleby, K. (1993). Rail Super Centres: York. Ian Allan.
2. Allen, Cecil J. (1974) [1964]. The North Eastern Railway. Shepperton: Ian Allan. pp. 67–69. ISBN 0-7110-0495-1.
3. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 168, 228. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
4. "York IECC Control Area". TRE. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
5. GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 26 & 39

External links

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