Battersby Junction

Mining was already established on the Ingleby Estate, owned by the Lord De L' Isle and Dudley, when the railway arrived in 1858. The Ingleby Ironstone & Freestone Mining Company built a narrow gauge line to meet the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway east of Ingleby station at Battersby - initially named Ingleby Junction. The North Eastern Railway Company, which had absorbed the NY&CR, and had interests in both Rosedale Ironstone Mining Co. and Ferryhill Ironworks, took over this line too, converting it to standard gauge and extending from the top of the original Ingleby Ironstone Company's incline over 10 miles of bleak moorland to Rosedale.

A branch line through Great Ayton for mineral traffic was opened in 1864 linking Battersby to the Middlesbrough & Guisborough Railway just south of Nunthorpe station. Four years later, in 1868, passenger operations were introduced along this branch and with the completion of the route through to George Stephenson's Whitby & Pickering Railway at Grosmont, Battersby had become an important junction.

Around this period passenger facilities were extended and in 1875/6 a three road engine shed, forty-two foot turntable and thirty-seven houses, were added to accommodate railway workers and their families. Later still at some unknown date a NER footbridge was installed to provide safer passage between the up and down platforms - presumably in response to some tightening of health & safety regulations.

To avoid confusion amongst passengers, Ingleby Junction was renamed Battersby Junction in 1878, "Junction" was dropped from the name later in 1893 - although local villagers still refer to "Battersby Junction" over one hundred years later!

The North Eastern Railway was absorbed into the London & North Eastern Railway at "grouping" in 1923 and operations carried on under the new LNER regime. Following the closure of Rosedale mines in 1925, the marshalling yard at Battersby Junction went into decline. The continued trade in calcine dust extended operations for a while, but by 1929 all traffic on the Rosedale Railway ceased and the mineral branch line closed.

Passenger and local goods services between Whitby & Teesside provided enough traffic to keep the line and remaining branch open until after "nationalisation" in 1948. Under British Railways, passenger services via Picton were withdrawn, LNER locomotive B1 No.61034 "Chiru" working the last passenger train the 5.42pm Whitby (6.59 pm from Battersby) to Stockton on 12th June 1954. From then on all passenger trains were required to reverse at Battersby and continue to Teesside along the branch; although dieselisation, in 1958, made this operation somewhat simpler. When goods operations ceased ten years later the line west of Battersby closed and the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway was no more.

All railway operations at Battersby might have ended, but for a miraculous escape from the "Beeching Axe" of 1963/4 - after the closure notice was published. Concerned with the effects on tourism, Whitby hoteliers managed to gain a temporary reprieve for the Esk Valley line which survived until 1966 when the size of the B.R. network was stabilised.

Today Battersby Station still remains open for Whitby bound passengers and the occasional steam locomotive en-route to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway at Grosmont. The impressive signalbox was closed in 1989 and demolished two years later, but the station buildings, now converted to private dwellings, water tower, platform watercrane, turntable base and houses remain as evidence of this once busy and important ironstone railway junction.

Ingleby Incline

No record of the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway would be complete without a special mention of Ingleby Incline. This incredible inclined tramway was the only rail link between the moorland Rosedale branch and the marshalling yards at Battersby Junction below. Built by the North Eastern Railway it replaced the Ingleby Ironstone Mining Company's previous narrow gauge railway and incline which terminated at 1200ft and served mines below Burton Head.

The escarpment to the southwest of Ingleby Manor still bears the scars of at least two other inclined tramways built by the Ingleby Ironstone & Freestone Mining Company to serve mining or quarrying operations in the area.

Railway workers cottages were built at both Incline Foot and Incline Top - the latter christened "Siberia" by the inhabitants on account of the frequent treacherous weather conditions.

The incline worked on the principle of descending wagons, full of iron-ore, hauling empties up the 1430yd, steep 1 in 5 gradient, attached to long steel ropes revolving in opposite directions around a huge drum and controlled by a brake. Accidents were common, so railway workers were not permitted to ride on either ascending or descending wagons.

The first locomotives to be based at Rosedale were long boilered 0-6-0s, built by Robert Stephenson. By 1900 NER class P (LNER J24) locos, fitted with special tender cabs to help protect crews from severe weather, worked the branch from Incline Top to Rosedale. Rosedale engines normally remained on the high level for several years due to the great difficulties in moving them up and down the incline. This operation involved the removal of the centre driving wheels before the loco could be safely maneuvered onto the steep slope.

After more than sixty years, following the closure of ironstone mining and the subsequent trade in calcine dust from Rosedale in 1929, Ingleby Incline closed. Today all that remains is a pile of rubble at Incline Top and the remote cottages now in private use below. The deep scar that was once the incline still stands proud on the escarpment side as a lasting reminder of this most innovative and industrious period of Ingleby's history.

Ingleby Station

The North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway reached Ingleby on 1st February 1858. The line was laid with double track and the station included both up and down platforms. The sandstone station building included many elegant features, not typical of North Eastern Railway design. This was at the insistence of the the landowner, Lord De L' Isle, presumably in anticipation of royal visitors to the nearby Ingleby Manor. The yard was equipped with coal drops, a goods/cattle dock, siding and short headshunt. In later years the up-side track, beyond the crossing gates was used for wagon storage; requiring all Stokesley bound trains to steam a short distance beyond the crossing then reverse back across a set of trailing points onto the down-line, which operated as a single track to Picton Junction.

Kildale

Within months of the NY&C reaching Ingleby Junction, the railway was opened through to Kildale (April 1858). The line beyond the Junction was singled, but two platforms were built at Kildale, enabling trains to pass.

With its stone buildings and tranquil setting by the parish church, Kildale was a quite charming example of a NER rural station. The yard was equipped with coal cells and a goods/cattle dock with a short spur to a carriage loading ramp - presumably to facilitate a service for the local gentry. The beautifully cultivated station gardens were a notable feature. In summer the embankments behind both platforms were ablaze in a mass of colour; little wonder Kildale won awards for best kept station.

History shows the railway along the Esk Valley to be a single line operation throughout its life, but the NER demonstrated remarkable forward planning when it built all bridges along the route to accommodate two tracks, should the need for doubling ever arise. Between Battersby and Kildale there are five such bridges including a quaint iron footbridge providing access to Kildale parish church.

Just beyond Kildale headshunt were two railway workers cottages. These were not connected to a water supply, so each day the morning train would deliver two milk churns of water to a small raised platform by the cottages. Further along a short branch connected a whinstone quarry at New Row to the line. The branch closed suddenly after miners struck a spring in 1904 and the quarry became a lake - known locally still as "Quarry Lake".

After the station became an unstaffed halt in the 1960's, the passing loop was lifted and later all of the buildings, except an old brick waiting shelter on the unused downside platform (both still remain) were demolished leaving Kildale station with only a hint of its former rural charm.