Scarborough to Whitby line

[Paperlad]

As an aside, a mile or so walk along the Cleveland Way (south from Ravenscar) is a disused WWII radar station that's well worth a mooch around. I seem to remember that it's owned by the National Trust (or summat) and was originally built to observe shipping in the interwar years. Whatever your interest, it's a spectacular part of the U.K.

 

The 'spotter' with the bald head n 'noculars is me!

Edited March 27, 2019 by Paperlad

[MarkC]

I visited that site a couple of years ago. Fascinating :)

[MarkC]

After a lot of digging (no pun intended) to try and get details, here is a snowplough operation in the winter of 1947, which has a fair number of photos on the 'net. Here's one thread

 

https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/operation-snow-storm.1106870/

 

Scarborough end

Plough 22/900576

J39 4818

J24 5615

Plough 21/900575

Whitby end

Edited April 4, 2019 by MarkC

[faulcon1]

Ravenscar was originally named Peak, but a London property developer bought the place and decided it needed a far better name and so he renamed it Ravenscar. He had big plans for Ravenscar as he saw it as a large town to rival Scarborough. But Ravenscar had an insurmountable problem. The Victorians liked to be beside the sea and although people were given the impression that Ravenscar was beside the sea it is actually six hundred feet above it. Even the railway company got in on the act to extol the virtues of Ravenscar producing an advertisement showing it was an easy stroll from Ravenscar to the sandy beach. A complete lie.  One of Ravenscar's residents has a plan of how big and grand Ravenscar was to have become. People even put a deposit of one pound sixteen shillings on a plot of land. Roads were built, curbs put in with drains but it all came to nearly nothing. Fewer than fifty  houses were actually built. Some say the developer absconded with all the deposits. But whatever happened Ravenscar has remained a village to this day. 

Edited August 9, 2019 by faulcon1

[Dava]

Certainly getting to the beach from Ravenscar is a hazardous and lengthy expedition to this day, and returning even more so [before the tide comes in] owing to coastal erosion. Robin Hood's Bay is safer and much pleasanter, with the old station, old bookshops and several cafes to ease the climb.

 

[russ p]

There is a map of the proposed development of ravenscar in the raven hall hotel. 

The roads were all named and a lot of the plots sold. I would have thought if it had actually been built there would have been at least one cliff lift

[TheSignalEngineer]

There doesn't seem to be any way down other than a scramble. Details of the site on this page.

https://www.thetownthatneverwas.co.uk/walk

 

The site also has a copy of the plot drawing overlaid on Google Earth, but take care that they don't try to sell you a plot. 

[MarkC]

There have been some great photos in the "Scarborough & Whitby Railway" Facebook Group recently. I'll put up more details in due course, but there is a great view of the train hauled by D352 which shows the coaches quite well - and was a 6 coach train, which is of interest in itself. Usual rule was 5 coaches for 1 locomotive, and 8 for double-headers (loop restriction on the latter), but the extra vehicle could be allowed, I suppose, given that D352 had potentially 2000 of EE's finest horses to unleash!

 

The other interesting diesel photo was a Class 124 Trans Pennine set, again heading south. This one was a real surprise.

 

Finally, there are a couple of shots of a Malton based J27 with a pickup goods. This one also surprised me, as I thought that J27s were too heavy for the line. Still, there it is. I'll edit this post and add the number when I look again at the photos. It was 65849, southbound working, on 2nd November 1959, according to the info posted.

 

As always, all contributions to this thread are welcome

 

Mark

Edited March 4, 2020 by MarkC
More info

[rockershovel]

I walked several sections of this line, when we had our holiday cottage in Whitby in the 90s and early 2000s. Very dramatic route, although I’ve never quite worked out how it accessed the Sandsend viaduct from the Whitby side. 

 

Whitby has a cliff lift, with a tunnel entrance from the promenade so I suppose Ravenscar might have been the same? Odd place today, though. 

[MarkC]

Reopening this thread, I now have the following locomotive/railcar/DMU types which we know ran on the line at some point. Some only once, it has to be said, but it may be of interest:-

 

Contractors' locomotives

Fox, Walker 0-6-0T

12" Barclay 0-4-0T

 

NER

Class 1001

Class A (later F8)

Class D (later H1)

Class O (later G5)

Class BTP (later G6)

Class W (original & rebuilt - later A6)

Class P (Later J24)

Class P1 (Later J25)

Petrol Railcar

Class X3 (I think) on Inspection train

Petrol inspection saloon

 

LNER

Class V1

Class V3

Class J39 (very restricted use)

Class D17/2

Class D20

Class D49

Class A5/2

Class A8

Class B1

Sentinel steam railcar

Clayton steam railcar

 

BR (including ex LMS locomotives after nationalisation, and LNER locomotives only known to have run on the line after nationalisation)

Class L1

Class K1

Class K4 (only on last day special)

Class J27

Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T

Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0

Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0

Stanier 2-6-4T (2-cylinder design)

Stanier Black 5 4-6-0

Fairburn 2-6-4T

BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2T

BR Standard Class 3 2-6-0

BR Standard Class 4 2-6-4T

BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0

Derby Lightweight DMU

Met-Camm Class 101 DMU

BRCW Class 104 DMU

Cravens Class 105 DMU

BR Derby Class 108 DMU

BRCW Class 110 DMU

BR Trans-Pennine Class 124 DMU

EE Type 4 (later Class 40)

BR Drewry 0-6-0 shunter

 

Please feel free to add to the list. Thank you.

 

Mark

Edited December 15, 2023 by MarkC
To add something

[Dava]

I cycled this line, staying at Ravenscar and doing Scarborough then Whitby and back over two days. Lovely but the pull back to the summit from Whitby past the old mines is a long climb. It is much more woods than when the line was open.

 

Dava

[Guest]

On 07/06/2020 at 17:28, rockershovel said:

I walked several sections of this line, when we had our holiday cottage in Whitby in the 90s and early 2000s. Very dramatic route, although I’ve never quite worked out how it accessed the Sandsend viaduct from the Whitby side. 

 

Whitby has a cliff lift, with a tunnel entrance from the promenade so I suppose Ravenscar might have been the same? Odd place today, though. 

We used to holiday in Sandsend many years ago. There were two viaducts in Sandsend and the site of the southern one has been changed a fair bit, even more so recently as they’ve realigned the road south of Sandsend and re-profiled the cliff above the road to improve drainage.

 

This link shows it quite well

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/04/21/6d04218f7c989c416298fe5eb40dfca3.jpg

 

The north end is now built over by housing I think. Interesting that the kiosk/cafe beneath the viaduct is still there, though much changed.

We used to walk along the path north of the station, which i loved as a child. 

 

 

[MarkC]

I've added Class D20, Class D17/2 and BRCW Class 104 DMUs to the list above.

 

Mark

Edited December 15, 2023 by MarkC
To add something