Clapham railway station

Clapham railway station serves the village of Clapham in North Yorkshire, England. The station is 48 miles (77 km) north-west of Leeds on the Leeds to Morecambe Line towards Lancaster and Morecambe. It is managed by Northern who provide all passenger train services.

Clapham (North Yorkshire)
Eastbound platform
Location	Clapham, Craven England
Coordinates	54.105394°N 2.410208°W
Grid reference	SD732678
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	CPY
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Opened	1849
Passengers
2015/16	6,654
2016/17	7,442
2017/18	6,688
2018/19	6,576
2019/20	8,492
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station (which is unstaffed) is situated just over a mile outside of Clapham.[1] Immediately to the east, the line crosses the River Wenning on a tall, eight-span viaduct.

The station was formerly known in the national timetable as Clapham (Yorkshire), to distinguish it from Clapham (London), until the latter was renamed Clapham High Street.

History

The station was opened by the "little" North Western Railway (NWR) on 30 July 1849 on their line from Skipton to Ingleton and became a junction the following year when the link along the Wenning Valley from Bentham was completed on 1 June 1850[2] to finish the route from Lancaster to Skipton.

The Ingleton route was subsequently extended northwards, as the Ingleton Branch Line, through Kirkby Lonsdale and Sedbergh to join the West Coast Main Line at Low Gill (near Tebay) by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&C) in 1861, but disagreements between the L&C's successor, the London and North Western Railway, and the Midland Railway (who had leased the NWR in 1859) over running rights and the subsequent construction of the Settle-Carlisle Line, meant that it never became the major Anglo-Scottish route that the NWR had originally intended.

The Ingleton Branch was closed to passenger traffic on 1 February 1954 and completely in July 1966,[3] although regular goods traffic had ended some months earlier. Lifting of the track followed in April 1967. A sharp curve (with a permanent 35 mph speed restriction) marks the site of the former junction, immediately west of the station.

The station ceased to handle goods traffic in 1968, when the remaining sidings were taken out of use & dismantled and the station signal box closed. It then became an unstaffed halt in October 1970 - the old station house still stands, but is now a private residence.

The proximity of the old station platforms to the Wenning viaduct (and resulting safety concerns due to the steep drop) saw infrastructure operator Railtrack change the layout here in 1998. The eastern platform was refurbished, resurfaced and shortened at its eastern end, whilst a new wooden westbound platform was constructed on the opposite side of the footbridge to its predecessor (which was then demolished) and the bridge steps modified. As a result, the station is similar to neighbouring Giggleswick in having a wooden platform for westbound trains and a stone one for eastbound services.[4]

Facilities

The station is operated by Northern Trains.

Waiting shelters are present on each platform, along with train information notice boards, but there are no toilets. At present, no ticket machine is available, so tickets can only be purchased on the train or in advance. The footbridge linking the platforms does not have ramps, so the westbound (trains heading towards Lancaster) platform is not accessible for disabled passengers: step-free access is possible on the eastbound (trains heading towards Leeds) side.[5]

Northern Rail have successfully applied for planning permission to install a ticket machine and electronic train departure boards, and also to provide a public toilet on the eastbound platform. The ticket machine and PIS displays are to be installed in 2019.

Services

Service improvements were introduced in the May 2019 timetable. There are now eight trains each way Mondays to Saturdays and five trains each way on Sundays. Most trains run between Leeds and Morecambe, but some early morning and evening services terminate at Lancaster. The first Monday to Saturday westbound train starts from Skipton and the last Monday to Saturday eastbound train terminates there.[6]

There is no longer a through service to Heysham Port on weekdays, though one is to commence on Sundays only at the December 2019 timetable change.[7]

Notes

1. "Streetmap". Retrieved 28 August 2007.
2. Binns, p. 9
3. Marshall, p. 100
4. Clapham (North Yorkshire) railway station in 2011 Thompson, N, geograph.org.uk; Retrieved 21 April 2020
5. Clapham Station Information National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 25 November 2016
6. Northern Rail Timetable 7 - Leeds to Carlisle, Leeds to Morecambe & Heysham Port, 19 May to 14 December 2019Northern website; Retrieved 16 May 2019
7. Northern Timetable 7 - Leeds to Carlisle/Morecambe and Heysham Port, 15 December 2019 – 16 February 2020 Retrieved 13/ November 2019

References

• Binns, D (1982) The 'Little' North Western Railway, Wyvern Publishing, Skipton. ISBN 0-907941-01-X
• Marshall, J (1981) Forgotten Railways North-West England, David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6

Gallery

• 
  The station sign at Clapham railway station
• 
  Bridge and westbound platform
• 
  The station in 1986
• 
  The station in 1986

External links

• Video footage of Clapham station

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