Goathland railway station

Goathland railway station was a short lived, early, railway station in Goathland, North Yorkshire, England. The actual station was known simply as Goathland but this article is so named to distinguish it from the later Goathland railway station. The station at the top of the Beckhole Incline was opened with the opening throughout of the Whitby and Pickering Railway on Thursday 26 May 1836. The station closed with the opening of the NER's Deviation line on 1 July 1865. Thus the station had a life of less than thirty years. A new Goathland station was opened on the deviation line.Whitby and Pickering Railway (1836-45)Little is known about what facilities the horse-worked W&P provided at Goathland, they did build an 'overseers cottage' at the head of the incline, that cottage survives, now known as 'Ash Tree Cottage', it is probably the only surviving inhabited W&P structure.The incline built to the design of the W&P's Engineer George Stephenson was self-acting with the descending traffic hauling up the ascending traffic. The descending coach or wagons was given additional weight by means of a wheeled water butt, which was filled before descending, then drained at the bottom and returned to the top with the next ascending load. The machinery for working the inclined plane was obtained from Robert Stephenson at a cost of £135 14s 6d. The original rope for the incline manufactured by Mr. Henry Simpson was 1,500 yards long and 5.5 inches in circumference.