Picton-Battersby Line

Picton–Battersby line
Looking south east from the former Potto railway station onto the formation of the Whorlton branch
Overview
Type	Heavy Rail
Status	Closed
Locale	North Yorkshire
Termini	Picton Battersby
Stations	7
Operation
Opened	March 1857 to Stokesley April 1858 to Kildale
Closed	June 1954 to passengers August 1965 completely
Operator(s)	North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway North Eastern Railway London North Eastern Railway British Rail
Technical
Line length	12.5 miles (20.1 km)
Number of tracks	1 as built, later dualled
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

[ ] Picton–Battersby Line
Northallerton-Eaglescliffe Line to Eaglescliffe Picton closed Northallerton-Eaglescliffe Line to Northallerton Trenholme Bar 1857–1954 Potto 1857–1954 Whorlton Mines Branch 1857–1892 Sexhow 1857–1954 Stokesley 1857–1954 Ingleby 1858–1954 Rosedale Branch 1858–1929 Battersby 1858–0000 North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway to Grosmont Nunthorpe-Battersby Link

The Picton–Battersby line was a section of railway line running from Picton, North Yorkshire, England, on what is now the Northallerton–Eaglescliffe line, to Battersby on what is now the Esk Valley line.

The line was constructed by the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway (NY&C) between Picton (on the Leeds Northern's 1852 route between Northallerton and ) and Grosmont. It was opened in 1857 from Picton to Stokesley, with intermediate stations at Trenholme Bar, Potto and Sexhow. The line included a two-mile branch south from Potto to the mines at Whorlton.

The NY&C was incorporated into the North Eastern Railway (NER) in 1858, the same year the Rosedale Branch Line for the Rosedale mines was purchased from private owners and began conversion from narrow gauge to standard gauge. It was left to NER to finish the line to Grosmont via Battersby. This and the link line to Nunthorpe were completed in stages to 1865.

There were seven stations on the Picton to Battersby section of the NY&C.

A 2 miles (3.2 km) branch to the ironstone mines at Ailesbury and Swainby left the line southwards after Potto station. This was opened with the initial section of the line and forwarded two ironstone trains per day to the furnaces on Teesside. The mines were exhausted in 1887 and the branch was closed in 1892.

When the freight from the mines ceased, the passenger services along the Picton–Battersby and Esk Valley lines still remained important to the region, despite competition along the coast lines, with seven weekday trains along the line between Teesside and Whitby in 1900. However, this dropped to four in 1922 and by 1954 it was only two. Passenger services were withdrawn on 14 June 1954, with goods traffic ending west of Stokesley in 1958. Freight traffic remained between Stokesley and Battersby until 1965, when it too ceased, and the line dropped completely out of use.