Richmond railway station was a railway station that served the town of Richmond in North Yorkshire, England. The station was the terminus of a branch line that connected with what would become the East Coast Main Line.
History
Richmond station was the terminus of the now closed Eryholme-Richmond branch line. In 1845, the Great North of England Railway (GNER) was granted powers to construct a branch line from Coopers House near Dalton, six miles south of Darlington, to Richmond. While construction of the line was underway the GNER was reconstituted as the York & Newcastle Railway, and it was this company which opened the line on 1846. Although the line opened on 10 September 1846, the present station at Richmond was not opened until 9 April 1847, a temporary wooden platform being provided in the interim.
The line from Dalton Junction (renamed Eryholme Junction in 1911) had stations at Moulton, Scorton and Catterick Bridge, and was double track throughout. These stations are rare in that they were designed in a Tudor style by architect G. T. Andrews. The exuberant architectural style of the early railway stations reflects the desire of the railway companies to promote their new form of travel as a high status experience.
The line crossed the River Swale at Easby, and terminated in the Parish of St Martin's on the south bank of the Swale opposite the town of Richmond, as it was considered "geographically impossible" to build the railway into the town. The station layout consisted of two platforms for passenger trains, one which ended in a horse-loading dock, and the other was underneath the main trainshed. Generous facilities were provided for goods traffic, together with facilities for railway operations and staff accommodation. The principal features were:
Large goods shed
Engine shed
Gasworks
Signal box (demolished 1968) Station Master's house Goods Agent's house Six staff cottages Two goods staff cottages Water pumping station at Sand Beck. turntable Fifty coal ‘drops’, which were only accessible to trains travelling through the two-road engine shed
The station was listed in the Railway Clearing House Handbook for 1904 as being able to handle horse boxes, cattle, vans and general goods, and was equipped with a crane.
The railway also constructed a road bridge over the River Swale and built a road up into the town to provide access to the station. This bridge with four Gothic arches of span and a rise, was designed by Robert Stephenson, Engineer-in-Chief of the York & Newcastle Railway and son of George Stephenson (Although some sources credit G T Andrews). This bridge was almost unique in that it was a railway-owned bridge carrying a road over a river. It was taken over by the Town Council about 1920 but still retains its North Eastern Railway bridge plates – No 8. This bridge is now known as Mercury Bridge in honour of the close association between the town and the Royal Corps of Signals.
The main station building, the work of the architect George Townsend Andrews of York, was specifically designed for Richmond to blend in with the buildings and character of this historic market town. The wide two-ridge train shed covered a platform line and two sidings. The original platform was both low and short, extending only a short distance outside the train shed. This was subsequently lengthened in 1860 and the front edge raised resulting in a downward slope towards the floor level of the offices, which survived until the recent renovations. The platform was further lengthened in 1915 to cope with the increased military traffic from the newly established Catterick Camp, and in its final form was long.
The train shed was open at the south end and lit by gas: electricity was not provided until after the Second World War. The station building included:
Booking office
General waiting room (later the enlarged parcels office) Ladies waiting room Refreshment room (later the waiting room) Parcels office (later enlarged) Stationmaster's office Porter's room Toilets.
Later, a wooden ticket-collector's booth was provided next to the main entrance and in the 20th century there was a small wooden bookstall operated by W H Smith, which closed in 1940.