Scarcliffe railway station

Scarcliffe railway station is a former railway station in Scarcliffe, Derbyshire, England.

Scarcliffe
General information
Location	Bolsover England
Coordinates	53°12′39″N 1°15′06″W / 53.2109°N 1.2518°W / 53.2109; -1.2518
Grid reference	SK 500 684
Platforms	2 (Island)
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	LD&ECR
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	LNER British Railways
Key dates
3 January 1898	Opened
3 December 1951	Closed^[1]

v t e Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway
Legend
Chesterfield (Market Place) Boythorpe Viaduct over MR Brampton Branch and Boythorpe Railway   Horns Bridge over Midland Main Line GCR Chesterfield Loop River Rother Duckmanton Tunnel Great Central Main Line Arkwright Town Arkwright Town Jct (1907) River Doe Lea Doe Lea Viaduct over MR Doe Lea Branch Bolsover South Bolsover Tunnel Scarcliffe Summit MML to St Pancras Sheffield Midland Attercliffe Road (MR) Rotherham Masborough West Tinsley (SDR) Catcliffe (SDR) Rotherham Masborough Treeton (MR) Woodhouse Mill (MR) Beighton (GCR) Beighton Junction Killamarsh West (MR) Beighton (GCR) Upperthorpe and Killamarsh Spinkhill Spinkhill Tunnel Clowne South Summit Markland Grips Viaduct Creswell and Welbeck Shirebrook North (Originally Langwith Junction) Langwith Junction shed Shirebrook South GNR to Nottingham Victoria (1901) Shirebrook West MR (now Robin Hood Line) Nottingham Midland to Worksop Warsop Clipstone Colliery Sidings Mansfield Railway to Nottingham Victoria (from 1917) Edwinstowe Ollerton Boughton Tuxford Central Tuxford Works Tuxford shed Dukeries Junction GNR (now ECML) Kings Cross to Retford Fledborough Fledborough Viaduct over River Trent Clifton-on-Trent Doddington and Harby Skellingthorpe GN&GEJR to Saxilby Pyewipe Junction Lincoln to Peterborough

1950 Excursion Advert

LD&ECR and Sheffield District Railway

History

The line was opened by the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (later part of the Great Central Railway and subsequently the LNER) in March 1897.^[2] Scarcliffe was opened on 3 January the following year.

As originally planned, this was a highly ambitious scheme, as its name suggests, but only two sections were ever built: the main line between Chesterfield Market Place and Lincoln Central, together with a branch from Langwith Junction to join the Sheffield District Railway at Beighton, thereby finding its way to Sheffield Midland.

Scarcliffe station was built at the summit of the line, 521 feet (159 m) above sea level. It was a few hundred yards from the eastern entrance of the 2,624-yard (2,399-metre) Bolsover Tunnel. Eastwards, the line fell at 1 in 100 to Langwith Junction. A short distance to the east of the station, in woods on the south side the tracks was a railway-owned reservoir, fed by the River Poulter which rose at Palterton. This reservoir served the seven water columns at Langwith Junction engine shed and station via a 3" main beside the tracks.^[3]

The station was an "island" structure with two platforms, the only other LD&ECR station with this layout was at Dukeries Junction, upper level.^[4]

By 1922 six trains called at Scarcliffe in each direction, Monday to Friday. with two extra on Saturday. There was no Sunday service.^[5]

The section between Chesterfield and Langwith Junction (by then renamed Shirebrook North), was closed to passenger traffic by British Railways in December 1951,^[6] due to the unsafe condition of Bolsover Tunnel^[7] and concern over the condition of Doe Lea Viaduct near Carr Vale. Bolsover South and Scarcliffe were closed completely. Track lifting commenced immediately and was completed within weeks. Goods traffic continued from Chesterfield Market Place until March 1957 and from Arkwright Town until 1963.

The station has been razed to the ground, but the characteristic LD&ECR Stationmaster's house survives as a private dwelling.^[8]

A very fine collection of photographs of Scarcliffe Station taken in 1948-51 by the late Trevor Skirrey, onetime Scarcliffe signalman, line the walls of the "Elm Tree" public house at the end of Station Road in the village of Scarcliffe. Two genres of photographs of Scarcliffe Station have been published, one from its early years and one from its twilight. The early ones are posed scenes of Stationmaster Lund and his young family standing proudly on their quintessentially rural station.^[9][10][11] In the later ones, led by Skirrey, Priestley and Buckley,^[12] the setting and scenery are unchanged, industry has not touched Scarcliffe even in 2013.^[13][14]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Bolsover South Line and station closed		Great Central Railway Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway		Shirebrook North Line and station closed

References

Notes

1. Butt 1995, p. 206.
2. Cupit & Taylor 1984, p. 9.
3. Little 1995, p. 18.
4. Booth 2013, p. 24.
5. Bradshaw 1985, p. 718.
6. Cupit & Taylor 1984, p. 42.
7. Bolsover Tunnel: via Forgotten Relics
8. Scarcliffe Stationmaster's House: via flickr
9. Kaye 1988, p. 74.
10. Haigh 1994, p. 51.
11. Lund 1997, p. 31.
12. Anderson 2013, p. 336.
13. Anderson & Cupit 2000, p. 46.
14. DVD 2005, 32 to 34 minutes from the start.

Sources

• Anderson, Paul (June 2013). Hawkins, Chris (ed.). "Out and About with Anderson". Railway Bylines. 18 (7). Clophill: Irwell Press Ltd. ISSN 1360-2098.
• Anderson, Paul; Cupit, Jack (2000). An Illustrated History of Mansfield's Railways. Clophill: Irwell Press. ISBN 978-1-903266-15-1.
• Booth, Chris (2013). The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway A pictorial view of the "Dukeries Route" and branches. Vol. One: Chesterfield to Langwith Junction, the Beighton Branch and Sheffield District Railway. Blurb. 06715029.
• Bradshaw, George (1985) [July 1922]. Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation guide for Great Britain and Ireland: A reprint of the July 1922 issue. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-8708-5. OCLC 12500436.
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Cupit, Jack; Taylor, W. (1984) [1966]. The Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. Oakwood Library of Railway History (2nd ed.). Headington: Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-302-2. OL19.
• DVD (2005). The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway - Memories of a Lost Route. Chesterfield: Terminus Publications. DVD, stills with commentary, 60 minutes.
• Haigh, Bernard (1994). The Old Photographs Series: Around Bolsover. Chalford: Chalford Publishing Co. Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7524-0021-1.
• Kaye, A.R. (1988). North Midland and Peak District Railways in the Steam Age, Volume 2. Chesterfield: Lowlander Publications. ISBN 978-0-946930-09-8.
• Little, Lawson (1995). Langwith Junction, the Life and Times of a Railway Village. Newark-on-Trent: Vesper Publications. ISBN 978-0-9526171-0-5.
• Lund, Brian (1997) [1995]. Derbyshire Railway Stations on old picture postcards. Keyworth: Reflections of a Bygone Age. ISBN 978-0-946245-86-4.

Further reading

• Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Volume Three: Fay Sets the Pace, 1900–1922. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-0263-0. OCLC 500447049.
• Howard Anderson, P. (1973). Forgotten Railways: The East Midlands. Newton Abbott: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-6094-1.

External links

• "The station on an inter-war OS map". National Library of Scotland.
• "The station on old O.S. map". npe maps.
• "The station and line". Rail Map Online.
• "The station". Forgotten relics.
• "The station and village". Richards Bygone Times.
• "The station and village". Picture the Past.
• "The station and village". Yahoo.
• The station on line CLN1 in Railway Codes