Finghall railway station

Finghall railway station is on the Wensleydale Railway and serves the village of Finghall in North Yorkshire, England. Adjacent to the station is a manually operated gated crossing on the single-track Wensleydale Railway.

Finghall
Station on heritage railway
Location	Finghall, Richmondshire England
Coordinates	54.305860°N 1.718200°W
Grid reference	SE183900
Managed by	Wensleydale Railway
Platforms	1
History
Original company	Bedale and Leyburn Railway
Pre-grouping	North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
19 May 1856	Opened as Finghall Lane
26 April 1954	Closed
23 December 2004	Reopened as Finghall

The station was opened as Finghall Lane by the Bedale and Leyburn Railway on 19 May 1856. It was closed in April 1954, but was used sporadically between 1984 and 1988 for detraining passengers on DalesRail services.[1][2] The station was used in the 1970s and 1980s by the BBC Television series All Creatures Great and Small, renamed as "Rainby Halt" for the show,[3] with the signboard advising passengers bound for Darrowby to "alight here"; no passenger trains called at the station during that time.

The station was reopened by the Wensleydale Railway on 23 December 2004[4] after being closed for half a century.[5]

Currently, trains operate on a request-stop basis, whereby if there are passengers on the platform then the train will halt, but if there are no passengers the train will continue through without stopping. Passengers wishing to alight at Finghall must inform a member of the train crew and they will take action to ensure the train stops at the station.[4] Only two or three out of the ten trains a day actually halt at Finghall, and often this is just to ensure good timekeeping.

References

1. Quick, Michael (2009). Railway passenger stations in Great Britain : a chronology (4 ed.). Oxford: Railway Canal & Historical Society. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5.
2. Jones, Robin (March 2018). "Wensleydale ditches public service in favour of heritage trains". Heritage Railway. No. 239. Horncastle: Mortons Media. p. 8. ISSN 1466-3562.
3. "TV vet still brings in tourists 35 years on". Darlington and Stockton Times. 2 July 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
4. "New Dales railway station opens". BBC News. 23 December 2004. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
5. Hemmings, Julie (24 December 2004). "Rural railway reopens its fifth station". Newsbank. The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 1 April 2019.

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Leyburn		Wensleydale Railway		Bedale
	Historical railways
Constable Burton Line open, station closed		North Eastern Railway Bedale and Leyburn Railway		Jervaulx Line open, station closed

External links

• Video footage of Finghall Lane railway station