Trains stop at Battersby station for up to ten minutes because each train needs be reversed and the driver has to exchange tokens. This arrangement prevents any possibility of two trains occupying the single track simultaneously.

During the late 19th century, Battersby station was a busy and important railway junction as vast loads of ironstone, extracted from the Moors (especially at Rosedale and the Esk Valley near Glaisdale and Grosmont) were transported through here to feed the hungry blast furnaces of Teesside. There was also a railway line extending by means of a steep incline onto the moor at Bank Top. The station features at Battersby which survive from that time include a water tower, a platform watercrane and a turntable base. The old buildings are now private dwellings.

From here until after Great Ayton, the boundary of the North York Moors National Park follows the railway line.

Ingleby Greenhow rocked by gruesome murder
Read a melodramatic account of a murder committed in 1924, involving two local railway workers.

Walks

Bank Foot Farm - Ingleby Incline - Greenhow Moor - Turkey Nab
(7+ miles )
This walk traces the railway line by which iron ore was transported from Rosedale to Battersby.

North York Moor CAM offers an informative photographic record of the walk which can be altered to begin and end at Battersby station, or extended - along the Cleveland Way - so as to finish at Kildale station.

Battersby to Castleton
(9 miles )
This linear walk along moorland paths, tracks and minor roads is decribed on the Dales Trails website. This walking club often includes linear walks using the Esk Valley Railway in its summer programme.

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