Traffic
The 1881 timetable shows that all trains were ‘mixed’ i.e. composed of both passenger and goods stock. 8 trains were run each way with no Sunday service. The first train left Barnoldswick at 7.35am and arrived at Earby at 7.43am. The last train left Earby at 6.50pm and arrived at Barnoldswick at 7.00pm. The locomotive for these trains was shedded at Barnoldswick. Advertised excursions at this time show trains running from Barnoldswick to Leeds (en route to Scarborough) and back. Also the L&YR ran excursions from Barnoldswick to Colne (en route to Blackpool) and back. These later trains saw L&YR engines and stock at Barnoldswick.
The 1903 timetable showed the number of trains as 11 during the week with 2 extra late trains on a Saturday from Barnoldswick and 10 during the week with 2 extra late trains on a Saturday from Earby. Whether these trains were still mixed trains isn’t known.
The 1911 timetable shows a more frequent but complicated service with most trains running as passenger only, the actual number of trains varying depending on the day of the week. There were 2 trains that ran each way as mixed and 2 goods trains to, and 3 from, Barnoldswick. Sundays saw 5 passenger and 2 mixed trains to Barnoldswick with 6 passenger trains from but no mixed trains.
The 1921 service was as frequent as the 1911 but simplified. 1929 saw 16 week-day departures plus a 'Tue and Fri only' train. Passenger numbers had fallen from 116,366 in 1928 to 104,638 in 1929 but in 1930 there was a huge fall to 63,608. This was caused by the opening of what is still known locally as 'the new road'in December 1929. This enabled Ezra Laycock to start a bus service from Barnoldswick via Salterforth to Earby. By 1934 the number of departures had risen to 24 departures. Sunday evenings saw 9 trains running but none during the day. Sunday services had ceased by 1939. The number of passenger trains was reduced until by 1956 it was down to 12 or so a day.
From September 1956, however, it was reduced to just 1 in and 2 out per day. This later changed to just 1 in and out, plus a single mid-day goods train, that was the pattern maintained until the passenger service was withdrawn. The passenger trains were mainly for pupils at Ermysted's Grammar School and the Skipton Girls' High School, both in Skipton. The termination of these trains saw the last of any significant passenger numbers using the station. Excursion trains to the seaside and special trains for Skipton Gala were still run but had little or no advertising.
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Midland Railway |
Earby | ||
Read more about this topic: Barnoldswick Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word traffic:
“The two hours’ traffic of our stage.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There was a girl who was running the traffic desk, and there was a woman who was on the overnight for radio as a producer, and my desk assistant was a woman. So when the world came to an end, we took over.”
—Marya McLaughlin, U.S. television newswoman. As quoted in Women in Television News, ch. 3, by Judith S. Gelfman (1976)
“To treat a “big” subject in the intensely summarized fashion demanded by an evening’s traffic of the stage when the evening, freely clipped at each end, is reduced to two hours and a half, is a feat of which the difficulty looms large.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)