Station Name: ELSLACK[Source: Alan Young]
The up platform at Elslack station looking north-east c1905. The platform arrangement is staggered with the down platform behind the photographer on the far side of the bridge over Elslack Lane. The single-storey brick building with the hipped roof contains the booking office and waiting rooms. Window and door and window openings have segmental arches and dentillation of the cornices provides some decoration. Beyond is the two-storey stationmaster’s house, brick-built with an overhanging steeply pitched, slate roof, broken by a gabled dormer. The signal box is several yards north-east of the platform ramp. The running-in board illustrates Midland Railway practice of providing two adjoining boards set at angles to enable the station name to be read easily from both up and down directions. Oil lighting is provided in casement lamps fixed to the building and on posts. Milk churns, empty barrows and an unceremoniously inverted advertising sign provide interest in the foreground. The goods depot is seen to the right, but the camera angle misses the goods warehouse.
Copyright photo from John Alsop Collection 1894 1: 2,500 OS map. The up platform is shown with the passenger building (internal divisions indicated) and the station house to the north-east. The signal box is north-east of the platform. The goods facilities face the up platform, consisting of a loop off the down through line serving a single-road warehouse (not named) on a short spur at the south-west end; the weigh office (W.M.=weighing machine) is adjacent to the warehouse. A cattle pen adjoins the opposite end of the loop. No down platform is shown on this or any other OS map, however its location was south-west of the bridge over Elslack Lane as seen on one of the accompanying photographs.
1909 1: 2,500 OS map. An interesting change since 1894 is that two signal boxes are now shown side by side at Elslack station: presumably the larger one has replaced the smaller one. There is still no down platform on the map although a small structure has appeared on the down side of the line beside the bridge. This is possibly the timber building seen on the 1952 photograph.
The down platform at Elslack station is seen in 1952, the year of its closure, looking south-west. It is of timber construction perhaps because it is on an embankment where a masonry structure could have been too heavy. The enclosed waiting room in a small timber building supported on struts. An LMS ‘Hawkseye’ running-in nameboard is installed at an angle enabling it to be more easily read from entering trains (by passengers facing forwards). It is possibly mounted on two of the three posts that the Midland Railway would have installed for its distinctive nameboards, as seen on the older view of the up platform. The casement oil lanterns are of a cruder style than seen on the up platform. The different style of lamps suggests that this platform was built at a different time from the up platform.
Photo from John Mann collection Elslack ticket office on the last day of public service in 1952. Junior porter Tony Millington sells the last ticket from Elslack to Skipton to reporter I I Illingworth. Photo from Debbie Green (Tony Millington was her dad) The up platform of the disused Elslack station looking west in April 1976. The stationmaster’s house stands derelict, its windows and doorway boarded up, and part of the platform has collapsed. Nothing remains of the station building which formerly stood to the left of the house. The tracks through the station were removed soon after the line closed in 1970, and agricultural equipment is occupying the trackbed. At this date nothing remains of the timber down platform which was staggered south-west of the up platform.
Photo by Alan Young Looking north-west at the site of Elslack station in February 2017. Fragments of the former up platform can be seen between the two houses.
Photo by Alan Young Looking south-west in February 2017 along the trackbed of the Colne Branch at Elslack. The station platforms were staggered; the up platform was behind the camera and the down was directly ahead, on the left side of the trackbed stretching as far as the stone bridge parapet. This platform was of timber construction and has been removed without trace.
Photo
by Alan Young
Looking south-east along Elslack Lane in February 2017. The abutments of the Colne Branch railway bridge are ahead. The down (Colne-bound) platform was located several yards to the right of the fence seen on the truncated railway embankment.
Photo by Alan Young
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