Upperthorpe and Killamarsh railway station

Upperthorpe and Killamarsh was a railway station that served the villages of Killamarsh and Upperthorpe, in Derbyshire, England. It was one of three stations serving Killamarsh. The station was on the Sheffield District Railway, which ran between Sheffield Victoria and Shirebrook North on the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway's network of lines in the region.

Upperthorpe and Killamarsh
General information
Location	Killamarsh and Upperthorpe, North East Derbyshire, England
Grid reference	SK 449 807
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	LD&ECR
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	LNER, British Railways
Key dates
1 October 1898	Opened as Killamarsh
1 January 1907	Renamed Upperthorpe and Killamarsh[1][2]
7 July 1930	Closed[3]
Location

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 Rail Innovation & Development Centre | Tuxford shed Dukeries Junction GNR (now ECML) Kings Cross to Retford High Marnham Power Station Fledborough Fledborough Viaduct over River Trent Clifton-on-Trent Doddington and Harby Skellingthorpe GN&GEJR to Saxilby Pyewipe Junction Lincoln to Peterborough

Killamarsh stations

Railway stations at Killamarsh and their respective lines

LD&ECR and Sheffield District Railway

Three stations served the village, all of which were originally named Killamarsh upon their opening:

• Killamarsh Central on the former Great Central Railway's main line between Nottingham Victoria and Sheffield Victoria
• Killamarsh West on the former Midland Railway Old Road from Chesterfield to Rotherham Masborough
• Upperthorpe and Killamarsh, which is the subject of this article.

History

Opening and operation

The station was opened on the Beighton Branch of the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (LD&ECR) in 1898. The LD&ECR wished to extend into Sheffield using the MS&LR's lines, but was rebuffed; instead, it joined the Midland's line at Beighton Junction. From there, it went on to join the Sheffield District Railway at Treeton Junction and thereby gain access to goods traffic in central Sheffield and to the Midland Railway's Sheffield station.

Preceding station	Disused railways			Following station
Woodhouse Mill Line and station closed		Great Central Railway Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway		Spinkhill Line and station closed

Closure

The station closed in 1930. The line itself closed to stopping passenger services on the outbreak of World War II in 1939.^[4] In the late 1980s, the station site was home to a short-lived railway preservation attempt known as the Rother Valley Railway. This was formally abandoned in 1992; the preservationists' energy and commitment were transferred to the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway.

Rother Valley Railway

From 1988 until the early 1990s, another Rother Valley Railway had a brief existence on the site of Upperthorpe and Killamarsh station. The line had three locomotives on loan, a five-ton steam crane and a membership of over eighty.^[5] Although the line featured in a two-page article in The Railway Magazine in 1990, little seems to have happened and the society faded away.^[6][7]

After many years details have been published stating that the society was unable to gain agreement with the necessary local authorities, so was unable to proceed. They sought another opportunity elsewhere, which they found by taking over Cleethorpes Council's struggling miniature railway, turning it into the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway in 1991. That "Rother Valley Railway Limited" was formally dissolved on 9 June 1992.^[8]

The site today

The station fell into disuse after closure and the track on the line was completely lifted in the 1980s when the nearby Westthorpe Colliery closed. The Station Master's house on Field Lane is now a private dwelling and has no connection to the old platforms, which themselves have been demolished along with any other traces of the station. The cutting of the old line is now very overgrown and neglected with refuse; many efforts have been made to restrict access to the site through the use of fences.