THE FILEY HOLIDAY CAMP BRANCH

Text: LEYTR.

Photos: J. Jennison

 

The Filey Holiday Branch was officially opened on May 10th, 1947, Although traffic had used the station and line one year prior to this. The purpose of this short branch off the Bridlington - Scarborough line was to serve the large holiday camp near Filey.

The branch left the main line by means of a junction from the north and from the south controlled by signal boxes called Royal Oak North and Royal Oak South. The lines joined to form a "triangle" and then a short stretch of line to the rather basic station consisting of two 500 ft. long playforms. Access to the Camp itself was via a subway.

At its busiest time, it saw through trains from a variety of places, including: York, Leeds, Hull, Bradford, Manchester, Leicester, Worcester, Gloucester, King's Norton, Newcastle, Glasgow and London. The June 1965 - April 1966 shows the following:

DEPARTURES FROM FILEY HOLIDAY CAMP 1965

0940 Saturdays 19th June - 4th September To Sheffield Victoria (arr. 1246)
0950 Saturdays 3rd July - 28th August To Scarborough (arr. 1011)
1010 Saturdays 26th June - 4th September To Newcastle (arr. 1414)
1048 Saturdays 19th June - 4th September To Manchester Victoria (arr. 1448)
1055 Saturdays 19th June - 11th September To Leeds City (arr. 1301)
1058 Saturdays 19th June - 11th September To Leeds City (arr. 1317)
1115 Saturdays 19th June - 11th September To King's Norton (arr. 1628)
1140 Saturdays 19th June - 4th September To King's Cross (arr. 1654)
1418 Saturdays 19th June - 4th September To Scarborough (arr. 1442)

Sadly, declining traffic resulted in the closure of the branch on September 17th, 1977. Today, little remains to indicate the line had ever existed and the Holiday Camp itself has long been closed.

 

Royal Oak South box - the Filey Holiday Camp branch diverges towards the right from the main line between Hull and Scarborough. The picture was taken during winter 1976 when the box was switched out, and one year prior to the branch closing..

 

The signalbox at the Camp Terminus in 1976.

 

A desolate view of the Holiday Camp terminus before a winter storm - an excellnt shot for a holiday brochure !

 

During the final months of operation in summer 1977. A Birmingham RCW class 104 dmu stands in one of the playforms awaiting departure.

 

Another view during summer 1977 illustrating the very long platforms at this location. A rake of dmu's has just arrived and a crowd (!) alights.

 

A nice view looking west from the terminus. A dmu departs into the distance on a bright summer's day. The large chasm in the middle was once occupied by track which allowed locomotives to change ends of their trains. At the time this photo was taken, whotly before closure, they had been lifter and only dmu's plied the remaining metals.

 

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