[1] The W&P was an isolated horse worked railway engineered by George Stephenson, it did not have stations as we would understand them today, instead tending to follow stage coach practice.
It is thought that Skelton influenced the location of the station, which is closer to Newton-on-Rawcliffe than Levisham, although the only access to Newton was via a steep path.
The building, now Grade II listed, stands today encroaching onto the down (western) platform and still displays many characteristics of the Y&NM's architect George Townsend Andrews.
[4] The original platforms would have been provided at this time, short and low and almost certainly re-using ex W&P stone sleeper blocks as an edging.
Examples of these stone blocks, along with a length of the 'fish belly' rail they supported, can also be found outside the Station's Exhibition van.
The NER Architects Book of Contracts reveals that construction work only took from 31 January until 31 March using their own workmen and two contractors.
Despite a fierce local campaign of opposition the passenger service between Rillington Junction and Grosmont closed on 8 March 1965.
The point rodding, still NER / LNER standard round steel tube coated with tar was simply cut up into short lengths and left where it fell.
This presumably helped to support BR's claim that the cost of reinstating the signalling made re-opening the line too uneconomic.
Of the other buildings, the wooden lamp house somehow got burned down but the rest more or less survived, windows got broken and eventually the frames too but the shells remained to be inherited by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR).
At first the only usable building was the signal box (habitable would be too strong a term), with temporary window frames covered in polythene and the fireplace resuscitated, it made a rough and ready base.
The more hardy stayed overnight in sleeping bags on the wooden floor with one brave soul suspending a hammock from the roof beams.
This group started work tidying up the station and evicting the rats, but more important was fencing, ditching and keying-up on 'their' section of track northwards to Newtondale.
[11] After some time access to the school study centre based in the station house was negotiated (when it was not in use); this provided relative luxury – bunk beds (in the old waiting room) and proper washing and cooking facilities (an old Rayburn stove).
With the reopening of the NYMR as an 18-mile-long (29 km) railway in 1973, the Levisham gang returned to base and started the long, slow task of restoration and refurbishment that has made the station what it is today.
The original awning over the booking window had been demolished as unsafe, but measurements of the surviving components were taken and a sketch drawing produced.
The brick waiting shed had lost its window frames and the massive beam supporting the brickwork over the entrance was suffering from terminal rot.
A start had been made on recovering the platform gardens but they still suffered the depredations of the moorland sheep who had not yet learnt that the railway was back in business and not just additional grazing.
Unfortunately, although capable of operating, the weighbridge will not be working since all space within the new building is required for its real role as a catering outlet.