Whitby Weighing Machine House

The Whitby Weighing Machine House is a grade II listed structure that is south of Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, between the Esk Valley line and the River Esk. The site was also where the original railway line allowed passengers to change into carriages pulled by horses on local roads, acting as the original railway terminus. The building is still largely extant, but mostly derelict, and is one of the few original Whitby and Pickering Railway (W&PR) buildings to still exist.

History
The weighing machine house (WMH) was built c. 1835, before the whole track was completed to Pickering, as it served stone brought down the Esk Valley, providing revenue for the fledgling railway. Contemporary pictures of the building show a view looking north with Whitby Abbey on a hill in the distance. The image has two tracks, with what is believed to be the running track on the left, and the track for the weighing machine on the right adjacent to the building (see external links). The weighing house operative also acted as a toll-keeper for foot traffic - unlike turnpikes which afforded free use to those on foot, the railway would charge for its use and the WMH had gates which were closed against the line to prevent non-payment of tolls.

The weighing machine house was also the point of embarkation and disembarkation of passengers between carriages on rails, and carriages on roads, taking passengers the 0.5 mi between the weighing house and Whitby town centre (and vice-versa). Stones quarried in Aislaby and Grosmont were railed down the line to the WMH, and weighed before being exported from Whitby by ship; early railways and canals were not actually carriers of goods themselves, they charged others for use of the railway to transport their goods, so a weighing house provided the maximum revenue for the railway company. When the first railway companies appeared, their bills through Parliament were treated in the same way as turnpike roads, in that anyone could use the railway line, as long as they paid monies for carriage of their goods to the railway company.

The weighing machine apparatus was installed underneath the track, and acted a lever which had a counterbalanced weight inside the building. The position of the weighing machine house was just to the south of the Whitby Stone Company's quay, which they used for exporting the stone, and the building itself is believed to be made from stone quarried at Aislaby. The front of the WMH where it faced onto the railway track has a wide, low front window so that the operative could view the load being weighed.

The building was designed by Frederick Swanwick (the engineer who built the W&PR deputising for George Stephenson), but was built by John Bolton, an architect who operated out of Whitby, with the weighing machine apparatus was supplied by Kitchens of Warrington. The Weighing Machine House is believed to have fallen out of use between 1845 and 1847 when the Y&NMR converted the line into heavy rail use, with weighing of goods either not necessary, or, an alternative system was used.

The building was grade II listed in 1990, though the citation notes that the building is in a "ruinous state". The site is publicly accessible from a path that parallels the riverbank starting at the southern end of the Port of Whitby. It is one of the few original W&PR buildings to still exist (the 1836 Grosmont Tunnel being another example); the railway was built largely without station infrastructure as passengers boarded horse-drawn coaches on rails at designated stops, and so traditional stations were not provided. Most other W&PR structures were demolished or replaced when the York & North Midland Railway rebuilt the line in the 1840s/1850s for heavy railway traffic.