In 1835 a railway was brought to Grosmont by the Whitby and Pickering Railway and its engineer George Stephenson. It was a horse-worked line and opened from Whitby as far as Grosmont in 1835. From 1900 to 1924 iron ore extraction resulted in the whole area under Grosmont station being mined, on the 'pillar and stall' method; the railway company simply bought the ironstone under the station house and the river bridge and made preparations to deal with subsidence elsewhere. In 1845 the railway was sold to George Hudson's York and North Midland Railway ; additional parliamentary powers were obtained to make various improvements to its alignment and to permit the introduction of steam power and the line was converted from single into a fully double tracksteam powered railway. The first steam engine entered Whitby in July 1847. At Grosmont a new wider tunnel and bridge were constructed, probably to designs of John Cass Birkinshaw, and a G.T. Andrews designed railway station was built, creating Grosmont's first true station. In 1854 the Y&NMR was one of the three railway companies that came together to form the North Eastern Railway. In 1865 a deviation line on the route to Pickering opened, to avoid the cable-worked incline at Beckhole; a new connection was made from to Grosmont, making Grosmont into a junction. The NER built a short terrace of cottages just south of the tunnel; these were used by the NYMR to house volunteers from but were demolished in 1989 to allow extensions to its running shed and workshops. Two camping coaches were positioned here by the North Eastern Region from 1959 to 1964. The Grosmont to Malton line closed in March 1965, and was re-opened to Pickering as the heritage North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1973. As of 2013 the line between Whitby and Middlesbrough via Castleton and Battersby is operated as the Esk Valley Line under the control of Network Rail.
Services
Northern Trains: Mondays to Saturdays, there are four trains per day in each direction to Whitby and Middlesbrough. A Sunday service of four trains each way operates throughout the year. There is also a late Friday evening service in summer, which will daily from the December 2019 timetable change. North Yorkshire Moors: services to Pickering operate daily from Easter until the end of October, and on some other dates depending on the time of year.
