Former Otterington Railway Station including the station building, signal box, weighbridge office and associated features

Former railway station, built in 1932 by RA Darling for the London and North Eastern Railway.

The station comprises three principal structures: a station building, signal box, and weighbridge office, all constructed in red brick laid mainly in Flemish Bond with artificial stone dressings imitating finely dressed sandstone. Windows are steel-framed throughout, and roofs are finished with plain red tiles and bonnet tiles to the hips.

STATION BUILDING

The building is single-depth with five bays. The central three bays form a single open room divided functionally between a booking office on the south side and a waiting room on the north side, accessed via opposed entrances in the central bay. The northernmost bay contains toilets, with the ladies' facilities accessed from the waiting room and the gents' from an external doorway in the north gable end. The southernmost bay serves as a store room, accessed from a large doorway in the south gable end.

The exterior is distinguished by artificial stone ashlar banding and pilasters set nearly flush with the red brick walls. Broad bands of ashlar run along the plinth and eaves, narrower bands mark the window cills, and pilasters divide the bays and form the corners. The roof is hipped with deeply overhanging eaves swept to small gablets at the hips, and the ridge is pierced by two brick chimneys. The steel-framed windows combine casements and fixed lights, all small-paned with very slim glazing bars.

The entrance front (east) is symmetrical. A large projecting ashlar doorcase with a pediment frames the central entrance, with double part-glazed doors. The two flanking bays, slightly wider than the central bay, each contain a large central window flanked by half-width windows. The end bays, wider still, each feature a run of four evenly spaced high-set square windows above a large brick panel formerly used for advertisements.

The platform front (west) mirrors the east elevation, except that the pediment above the entrance includes a mounting for a clock flanked by fasces (bound bundles of classical rods), and the southern bay has a single window and doorway rather than the tripartite window arrangement seen elsewhere. Both doorways are blocked with late-20th-century brickwork.

The south gable end displays a pair of sliding doors with protective metal plating on the lower jambs. The north gable end has high-set louvered openings above a single doorway.

The interior retains cast iron fireplaces at both the north and south ends of the central room, complete with hearth surrounds stamped with the initials L&NER.

SIGNAL BOX

The signal box is a single cell with the operating room on the first floor, accessed via an external stair to the north, and a ground floor locking room accessed from the south.

The exterior is extensively glazed to the west and the western two-thirds of the north and south gables, with windows extending to the eaves. The west side has four lights divided by mullions, the central two lights each three panes wide and the flanking lights two panes wide. The north and south gables each have three two-pane-wide lights, except that the north gable has a part-glazed door replacing the eastern light. A continuous artificial stone cill runs beneath the windows, thickening to form a plinth at the former platform level. The hipped roof sweeps to deeply overhanging eaves. The platform elevation displays a name board reading OTTERINGTON.

The interior contains a reinstalled London and North Eastern Railway lever frame of 20 levers, appropriately badged and set above a display board showing a copy of the original track and signalling layout for Otterington, taken from plans held at the National Railway Museum.

WEIGHBRIDGE OFFICE

This single-cell structure features broad plinth and eaves bands of artificial stone. The windows are steel-framed casements and fixed lights, each light divided into eight small panes with thin glazing bars and tile-formed cills. The north-west elevation has a single large four-light window; the south-west gable has a pair of two-light windows; the north-east gable has a centrally placed boarded door; the south-east elevation has a chimney. The roof is hipped with a slight overhang to the eaves.

The interior retains its cast iron fireplace.

SETTING AND SUBSIDIARY ITEMS

The station building stands on a raised platform cut back on the western (track) side but otherwise complete, with a flight of steps leading to the main entrance. A vehicle loading dock projects eastward from the platform between the station building and signal box. Two Windsor-style lamps mounted on concrete posts are positioned at the head of the steps and beside the loading dock.