A train-crazy couple have spent the last 30 years restoring a derelict railway station in England to its former glory.
Mark and Carol Benson spent tens of thousands to transform Ebbertson Station in North Yorkshire, after purchasing the property in 1996–four decades after the station closed in 1950.
Thanks to their three decades of hard work, tourists are able to once again visit the depot—now called The Old Station—and even stay in one of three former First Class train cars, or in the converted ticket office which is now a cottage.
The Bensons renovated the former station master’s house into their family home and, in their latest project, restored the platform canopy and waiting area, for which they were awarded a blue plaque marking its historic value.
“It has been a lot of hard work,” Carol told SWNS news agency. “We are very proud of what we have achieved.”
Ebbertson Station is said to be a very good example of the work of the celebrated architect William Bell’s mature wayside station design of that period.
The station in the village of Allerston near Scarborough sits on the 16 and a quarter mile Forge Valley Line which was opened by the North Eastern Railway Company in 1882.
The last passenger train on the line ran on June 3, seventy-five years ago.
It was then used as a private house until the Bensons purchased the piece of railway history 46 years later.
“We always had the idea of running a business that would enable me to continue working full time as a quantity surveyor until I could retire,” said Mark.
“Carol also didn’t want to return to working at a school as a nurse, so it worked out well.”
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After renovating the ticket office, they converted the train cars to include kitchens, bedrooms and seating areas.
In 2021, they carefully knocked down the men’s bathroom and porters room to salvage the bricks, which they then used to renovate the former ticket office.
The couple transformed it into a vacation cottage using the bricks and added two bedrooms with en-suite shower rooms.
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Visit their website to learn more at TheOldStationAllerston.co.uk.
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