The railway serving Levisham Station was originally opened by the Whitby and Pickering Railway in 1836. The W&P was an isolated horse worked railway engineered by George Stephenson, it did not have stations as we would understand them today tending to follow stage coach practice. An engraving by George Dodgson entitled ‘Hailing the Coach’, which appeared in the 1836 guide to the W&P written by Henry Belcher, depicts a passenger hailing a coach on the W&P at Raindale just over a mile north of Levisham Station.