The Yorkshire Dales Railway constructed the line to Grassington & Threshfield, with services operated by the Midland Railway, to provide better links for local villages to the nearby town of Skipton. It diverged at Embsay Junction, and ran through the Dales, with a station at Rylstone, past the then 'Swinden Lime Works' (today known as Swinden Quarry), and a further to Threshfield. Despite being the line's terminus, Grassington & Threshfield was built as a through station, because there were proposals to continue the line further north up the Dales to Kettlewell, and thence to Leyburn, to join the line to Hawes on the Wensleydale Railway. That was never done.