It had 2 with a bay originally, then a three platform excursion station was added to the south. Due to colossal crowds in 1912 the station was extended south of platforms 1 and 2 with the station front becoming an island platform with two up platforms Nos 4 and 5. The original platforms 1 and 2 became a pair of down through platforms with turn back signals. A bay platform 6 ran alongside No 5 and the excursion station was lengthened with two long platforms 7 and 8. This was to cater for the immense flows of tourists in the summer. A new spacious station concourse was created to link the complex together.
The design allowed trains from Hull and from Selby direction to follow quickly and discharge onto clear platforms on the way to Scarborough. Likewise returning passengers on Saturday would be clear of each other using Nos 4 and 5. On Saturdays there could be up to 15 excursion trains in addition to the regular trains to Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Kings Cross etc.
It's a shadow of itself today but the handsome concourse remains and enough of the splendid platform canopy over platforms 5 and 6.
Mr Pearson the last Station Manager declined to renumber the platforms, so I'm told.
Platform 3 was taken out of use around 1972
Platforms 1 & 2 were abolished on March 20 1983
Platform 4 became the down platform at the same time in 1983
Platforms 7 and 8 fell into disuse after 2000 (others may be clearer)
At the moment all three usable platforms are put to good use and there is little slack if things get out of place. It would be useful to have passenger trains run into platform 5 from Hull (only ECS at the moment).