Last Updated 04/10/2006
R.o.B Railways
The Wensleydale Railway
Including:
The Northallerton and Bedale Railway
The Bedale and Leyburn Railway
The Hawes and Melmerby Railway
Wensleydale is formed from the valley of the river Ure which surfaces at Hawes the capital town of the dale. The area around Wensleydale is sparsely populated as it has been since people first arrived in the area in pre historic times with obvious signs of stone-age mining and iron-age workings most of the covered in woodland. By the mid 16th Century the area was producing Crops, Coal, Lead, Aggregate and Dairy produce with many families also working to produce textiles for sale around the locality at the larger market towns of Northallerton, Ripon and Darlington. In 1751 the Richmond to Lancaster Turnpike road was opened through the dales to allow landowners to send their produce to the port at Lancaster with ease opening a new market alternative to the northern end of North Yorkshire. Many roads of this type were built around this time by private investors who wished to tap in to the need for better roads around the country to ease the cost of transporting goods along roads that were little more than mud tracks and all but impassable in winter. When opened by the Lancaster and Richmond Turnpike trust, the road passed through the market town of Askrigg crossing the river at Bainbridge before rising climbing the hills of Ribblesdale following the Roman road known as Cam High Road. In 1795 a new route for the road was planned and built taking the route it follows today through Hawes and along Widdale, today it forms the A684 and B6255 roads. With the Industrial revolution the area soon saw the introduction of mills to process the raw materials for the production of textiles such as wool, cotton, linen, silk, flax sent down from the hill top farms speeding up production and giving jobs to the people of the area many of whom would walk miles to and from home to the mill each day. Despite this the area did not really develop population wise with small villages and towns providing the work force required, saw mills for the conditioning of timber were also a common site. Perhaps one of the areas most famous products is its Cheese know throughout the world for its quality and taste. Cheese production was a common pass time in the area for many years as a means of using excess milk for sale and food for the farmers. It is believed that the process was brought to the area by French Monks in the 12th century with the practice continuing to this day.
It is hardly surprising that several railway propositions were made for the area during the mid 19th century when the first Railway mania was in full swing. The 40 mile long line that was eventually built took over 30 years to be built and was done in several stages the final section from Garsdale, originally known as Hawes Junction, to Hawes on the Settle and Carlisle Line completed by the Midland Railway. In 1841 the Great North of England Railway (GNER) opened its line from York to Darlington via Thirsk and Northallerton to connect with the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The line was leased to the Newcastle and Darlington Junction railway from 1846, the latter being leased to the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway (YNBR) in 1848. On the 26th June 1846 the GNER was granted permission to build a 7½ branch line from its 30 mile post on the main line at Northallerton to Bedale. The branch was easy to build by engineering standards as it followed a wide river valley and only crossed two river bridges on route the River Wiske at Northallerton and the river Swale at Ainderby, the line did have eight level crossings, working out at about one per mile, each crossing controlled by the station or crossing keeper. By the 6th March 1848 the line was complete as far as Leeming Lane, Leeming Bar from 1902, and was to remain the end of the line for some time due to the collapse of the railway mania and very few people wanting to commit their money to railway projects. In 1853 parliament agreed to the extension of the line from Leeming 11 miles westwards to Leyburn, the necessary finances having been raised. Though the new section was an extension the act of parliament clearly stated that it was an end on branch to the main line from Northallerton to Leeming with a separate company being responsible for the building and operation of the line despite the YNBR being enthusiastic and supportive of the proposal, the new section of line was to be known as the Bedale and Leyburn Railway. The line started head on to the Northallerton and Leeming station to the west of the latter’s engine shed and run up a 1 in 104 gradient to Leyburn. Originally the line was to bypass Bedale despite the towns name in the railways title but due to an overwhelming outcry the railway describes a 3 mile arc to take it through the town on route to Leyburn, with no intermediate stations between Leeming and Bedale. Though the line was complete as far as Bedale by the end of 1854 the BoT inspection did not take place until the January of 1855 by which time the YNBR had joined with the Leeds Northern Railway and York & North Midland Railway to become the North Eastern Railway (NER) in accordance with an act of parliament passed on 31st April 1854, creating 700 miles of railway owned by one company. Needless to say this saw the Northallerton to Leeming and Leeming to Bedale lines passing in to NER ownership. On 24th November 1855 the new line opened to Leyburn for the carriage of freight passenger services not starting until the 19th May 1856 with a huge celebration taking place along the route of the line. From its opening the Bedale and Leyburn railway was operated by the NER with no distinction between the two sections of the line the NER treating both as a whole branch four or five trains a day running from Northallerton to Leyburn. In 1857 the directors of the Bedale and Leyburn railway were looking to sell the line to the NER with an act of parliament agreeing to the transfer of ownership passed on the 8th August 1857.
Leeming Bar station Building.
Picture courtesy of freefoto.com
The opening of a railway through the length of Wensleydale was to see several proposals put ahead though one way or another, the ultimate aim was to connect the dale with either the West coast or East coast main lines in much the same way as the Lancaster and Richmond Turnpike was to link the east coast with the west. The idea for a railway was essentially specific to the local land owners rather than for the good of the whole community as it was the landowners and industry moguls that wanted easy distribution of their goods. Once the line had reached Leyburn the original planners were content that they had access to east coast and the though of continuing to the west was a distant thought if one at all. This led to the other towns in the valley such as Askrigg, Hawes, Aysgarth and Redmire clamouring for their own railway as they too wanted a rail connection seeing the benefits it had brought to the eastern end of the valley. One proposal was for a branch from the former Leeds Northern line at Melmerby via Masham and Leyburn(!) to Hawes the whole to be known as the Hawes & Melmerby Railway and was put forward for consideration by Parliament receiving its act on 5th July 1865. For the ease of Construction the Act split the railway in to three separate sections. Part one was to be from Hawes to Leyburn to form a head on connection with the Northallerton to Leyburn branch of the NER, the second section was to run south east from Leyburn to reach the NER Melmerby Branch, the junction at Leyburn being to the east of the station. The third section was to connect the Hawes and Melmerby line with the NER at Masham. As the new railway was to be a private affair, separate to the NER though half the costs paid by them, the act gave permission for the new company to use its own staff, engines and carriages. With the proposed opening of the Midland Railways line from Carlisle via Garsdale to Settle the NER saw an opportunity to create a new cross country route allowing trains to be run from their east coast main line to the midland main line opening up new markets for traffic. One obstacle to this apart from there being no link from Leyburn to Garsdale was that the NER would need permission for running powers along the Midlands branch from Hawes to Garsdale with the line to Melmerby left as an inconvenient long way round. In 1870 a new act was passed allowing the abandonment of the proposed route to Masham from Leyburn. This left the 16¼ mile section of the original act from Leyburn to Hawes to allow a head on connection with the Midland at Garsdale. This new section was heavily engineered with a river crossing at Hawes and deep cuttings, with stations to be built at or near Wensley, Redmire, Aysgarth and Askrigg. The first section to be inspected by the Board of Trade (BoT) was the 12¼ miles from Leyburn to Askrigg which was single track as was most of the line though construction had allowed for the double tracking of the route at a later date. Amazingly in this short section there were 46 bridges with signal boxes at each station Leyburn having two. The line opened to Askrigg on the 1st February 1877 after the BoT inspector had made some recommendations for improvement of the line. The Midland were having problems with their branch at the same time as the opening of the NER line to Askrigg though the two companies did agree that the new Midland branch would be worked by the NER from Hawes to Hawes Junction (Garsdale) with NER freight services running through to Hawes from Askrigg when the final section opened on 1st August 1878 with passenger services commencing on the 6th of August. Though it was agreed that the NER would operate the branch the Midland did have limited running powers though these were rarely used except limited service to Hawes junction.
Aiskew Level crossing.
Managers collection
Most of the line was single track but with improvements to the line in the late 1880’s to 1890’s due to increased traffic, the single line section between Leeming and Bedale was doubled with some of the stations on that section receiving extra platforms and signal boxes. There were passing loops at Leeming, Jervaulx, Constable Burton, Leyburn, Wensley, Redmire, Aysgarth, Askrigg and Hawes Junction, though passenger services could not pass at Redmire or Askrigg as there was only one platform at each. At the Eastern end of Bedale the passing loop allowed two trains to pass though the loop was sited at the eastern end of the station which only had one platform. At the eastern end of the line at Northallerton a single track curve allowed access to the NER main line from York to Newcastle 1 mile north of Northallerton station, still in place today, meaning that trains from Leyburn had to reverse in to Northallerton station, a dangerous proposal at anytime especially on a busy main line. Between 1881 and 1882 a new connecting line was built to allow traffic from the Wensleydale line direct access to Northallerton station, this new junction becoming known as Northallerton Inner Junction the original link being retained to allow traffic from the north entry and exit from the branch. 1911 saw the re-construction of Northallerton station as part of a series of improvements by the NER and later the LNER on its Anglo-Scottish main line. The work saw a new bay platform installed at the stations northern end of the down platform to keep branch trains clear of the main line. The branch did not see a high frequency of passenger traffic due to its limited residential status with the highest service frequency being at about 7 trains per day in each direction with some only going as far as Leyburn or Bedale. Freight services were the primary reason for the line and saw regular mineral trains to serve the quarries at Redmire and Leyburn, many of which had cable overhead tramways and even sidings to serve the quarry. Engine sheds, all sub sheds of Darlington, for the line were sited at Northallerton, Leyburn and Garsdale. The original Northallerton shed was opened in 1857 though a larger one was built in 1881 and received an extension in 1886 the shed able to hold 10 locomotives at any one time. Garsdale shed at the western end of the line was officially known as Hawes Junction shed by the NER though the Midland gave it its Garsdale name. Garsdale shed closed on 1st May 1939 with the LNER engine being based at Leyburn shed which had originally closed in 1915 though was reopened with the closure of Garsdale. Leyburn and Garsdale/Hawes Junction sheds were both single road sheds built from stone only capable of holding one or two engines. Leeming had also had a shed, see above, until the 1870’s and had been built with the opening of the line. The turntable at Garsdale is well worth mentioning as it was the famous one that saw an accurately balanced tender locomotive positioned on it when a huge gust of wind blew the engine and turntable round and round, sand having to be poured in to slow the turning the story was immortalised in the Rev W Awdry Railway Series (Thomas the Tank Engine) books in much the same way as it did in real life. After the incident it was decided to put a palisade of sleepers on end around the circumference of the table to stop the incident happening again.
Bedale signal Box.
Picture courtesy of Freefoto.com
Though the line was not all that much on the passenger service front it certainly had a good proportion of excursion traffic and on the 29th June 1929 thousands of people descended by train on the valley to watch a total eclipse of the sun, the first to be seen in Britain since 1724. The LNER operated special services from as far away as London and Aberdeen to Wensleydale and Richmond as they lay in the 30 mile width that the eclipse would be total ranging from Wales across the top of North Yorkshire. It commenced at 6.23am over Tremmadoc bay and reached Saltburn on the North East coast at 6.25am. To control the crowds around the railway and to control the trains a control coach was sited at Leyburn to act as a HQ. It seems that the day was somewhat overcast so little was seen though it is recorded most people had a good time. As there was a lot of dairy farming along the route of the line it was common to see pick up dairy trains with milk churns at stations waiting for delivery all over the country though some was used in the processing of cheese for sale. One such train was the 1900 milk and parcels service from Hawes to York which ran in the 1930’s though this ceased in 1933 most of this type goods sent by normal train after this time. With the opening of the line t was common for Wensleydale Milk and cheese to be sold in Leeds and Halifax and other northern cities as with most products the railway had stimulated demand and supply allowing goods to be transported faster and further. By 1911 759,763 gallons of milk were being shipped over the Wensleydale to Northallerton station for onward shipment. The NER even encouraged local farmers to produce milk, as the company had built dairies at key points along the line for the production of butter and cheese and the processing of milk. By the 1930’s milk processing was undergoing a change as was the means of transporting it, Lorries would collect the milk form farms all over the valley and deliver it to a central Railway dairy at Leyburn and when ready it was then taken away by rail, meaning that the older railway dairies could be closed. The main stay of the line was its aggregate traffic however which was to keep the line open long after the passenger services had ended. The line had many quarries along its route at the northern end and the last to close was at Redmire with the departure of class 60086 and its load of limestone destined for the steel works at Redcar. During the second world war the line was used for the transportation of RAF equipment and supplies with regular specials to carry RAF staff to and from the nearby RAF Leeming which was home to the Royal Canadian air force ‘6 Group’, this traffic reaching its maximum in 1944. Not only did the line serve the RAF, the Army also utilised it to move heavy equipment and men as several camps were established in close proximity least of all Catterick Garrison which was also connected by rail to Darlington via the Richmond Branch. With the winter of 1946-1947 the railway proved to be a great resource due to a severe winter closing roads in the area for several months the ‘Great Freeze’ not finishing until the March of 1947 meaning a substantial increase in traffic for the line for several months.
The Wensleydale's Class110 DMU at Redmire.
Picture Courtesy of freefoto.com
With Nationalisation there were not very many changes to the life of the line initially the noticeable ones being that the section east of Garsdale came under the North Eastern Region banner in the September of 1948 the section west of Garsdale becoming part of the London Midland Region. Another noticeable change was the arrival of a Sentinel 0-4-0T at Leyburn shed to aid in shunting duties with the trucks serving the quarries around Leyburn. Perhaps the main change during the post Nationalisation years was the threat of closure for the line, original plans having been drawn up as early as the 1930’s due to the gradual change over to cheaper road transport but as has previously been mentioned it was the aggregate traffic that kept it open. 1953 saw British Railways announce the end of passenger services on the line the reason being that only 2½% of the population in the area were using the services the final passenger train scheduled to run on the 29th March 1954. A huge outcry took place with petitions signed by a large proportion of people despite the fact that most of them never used the railway. The actual end date for passenger services was Sunday 25th April 1954 due to problems establishing a replacement bus service for the area. The last train saw large numbers of people turn out for the event extra coaches being required to hold all those wishing to travel service trains normally being formed of 2 coaches. Despite the end to regular services occasional trains did run in relation to the private Aysgarth school at Jervaulx, with an emergency passenger service taking place from the 2nd January 1955 when snow drifts up to 15’ deep blocked roads in the area. To clear the line on this occasion BR 2MT 2-6-0 No 46475 ran along the line with a snow plough. Freight services were gradually reduced over the following years along with the some of the stations which had remained open to deal with the occasional freight traffic. The first section closures took place from 27th April 1964 when the line was cut back to Redmire from Hawes, Redmire becoming the new western terminus of the, now, goods line. By 1967 only Bedale Leyburn and Redmire remained open for freight traffic with the ‘One train in operation’ system being utilised seeing the removal of signalling and other infrastructure though some remained for example at Bedale where distant signals warned of the approach to the level crossing at the station the crossing being controlled by Bedale signal box, the only one to remain open. By the 1970’s and early 1980’s the goods traffic was as required consisting of limestone traffic for the steel works at Redcar through the week and an occasional pick up goods with 6 stone trains a week by 1989. This traffic often saw double heading locomotives of varying classes though class 37’s seem to have been the most common, until the introduction of the class 60’s, due to the 2000+ ton loading of the trains. At Redmire the train would be split in to three portions for shunting on to the raised goods yard for loading, the empties rolling by gravity to the loading tower and then down in to reception sidings where they were marshalled at the west end of the station.
An EWS class66 Hauls a military train along the WR.
Picture courtesy of freefoto.com
By the 1990’s a lot of the line was acting as storage space for redundant stock and the line itself was treat as a long siding. The lack of design improvement at Redmire was also of evidence as the sidings had not followed the design necessity of the modern wagons that were now in use wagons still having to be filled individually thus slowing dispatch to an agonising pace. 1992 saw British steel, which owned the quarry at Redmire, state that all future traffic from Redmire to Redcar was to be by road resulting in British Rail mothballing the line. The result was for about 756 lorry journeys through Wensleydale per week. Naturally opposition to that many lorries passing through the dale was great with a petition signed seeing the railway remain open for another six months before the last service ran hauled by class 60086 on Friday 18th December 1992, the engine carrying a head board with the legend Redmire Requiem written on it, British steel turning to Cumbria for its stone. This was not the end f the lines story, however as MoD carried out test runs moving tanks and other heavy military vehicles along the line on flat bed wagons. The experiment was a success due to the routes double track width and proximity to Catterick Garrison. Though these were infrequent runs it meant that the line had to be kept to operating standard a task carried out by the army, this allowed the Wensleydale Railway Association (WRA), set up in 1990 by a group of locals with the intention of saving the line, some hope as to the lines future. Then in June 2000 Railtrack the then railways owners reached agreement with the Wensleydale Railway PLC (WR) for a 99 year lease of the line the WR being the natural development of the WRA which had raised enough money through share sales to restore some of the lines buildings and purchase most of the track-bed west of Redmire with the intention of the lines extension back to Garsdale and eventually connection to the Settle and Carlisle at Garsdale. The railway under its new operators was to be different to other preserved railways as it was to focus on local tourism and the local community rather than a railway experience as other preserved or heritage railways do. The WR utilises heritage DMU’s and is hoping to run trains using diesel locomotives of classes 31 and 37 top and tailing ex BR Mk2 rolling stock whilst running frequent services every day of the week. On 12th May 2003 the WR officially took control of the railway between Leeming Bar and Redmire, with the company intending to get trains running to Leyburn with all possible haste. On the 4th July 2003 the lines first revenue earning passenger train for many years set off from Leeming Bar to Leyburn, people lining the route and churches ringing their bells in celebration. By the 1st of August 2004 the railway had reached Redmire 5 miles beyond Leyburn seeing the re-opening of Bedale station on the same day and the opening of Finghall station on the 23rd December 2004. Work continued on the line however with the installation of passing loops at Leeming Bar, Bedale and Constable Burton to allow multi train working once signalling has been installed. The railway was also the home of an experiment on the Leeming Bar to Northallerton west section when a Parry People mover was introduced in the September of 2005 for limited passenger services. The results of the experiment may see the introduction of a railcar based on the Parry people mover in the form of an articulated vehicle using a propane-powered flywheel energy storage system thus allowing efficient, quiet ad low emissions.
The Parry People mover stands alongside a class37 at Leeming Bar awaiting its next trip.
Picture courtesy of Freefoto.com
The future of the line is certainly looking good and it seems to do a good trade. I went on the line in the summer of 2006 on a mid week service and I was pleasantly surprised to see the to car class 110 DMU almost full to and from Redmire. Should the line be re-connected to Northallerton via a proposed south to west curve a new platform would have to be built at Northallerton to keep trains for the Wensleydale line away from the 140mph main line. The western end of the line would also benefit from the re-connection to the Settle and Carlisle perhaps someday frequent train services operating once again along the whole length of the route. For some more on the railway as it was on my 2006 visit why not have a look at the R.o.B Photo album for the Wensleydale line.