Welcome to the
Wensleydale Railway's
Photo Website and Archive
 

THE WENSLEYDALE RAILWAY

The Wensleydale Railway is a tourist and heritage line with a connection to the main line just north of Northallerton. Its main base is at Leeming Bar just off the A1). The line runs all the way from Northallerton to Redmire on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. However at present trains just run on the Scruton to Leyburn section due to the condition of the track beyond Leyburn (although it is hoped that services will be able to return to Redmire next year). See our appeal below if you would like to help us get back to Redmire. The line passes through the Georgian market town of Bedale and the Dales market town of Leyburn, with constantly changing scenery, from the arable lands of the Vale of Mowbray in the east, to hills of the Yorkshire Dales in the west.

The line is a predominantly heritage diesel line, with occasional steam services operating over selected weekends and special events. For further information please see the timetable page for days on which the steam service runs.

This website shows many photos showing all the various aspects of the Wensleydale Railway. Each month an additional photo gallery is added, showing what has been happening on the railway over the previous month. There are also dedicated pages featuring some of the work and events which is going on each month. In addition the various works teams have dedicated pages to allow them to show some of the projects that they have been involved with. Many photographs from before Wensleydale Railway took over the railway have also been added. There is also a photo search facility to search for particular photographs.

Use the menus above to select various photo galleries.

These photos can all be used by the Wensleydale Railway for their own purposes so long as the photographer is credited. For use external to the railway, please contact the webmaster first to obtain permission.

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SERVICE TRAINS

During November/December there will only be the Bonfire special on the 1st November and the Polar Express trains until after Christmas, when there will be the Mince Pie Specials - The 28th December will be Diesel hauled and the 29th and 30th December will be steam hauled. More details shortly on the Wensleydale Railway website https://wensleydale-railway.co.uk.

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SECURING OUR FUTURE APPEAL

We are very pleased to announce that we have been offered a generous donation of track, points and signalling items from the former Eggborough power station site in North Yorkshire.

In support of this, we have launched a new fundraising appeal focused on safeguarding the railway’s long-term security. It has 2 goals:

1. To secure sufficient track materials to support our plans to restore passenger services to Redmire and meet our on-going maintenance needs for many years to come.

2. To build a service & ash pit at Leeming Bar. This supports our plans to operate steam services, improve our visitor experience and generate new income.

Acquiring the donated track materials has resulted in an alteration of our original goal of restoring passenger services to Redmire this year. As a result of the timescales & logistics involved in removing the track from the site to our railway, it has been necessary for us to adjust our current Redmire programme of track repair work accordingly. However, on-going sleeper replacement and drainage work on the Leyburn to Redmire section of our railway continues, and we remain committed to our goal of restoring passenger services to Redmire as soon as possible.

Our contractor, Lampitt Rail Services, has currently cleared approximately ¼ mile of track and materials from the former Eggborough power station site. The rails, sleepers, track fittings, several turnouts, signals and location cabinets are now stored at our railway. It is proposed that further track and materials will be cleared from the site by the end of this year and delivered to us in early 2026.

This track not only supports our plans to restore passenger services to Redmire, but also essential on-going maintenance and renewal needs along the length of our 22-mile line.

As you will appreciate, it is very expensive to remove the track materials from the site and transport them to our railway. We anticipate these track-related costs alone being in the region of £50,000. We would therefore very much welcome your donations to help us meet these costs.

We are acting today to secure the railway’s future. We need your support today

To give a donation or for more details see our 'Just Giving' page- here

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RAILWAY HERITAGE AWARDS

In January/February 2023, Bob Coombs was reponsible for replacing the level crossing gates at Crakehall to a NER design. Such was the care and authenticity in which this was done, that they have now been awarded 'The Hendy & Pendle Trust Volunteers Award' at the National Railway Heritage Awards Ceremony in December 2023. The official opening was on 3^rd June 2024. See here and here for details of this work and award.

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HERITAGE EDUCATION TALKS

As most of you will already know (but if not see below) the Wensleydale Railway was given a grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to restore Leeming Bar station and to share its heritage with more people and in new ways. With the station house reopened following the restoration, there are various free events and activities with something to appeal to everyone.
Before that, during March 2021 the Wensleydale Railway presented a number of live Digital Talks via Zoom. These talks were recorded and are now available for everyone to watch on our YouTube Channel here

` The following talks are currently available to watch:-

Leeming Bar Station House - A Return to Glory (By Will Burnham)
Brass, Steel and Fire (A Century of Model Locomotives) (By Anthony Coulls)
The Day the Railway Changed Everything (By Connor Lagus)
The Sierra Leone National Railway Museum (By Steve Davis)
An Edwardian Lakeland Tour (By Geoff Holme)
Railway Families in Westmorland (By Dr Karen Griffiths)

There are also a couple of short videos about Scruton Station in 1910.
Life on the Wensleydale Line: 1910 | Meet Mr. Johnson the Station Master
Life on the Wensleydale Line: 1910 | Meet Mrs. Johnson

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VIDEOS

There are now a few videos to watch on this website. See the 'Videos' tab. If anyone has any more videos that they would like to share, please contact the webmaster.

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IAN BELL'S PHOTOGRAPHS

Ian Bell was an early volunteer with the railway. After he died, his collection of photographs of the Wensleydale Railway were given to the railway. These photographs mainly date from the 1960s and the 1990s. Most of these photographs are now on this website and can be found under the 'Pre WR Photos' menu item. Many of these photos are watermarked, but high resolution digital copies without a watermark are available for personal use for a donation to the WRA(T). Please contact the webmaster for further details.

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BARRY WETHERELL'S PHOTOGRAPHS

Shortly before he died, Barry Wetherell passed on to the railway many of his photographs that he had taken over the years. Nearly 2000 photos have been added over the period 2006 to 2013. These are all now under the 'Monthly Photos' menu item.

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SOCIAL HISTORY OF OUR STATIONS

We are running an ongoing research programme into the history of the Wensleydale Railway, which runs from Leeming Bar to Redmire. At present we have some information on three of our stations - See the Social History pages. We would be delighted to hear from anyone who has a family connection with the railway or can help us piece together its story over the last 150 years. To get in touch, please email admin@wensleydalerailway.com or telephone 01677-425805.

ARCHIVE PHOTO SEARCH

This website is being developed into a photo archive for the Wensleydale Railway. There are now many more photographs than are contained in the above photo galleries. A photo search facility (see above for the link) is now available whereby the whole archive can be searched for photographs meeting your desired criteria.

D.V. BEEKEN COLLECTION

Wensleydale Railway photos from the 1950s by J.W. Hague from the D.V. Beeken Collection have now been added to this site. The default low resolutions versions of the photos can be seen with a watermark. High resolution versions of these photos (without watermark) are available for personal use for a donation to the WRA(T). Please contact the webmaster for further details. Grateful thanks to David Beeken for allowing the use of these photos for the benefit of the Wensleydale Railway.

GUESTBOOK

We now have a guestbook for your comments and suggestions for the website. See the "Home" menu above.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Does anyone have additional photographs that would be suitable for this photo gallery/archive?
If so, then you can either upload them directly to the website via the logon option under the "Home" menu above (please contact me first for a username and password) or you can send them to me (Timothy Edwards) for inclusion on the site at editor@wr-rail-link.co.uk.