The Railway Magazine – July 2019

Above: Scruton station, between Northallerton and

Leeming Bar, was restored from a derelict state in

2014. Now resembling a rural station from around

a century ago, it is used for the railway’s heritage
education programme and involves a cast of suitably

attired volunteers.VIRGINIA ARROWSMITH

Right:‘A1’No. 60163Tornadoprepares to restart its
train from Leyburn station on June 1 and continue to

Redmire.DAVID TOMLINSON

that reasonably quickly because we’ve got house
martins. We can’t disturb them over the nesting

season so have to do the work in the first couple
of months of theyear or towards the back end

of the year. Once the roof’s done, it’s starting to
look at the works internally. There’s quite a lot

of work to do to take out some of the modern
alterations that were done. When the building

was sold it was split into two houses so there’s
quite a lot of alteration to do to make it back

into one building.
“It’ll have a ticket office, parcel office, waiting

room, boardroom for kids to sit and learn
around, the kitchen to go back to how it was,

washroom, scullery. Upstairs will be a couple of
small offices and they’ll have a small collection

of artefacts which they will store up there rather
than being spread all over the place as there is

at present.”

Footbridge
He added: “It’s Grade II-listed. The

architect was G T Andrews. There are
restrictions, but as part of the process we’ve

worked with the local authority, Hambleton,
who are particularly proactive, it has to be

said. They’re really, really helpful. What’s been
decided and how it will be achieved has all been

thought about. It’s now just a case of ‘right let’s
get on with it and let’s get it done’. It’s probably

going to be 18 months to two years by the time
it’s finished. All being well it should be a fantastic

new resource for the railway.”
Further west, at Leyburn station, progress is

being made with infrastructure work, including
the installation of an old Furness Railway

signalbox (which originally controlled the sidings
for the Vickers Gun Range on the Cumbrian

Coast route) and the old footbridge from Brigg
station in Lincolnshire, which is undergoing

refurbishment prior to being brought to its
new home.

A passing loop was constructed last year
(the original loop and signalbox were removed

by British Rail, having been retained until the
early 1980s). Mr Brown says a full-length second

platform is planned too: “We’ve got to the
stage of a signalbox, bridge and a small viewing

platform, but the idea is that will act as a seed

to grow the platform to a proper full-sized

platform eventually. At that point we’ll be able

to pass trains and stop trains and people will

be able to swap over and do all sorts of other

passenger-like things.

“Again it’s starting to move that line from

what was a 22-mile siding to something that’s

actually useable. We’ve had a loop at Constable

Burton I think ever since the railway opened, but

the problem is it’s in the middle of nowhere and

there’s no station so it’s just a bit of a strange

place to pass really because nobody can do

anything. If you are stuck waiting for the other

train you just have to sit there.

“The bridge is currently at a fabricators being

repaired, checked over, new steelwork put in as

necessary, so work is progressing. I think ideally

we’d be looking either the end of this year or

early next year towards finishing it. There’s still

a little bit more fundraising to do towards it to

finish it off but the bulk of the money is there.

It’s now just about getting the work progressed

and getting it installed. It’s visual interest more

than anything. Who doesn’t like standing on

top of a bridge when a steam engine goes

underneath it and getting covered in soot?”

The work at Leyburn and securing funding

for the building restoration at Leeming Bar are

both major steps in the WR’s plans to make the

most of the line’s potential as a heritage attraction

rather than an operator of community rail services.

Community railway

“The one thing that I think we’ve go to bear

in mind is that actually we’re still a community

railway,” Richard points out. “We work for the

community, not necessarily as transport, but

doing other things to bring people into the

surrounding area, and that’s where we want to be,

especially for Wensleydale itself. It’s quite a short

tourist season so being able to bring in more and

more people starts to help those local businesses

because at the end of the day in a dale such as this

there are two forms of industry: agriculture and

tourism. It starts that stepping stone to be able

to attract more passengers in and then to be able

to distribute them out into the dale into other

businesses and things like that.”

July 2019 •The Railway Magazine•37