The route of the Wensleydale Railway and
its relationship with the East Coast Main
Line and Settle & Carlisle route.Class 14 diesel hydraulic No. D9523 eases over Bedale level crossing with a train towards Leyburn on July 16, 2017.
NIGEL COCKBURNThe North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group’s‘J27’No. 65894 returned to service in 2018 following a major
overhaul, and visited the Wensleydale Railway in the summer of last year. It is pictured at Leeming Bar while
preparing to take on coal prior to hauling the first train of the day on August 27, 2018.GRAEME PICKERING
It’s a change of policy which hasn’t been
without controversy, however. In making the
decision to concentrate on its current operations,
the WR decided to sell Aysgarth station, close
to the popular visitor attraction of Aysgarth
Falls. Three miles beyond its western terminus of
Redmire, it sits on the derelict section of the old
‘through’ Wensleydale route, which once ran via
Hawes, connecting to the Settle & Carlisle line
at Garsdale.
The sale, to West Coast Railways’ David
Smith, was viewed by some WR supporters as not
only posing a serious threat to eventual hopes of
trains returning to the head of the dale, but also
to the less ambitious prospect of providing an
alternative to travelling to Aysgarth by car. The
station had been valued at around £400,000. Part
of the proceeds from the sale were used to pay off
the mortgage, with the rest of the money being
invested back into the railway.Sustainable
Richard says even in the condition it was sold
in, the station was costing the WR £21,000 a year:
“The fabric of the building was deteriorating. We
couldn’t see anything in the short term that we
could do that would improve the fabric and to
find the money to invest in it to actually make it
viable. I think that’s quite a hard thing to get over
to people because it was such a sort of status goal
for the Wensleydale Railway to get to Aysgarth.
This will be controversial but I think it was the
right thing for the railway to do. I think we would
have struggled to continue to try to keep it going
anyway. It’s paid for some very nice things that
have helped the railway in the medium term.
“The railway wouldn’t have gone under but it
would have eventually dragged the railway down
because we couldn’t afford to keep maintaining
the fabric. To be honest it would have been sad to
see a building such as that just deteriorate.
“In the greater scheme of things, yes, it
would be lovely to extend and yes it’s not a dead
ambition by any means but as operations manager
previously I would question the sanity of adding
another four miles of track onto 22 miles of track
that requires a lot of work already. It’s just more
track to look after, more money to spend and
you’ve got to increase the passenger numbers
proportionally to pay for that.
“It’s all about getting the railway to a
sustainable future. There’s no point in having
all the nice things and then finding the railway
just collapses and falls in like a house of cards.38 •The Railway Magazine• July 2019HERITAGELINEPROFILE