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Wensleydale Railway Matters

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by s1m0nad, Nov 10, 2014.

  1. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    At least it’s not Facebook... But, yet again, an anonymous group with big dreams, little tangible achievement, and a website that majors on corporate structure.

    I hope they don’t damage the credibility of the Wensleydale Railway, either by association or by distraction.


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  2. Bean-counter

    Bean-counter Part of the furniture

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    If they are who I believe they are, they include some who were much involved in getting the Wensleydale off the ground.

    Although the website reads like 'just another preserved railway', the little I heard of a very similar proposal earlier this year suggested more a reinstatement scheme for through trains off the Network. Hawes is a busy destination with various attractions in and around it and southern part of the S & C regularly needs more capacity than north of Garsdale. Funding is the issue, and would, of course, need to be considerably higher for a 'network' standard line but there is always the Prime Ministers £500 million 'Reversing Beeching' Fund.......

    Steven
     
  3. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    I hope you are right.


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  4. mickpop

    mickpop Resident of Nat Pres

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    Hawes would be a sensible objective being a popular tourist destination, filling the gap from Northallerton via Aysgarth. The infrastructure, in terms of the track bed, is quite badly eroded west of Hawes itself. I wonder if many would want to make a circuitous journey via the ECML and the S&C which would be quite arduous and time consuming and therefore justify making the connection at Garsdale not that attractive [a bus might be a better substitution].
     
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  5. paul1609

    paul1609 New Member

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    I've walked along or near too a lot of the Wensleydale railway from Redmire to Garsdale and Ive also been involved in rebuilding a disused railway to heritage standards.
    The Wensleydale formation ranges from non existent to badly eroded ash and would need rebuilding throughout. At todays prices I think it would be around £3 to £4 million per mile plus land costs plus major infrastructure items bridges, viaducts etc. I'd suggest that the period where there are major new or extensions of preserved railways has passed.
     
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  6. garth manor

    garth manor Well-Known Member

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    Not much hope for Aln valley or L & B prospects then ?
     
  7. Matt78

    Matt78 Well-Known Member

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    not sure about that, there have been some reasonably large extensions opened the last two years, GWSR, Gwili and Llangollen spring to mind, albeit the powers to construct the line and ownership issues were already in place in these instances. I agree it is more difficult (but not impossible) to “start from scratch” from a position of no TWO and no land ownership, but even then the Rother Valley and L and B are exceeding the expectations here.

    I take the view that in preservation there will always be a faction of “railway builders” keen to get involved and there people are not necessarily the ones that want to operate trains but take more pleasure in restoring vacant trackbed. As long as there people are around, extensions will be mooted.

    regards

    Matt
     
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  8. ruddingtonrsh56

    ruddingtonrsh56 Member

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    Anybody know which steam locomotive has been recruited for this?
     
  9. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I'm guessing 6046, as 5197 is at Telford. They were advertising footplate rides for £150 on their Facebook page.
     
  10. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    Yep 6046 now in residence at Wensleydale until the end of December. It's a busy time for us crewing three locos at three different railways!
     
  11. ruddingtonrsh56

    ruddingtonrsh56 Member

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    I'm presuming that's just as minders and you aren't providing full crews for each railway?
     
  12. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    Nope full crews as per T&Cs of contract.
     
  13. burmister

    burmister Member

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    Rebuilding a long(ish) railway is perhaps the easy and more interesting to people bit. Keeping the infrastructure sound and in good repair afterwards is an altogether harder long term task (over say 50 years). Just like its easy to buy a loco but to keep it running financially long term with new fireboxes, overhauled generators etc is far more difficult once the previous investment in these by BR has worn out.

    Brian
     
  14. ruddingtonrsh56

    ruddingtonrsh56 Member

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    Really? Does the owner not trust the crews of those railways?
     
  15. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

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    Nothing to do with a question of Wensleydale competency. The terms of the contract asked for provision of operating crews, so that’s what we are doing.

    6046 has been at Dartmouth all summer and operated with no rep most days. So it’s not a case of wanting to play with “our” toys ourselves and not trusting anyone else.
     
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  16. mdewell

    mdewell Well-Known Member Friend

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    Can anyone update us on the status of Northallerton West? The www.wensleydalerail.com website seems rather confused and out of date in this regard.

    Their page about NW says
    "It is regretted that during the 2018 operating season we will not be able to operate any services from Northallerton West.


    Northallerton West is the latest station to open on the Wensleydale Railway. A small halt, serving the County Town of Northallerton, it is located off Springwell Lane. Access is by foot only and there is no parking nearby."

    So, the 1st para says it is not open (no trains = not open to my way of thinking), but the later para says it is open. :confused:
    I can also see that the online timetable shows no trains beyond Lemming Bar during 2019 so confirming that NW is not actually open.

    So is anyone able to provide an update more recent than 2018.
     
  17. Robkitchuk

    Robkitchuk Member

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    Believe they are still working on the level crossing upgrades between Leeming bar and Northallerton. So nothing operating in that area until that work is completed.
     
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  18. mdewell

    mdewell Well-Known Member Friend

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    Thank you.
    I was looking at the WR as we have just booked a stay in Aysgarth in June :)
    I expect we'll go for a train ride at some point but dissappointed to see that typically there are only 2 trains a day and starting at Aysgarth seems to only give 45 mins at Leeming Bar before the last train back to Aysgarth:( Obviously not so bad if you start from Leeming Bar.
    I am of course assuming that the 2020 timetable won't be significantly different to the 2019 one.
     
  19. Robkitchuk

    Robkitchuk Member

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    We did something similar on our last holiday in the area. Boarded train af Redmire, only did the section to Leyburn had a few hours there then caught train back.
     
  20. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

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    45 minutes is more that enough time at Leeming Bar, better to get off at Bedale. Instead.
     
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