Yorkshire Wolds Railway

A great spot - I'll have to have a look at that!

It's not looking like it'll be much of a season for any of us this year, but we must put everyone's health first.

However, we have now laid much of the track in our 'Field 2' which is heading south towards Wetwang.





After this field the trackbed is still in situ for at least a mile, so we should be able to grow more 'panel-by-panel' now.

We also have a brakevan undergoing what I think is a quality restoration by an experienced team:







This will enable us to give 'proper train rides' from a soon to be built platform, rather than only being able to give cab rides as we have done so far.

Please have a look at our website, but also our 'work-in-progress' thread on our discusssion - this is a link to the latest (88th) page! https://www.yorkshirewoldsrailway.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1404&start=870

Keep safe & well,

Phil.

 

A piece on the BBC News webpage.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-humber-57287677

 

Found this news item today.
Things are progressing.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/her...closed-in-1958-3560875?itm_source=parsely-api

 

The Yorkshire Wolds Railway has just taken delivery of a MK2 aircon coach, which is apparently intended for passenger service.

 

Just an update on the YWR - apologies for the 3 1/2 years since the last one!

We have worked very hard over the intervening years (as you have to), both on & off site & have grown the railway tremendously in that time.

This picture summarises developments up until last Spring:



We successfully bid for grant funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund & after a lot of paperwork got the "Visitor Centre & Working Facility" ('Shed') built. It's not finished yet, but is housing our loco & brake van for winter work as from a few days ago:



This is the fully-restored brake van seen in the earlier pictures. We use it for giving rides & it is popular with the public. Here it is being propelled to the platform:



We have also teamed up with the former Farworth Area rolling stock group from the NYMR (ex Levisham), which has transformed the railway. We have many enthusiastic volunteers with expertise & several more wagons on site now. This one is undergoing repairs:



We also bought a 'Salmon' & have a 'Dogfish' on long term loan.

 

The signal box is from Sprotborough on the old Hull & Barnsley railway, having been on an allotment for about 50 years. Around 75% of it is still original. It is not yet connected up to anything (hence the ground frame) but does have the lever frame in from the old New Holland Pier box on the south bank of the River Humber.



We also have the Fowler undergoing restoration. This has been slowed a little by available volunteer hours, but should be in use at the start of the 2027 season. It will get some shed space after this March.

 

I nearly forgot the Mk2 coach we bought almost 4 years ago - BSO 6027. To be honest, it was in danger of becoming a bit of a 'white elephant', but we then had the idea of converting it into our shop/cafe/seating area as this was previously centred around a grounded van body. We took half the seats out & tidied the others up:





This is what we previously used:



A big improvement

 

Time has flown by since we first gave cab rides over 180ft of track. This was May 2015 with a local BBC News team on site:



In fact in May last year we celebrated 10 years since opening to the public!



Unbelievably, we will be coming up to our 20 year anniversary (of the first meeting) in 2028, & we should have expanded a lot more by then. We have just purchased another 1,200ft of track & 4 points/switches to make a start! This is the direction of travel (towards the village with the well-known name of "Wetwang") - you can just see the camber of the old formation in the field:

 

It sounds like you all have no issues with the local farmers, then? Who owns the land the formation is on? If not the railway, do you all have some sort of long-term lease? (So often we have seen issues with the land beneath the formation - on several lines.)

Noel

 

Is the farmer happy to sell the land ?

 

We do not own the land & are unlikely ever to be able to buy it. Our landowner owns an estate village & they are very accommodating, as the idea is that we bring in visitors to the area but do not compete with their house, grounds & restaurant, etc.

We have a long lease although we now only have 7 years left on this (again - 'time flies'). We have recently been renegotiating for a new lease of hopefully another 20 years or so which will also encompass all the recent developments.

Fortunately, the land on which we have our initial planning permission for about a mile of track is all owned by the same landlord, but we have had discussions with the other landlords after then, who would be amenable at this stage. It will depend whether we then 'cross that bridge' or not, as to whether things need to get more complicated; a view we will need to take nearer the time if that land is still available.

 

Interesting updates, thank you.

Two questions from me, if I may:
1. What are the medium and long-term aims for the Yorkshire Wolds railway from here? As you say, you're currently benefitting from a landowner being positively disposed to you, so you've been able to build along a section of his land, but where do you plan to go next? Wetwang is the only direction you could go without crossing a road I think, but I'm not sure how much earthwork would be required.

I was interested to see you say 'The idea is that we bring in visitors to the area but do not compete with their house, grounds & restaurant' - is there a danger that the landowner would refuse you permission to extend further, or revoke your lease, if you got so succesful that it was competing?

2. You mentioned the MK2 BSO was in danger of becoming a white elephant until it was decided to use it as a cafe - I remember its arrival and was wondering at the time what the idea behind buying it was in the first place? As an air-braked, air-conditioned coach you'd never be able to operate it with a shunter as far as I am aware - you'd need a generator van at the least.

Forgive me if this sounds negative; this area is very close to my heart and the idea of riding behind a steam loco through the Wolds is something I'd absolutely love to experience one day. I'm just interested to know the strategy to make it happen.

 

Thank you for your interest Alex.

The medium (10 year) goal is to get to 'Wetwang Green Lane'. This is relatively easy to achieve given money & time, because it is all one landowner's, on the level & is either grassland with the formation beneath, or the old untouched formation. Our initial feasibility study confirmed its suitability for track-laying. There are no significant earthworks required on this part. Wetwang Green Lane is a public bridleway, so will need authority (TWAO perhaps) to cross. However, at this point we could construct a small halt enabling visitors to get on or off. They could then access the local country paths or walk to/from our main site via a path down the side of the line (the formation was always double-track width, even though the railway was always single).

Longer term, the aim is to extend towards Wetwang, perhaps into the station itself & all landowners have been consulted on this. However, this would involve a road crossing & the reinstatement of significant parts of the former trackbed (now cropped farmland) & we will have to study the viability of doing this, considering the potential extra footfall, etc. Given that we are purely volunteer-run & wish to maintain solid financial reserves without borrowings, my own view is that it may be better to remain at a mile long, but we'll see. I'm not sure that getting into Wetwang would bring in sufficient extra revenue to justify it & it would need a lot more volunteers each time we operated. There is also a possibility that we could extend into the old Sledmere & Fimber railway station (now a picnic site) but this would cross a busy road. The Council are however keen to offload responsibility for this area, so 'never say never'.

Our lease expressly states what we can't do in terms of competing with the landlord, but in practice we have worked well with them & are unlikely to be in dispute over this. We always discuss things with them first. The biggest matter is perhaps catering, but we can do pre-packed stuff, sausage rolls & the like, which is probably enough, certainly at the moment.

Also, we are unlikely to ever be an attraction where you would spend a full day with us, so we are part of the local tourist offering jigsaw & shouldn't therefore be a direct competitor to the house etc, which you could visit in the same schedule.

I guess we all have stories like the Mk2 - you get an opportunity & get a bit carried away at the time. Anyway, it's a really popular feature now & earns its keep. We live & learn!

And as for steam, when we get the shed finished & properly secure, it is certainly part of the strategy. It perhaps won't make us any money, but hiring in steam for a period(s) would be great & would really help to promote us further.