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 (although it is hoped that services will return to Redmire later this year), passing 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 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 March, there will service trains on Saturdays and Sundays, plus Tuesday 27^th and Friday 29^th. For more details see https://wensleydale-railway.co.uk

NOTE that the 2024 Visitor information Leaflet / Timetable is now available for download from this website under the 'Home' menu item.

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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. See here and here for details of this work and award.

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SUMMER APPEAL 2023

We are one of the longest UK heritage lines with 22 miles of track and infrastructure to maintain. We also need to invest in projects that will improve the railway's future. This creates a considerable financial and operational burden for our small volunteer-led team to manage. Our summer appeal aims to support the railway’s on-going maintenance and improvement plans.

This appeal builds on the success of our Return to Redmire appeal in 2022, which has raised approx. £50,000 to date. It complements recent improvements including relaying track at Aiskew, resurfacing Leeming Bar station platform and a donation of 2.5 miles of track from SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK in Teesside. This appeal will also support work now underway to restore services westwards to Wensley, as part of our plans to return passenger services to Redmire.

A copy of our appeal brochure can be downloaded from - here

For more information: email fundraising@wensleydalerailway.com

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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.