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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN MAY 2008                          Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

          The Yorkshire Dales are a rumpled counterpane of stark, lonely valleys spread across a sizeable swath of North Yorkshire in north central England. Blessed with remarkable beauty, the Yorkshire Dales have been designated a national park. But for those living in or near the Dales the region’s rugged profile is both a blessing and a curse.

YORKSHIRE DALES SCENERY VIEWED
FROM A WENSLEYDALE RAILWAY TRAIN.
Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

          Most of the dales run north to south, draining the hilly interior with a parade of minor rivers flowing generally to the southeast to collect at the great common outlet river called the Humber. Such are the geographic convolutions of the Dales that no main roads and no railroads cross the region from east to west for over eighty miles. Only two long valleys cross North Yorkshire on an east-west axis. One of these, Wensleydale, is straight, wide, and flat enough to provide a through route for a minor road (the A684). Once upon a time a forty-mile-long railroad also rambled through Wensleydale connecting with major railways east and west of

the Dales, providing residents of the Dales rail access to the rest of Britain, and visitors from all over Britain rail access to the Dales.
          During the 1950s, when Britain “rationalized” its extensive rail network by abandoning lightly used rural lines throughout England, Scotland, and Wales, the western eighteen miles of the Wensleydale line were torn up, leaving the twenty-two eastern miles in place but isolated. Then in 1990 the Wensleydale Railway Association was formed with ambitions bring passenger and freight services back to the still-in-place eastern half of the line and, eventually, to rebuild the western half of the line to reconnect the East Coast Mainline with the Settle-Carlisle Line.
 

CLICK TO SEE LARGE MAP OF THE WENSLEYDALE RAILWAY
 

          Like the semi-fictional Titfield Thunderbolt — the delightful 1953 English film about a community that decides to take over operations of its to-be-abandoned branch line — the Wensleydale Railway Association is driven by local initiative and inspired by an eccentric cast of characters that includes Michael Palin (of the Monty Python troop); Lord Harry Algar Nigel Orde-Powlett, Baron Bolton, whose estate includes the 14^th century Bolton Castle near Redmire Station along the railway; Mike Harding, British humorist, musician, filmmaker, poet, and outdoorsman; Robert Hardy, English actor whose credits include the Harry Potter film series (character: Cornelius Fudge) and, especially, the BBC TV series “All Creatures Great & Small” (character: Siegfried Farnon), which was set in nearby Thirsk just east of the Dales; and Christopher Awdry, author of many books on British railroading, including the last 14 of the 41 books of The Railway Series of Thomas the Tank Engine stories begun by his father, the Rev. W. Awdry.

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE
OCCASIONALLY VISITS THE
WENSLEYDALE RAILWAY.
Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

Wensleydale Creamery Visitor
Centre, home of one of England's
greatest artisan cheeses:
Real Yorkshire Wensleydale.
Photo courtesy Wensleydale Creamery.

          Since 2003 the nearly all-volunteer Wensleydale Railway has been operating (mostly) passenger and (a few) freight trains on its still semi-isolated route from Leeming Bar west to Redmire. The railway will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its rebirth on July 4 with a special combined train/bus run west from Leeming Bar to Redmire to Hawes, where passengers will tour and have lunch at the Wensleydale Creamery’s Visitor Centre, epicenter, arguably, of England’s artisan cheese industry: home of the award-winning Wensleydale cheeses. Still frustrating the railway’s ambitions are disconnects at both ends of the line. Currently the focus is on building an improved connection with Britain’s high-speed 

east coast mainline at Northallerton. The current 5.25-mile connection between Leeming Bar and Northallerton is rarely used, because it requires a complicated back-up move ever since the original spur was closed years ago. Until a new spur can be built the railway uses a bus connection to carry passengers between its Leeming Bar station and British Rail’s mainline station at Northallerton.

         If the Wensleydale Railway still goes from nowhere to nowhere, it does so with flair and ambition. Its operating schedule is that of a nostalgic tourist railroad — mostly weekends and holidays until the warmer months, then service expands to three round-trips a day on most days. Many days from mid-March through October, rail service is augmented at both ends of the line by vintage bus connections to Ripon bus station (east end) and the British Rail station at Garsdale (west end). During the latter half of this coming summer the railway hopes to offer special steam locomotives on many scheduled trains. Round-trip fares end-to-end

WENSLEYDALE RAILWAY TRAIN
AWAITS PASSENGERS AT THE PLATFORM.
Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

are reasonable: £10.80/adult, £9/senior, £5.40/kids 5-15, and £21/family (2 adults + up to 3 children), and let you break your journey along the way to walk. One-way fares are also available for walkers and cyclists (bikes carried for free).

Vintage bus en route to Wensleydale.
Photo courtesy www.dalesbus.org.

          Like rural railroads of the past, the Wensleydale Railway has had to dream up reasons to attract riders. The many charms of the Yorkshire Dales and Wensleydale in particular provide the railway’s creative volunteer workforce with great excuses for a day out on the railway. This year’s events calendar brims with the eccentric stuff of The Dales, including the May 28 special departing at 10:05AM from Leeming Bar for “A visit to Herriot Country”. Other themed specials include a guided tour July 30 of Bolton Castle with railway patron Lord Bolton as the guide;

and runs to a brass band festival (Sept. 7), Dales crafts shops (July 2, Sept. 17, Nov. 29) and sheepdog display (Sept. 18), and to explore the line’s past and future

development (east end June 27;west end July 12 and October 3). Food is a great attraction in Wensleydale, and the railway offers several food-themed trips including combined rail/entry to/from the annual Dales Food & Drink Festival at Leyburn (occurs in early May); a cream tea June 15, a hog roast June 21, and a fireworks special (for Guy Fawkes Day) with mulled wine November 1.
          In the end, it’s the magnificent outdoors that brings people to the Dales. Again this year the Wensleydale Railway offers a regular program of guided 5-to-6-mile-long walks, each beginning at late mornings on set dates from

Wensleydale in the fading light of
a late afternoon in early September.
Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

Steam-powered special on the Wensleydale Railway. THE VALLEY
HAS ITS BELOVED RAILWAY BACK!
Photo by Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com

Redmire or Leyburn stations. Walks occur throughout the year, including “The Twelve Walks of Christmas”: a dozen walks over as many days. Imagine walking in the frosty grandeur of the Yorkshire Dales at the most festive time of year, then returning by train savoring holiday mince pies and hot, mulled wine.
          In 1953, Titfield Thunderbolt won the hearts of theatergoers nostalgic for a disappearing English way of life. In 2008, the Wensleydale Railway thrives by providing local residents and visitors to the Yorkshire Dales with the opportunity to live the dream. What goes around has come around, again.

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