David Dunning writes about how the unique project to restore train services to Wensleydale has been given the green light.

This report was written before the line re-opened

It was back in March of 1848 that the first stretch of the Wensleydale Railway opened. It linked Northallerton with Leeming Bar and over the following decades the rails reached into the heart of Wensleydale.

See a larger image of an aerial view along the line

Quiet market towns and rural villages were suddenly within hours, rather than days, of major cities.

Although it served a useful link between the Settle-Carlisle line and the East Coast route to Scotland and London, the little railway in the Dales had a quiet peaceful existence Too quiet in fact and in the 1950s it fell victim to the motorcar and bus.

Railway memories

See a larger image of the Old Great North Road crossing at Leeming

My first memory of the line was at the age of two or three. My auntie had a house which looked over the line at Aiskew near Bedale.

She knew the signal man at the Aiskew level crossing and used to take me down the road to watch the occasional train. This was the 1960s and even then traffic on the main road was 20 times the level of the Wensleydale line.

See the photo gallery of the railway's preparation

However the line refused to die and although the section from Redmire to Garsdale was removed, freight traffic survives to the present day although you have to be very lucky to spot a train.

There's the occasional movement by the army and the yearly weed killer service. Not a lot disturbs the peace between Bedale and Leyburn.

Crossing keeper

See a larger image of Anne Riddle at home at Finghall

The train services may have gone but the people who worked on the line are still here. Anne Riddle has lived at Finghall for 32 years. She was the crossing keeper and has remained as a tenant in the old station house.

She knew nothing about the railways when she applied for the job at Finghall. After being accepted she went on a stringent training course and even though she had a young child at the time, she 'womaned' her post night and day through a variety of Dales weather.

Now history is repeating itself. Soon the gates of this little crossing over the Old Great North Road may be swinging back and forth more often.

The Wensleydale Railway is taking a 99 year lease on the line and plans to run regular passenger trains again. It means that the Wensleydale Railway, effectively, has Britain's longest franchise. Wouldn't GNER like a 99 year deal?

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