Leeming Bar to Crakehall leg We take our seat in the front carriage of the vintage diesel train and look forward through the window into the driving compartment and onto the track ahead.  | | Historic rolling stock |
These elderly trains were once common all over the UK offering fantastic "drivers eye" views of the countryside and the track .
The guard blows his whistle and the engines come to life below the floor gently moving the coaches forward. As we glide out of the platform at Leeming we pass the new junction points and another coach parked in a siding. Past houses and fields we head for the A1 bridge diving under the dual carriageway and bending round to pass over Aiskew Level crossing . The modern flashing lights stop the traffic on the busy A684 , many motorist still surprised that their journey has been interupted by a "passenger train". Now travelling across the Vale of York there are splendid views south across the fields until we enter a wooded section of the line which cures sharply round to Bedale station. The train stops at the disused platform while the heavy wooden gates , freshly painted , are swung across the A684. Some of the cars caught at Aiskew have to stop again in Bedale . The line crosses the road and hugs the bank of Bedale beck , it's track bed still looking more like a wooded avenue than a railway . The train is now doing 25 mph , the current speed limit , but it feels faster because the trees are still brushing past the carriages. The route twists and turns past Bedale Golf course and then becomes straight as an arrow as it passses under the A684 again and stretches out towards Crakehall station . The train does not pick up passengers here , but we have to stop to open the crossing gates. | 
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