Wensleydale Railway

From the railways Facebook page:-

Steam locomotive J72 69023 Joem will be in operation on Friday 18th April at 12:00. Satyrday 19th at 12:00 and on Sunday 20th at 12:00. These timings are departures from Leeming Bar station
Come along and enjoy a trip up the dale this easter.
Please share this Thank You.

 

Will Joem be in steam/running when Bittern visits on May 24th?

 

Can anyone who knows the Wensleydale Railway well, and the area around it, possibly recommend a good, and reasonably priced place to stay close to one of it's stations, ideally, Leeming Bar ? Northallerton another possibility of course, if that offers more options.

Many thanks in advance

 

Interesting piece here from the Northern Echo. No doubt many will be well aware of this already.

http://m.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news...tional_park_authority_for_new_tourist_centre/

 

It would certainly help the cause of this railway which runs through stunning scenery.

 

You could try Village Inn, 88 Water End, Brompton, Northallerton - I stayed there a few years ago for about £40 a night B&B; it was comfortable and handy for the Wensleydale and North Yorkshire Moords railways.

John

 

Many thanks, that could be a better option now Northallerton West has opened.

 

I wouldn't try walking it! The Village Inn must be getting on for 3 miles from Northallerton West and there is no parking at Northallerton West. You could park in the main Applegarth Car Park and then it is about a 10/15 minute walk to Northallerton West.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I can't judge the quality of accommodation in my home town . However there are a few B & Bs on South Parade in Northallerton, which is the main road from the main Railway Station to the High Street. Again, about a 10/15 minute walk to Northallerton West but you are on the right side of Town.

The only actual hotels in Northallerton are The Golden Lion on the High Street, locally owned and originally a Coaching Inn, which does real ale and good food (about to head off for my usual Sunday Carvery there ), which is again about 10/15 minutes from the Wensleydale Station, and Alverton Court on Darlington Road, which is closer as the crow flies but will be probably a good 15 to 20 minutes walk, mainly on field footpaths, to actually get to Northallerton West (probably half an hour via tarmaced paths).

There are 2 hotels and a motel at Leeming Bar, all just minutes of the A1M but the only one I have experience of is very much a contractors hotel these days. The other one was run by the daughter of the previous owner of the first who always ran a very good place but I have never been in the one she now/did run.

Northallerton is a very good base for an enthusiast - Wensleydale very nearby, NYMR and Embsay within an hours journey, direct rail services to York and Darlington for those museums. The town doesn't make enough of its tourist potential but has a long Georgian High Street with numerous hostelries (at least a couple of which are real ale places) and eating places - except on a Sunday evening, when you choice is basically Indian, Indian or possibly Indian!

Steven

 

Many thanks for all that useful info. Last time I went was with my brother, and before NW opened. We stayed some distance away from the railway, but a nice place. Can't remember the name sadly, but in a very quiet village. Next time we'll probably stay in Northallerton, but hire a car as before for any non WR business.

Thanks again

 

Or there's the White Horse Cafe!

I mentioned this thread to my Northallerton-born partner, but all she said was "Yeah, South Parade's B&B city!"

(Our first date was in the town on a Sunday. We did indeed have an Indian...)

 

Out of interest, given the proposal to reintroduce the West-South chord to allow direct access to Northallerton main line station, isn't that the line that had to cross the avoiding lines via a swing bridge when said avoiding lines were built?

 

It was a rolling bridge rather than swing bridge, but yes, you're right.

 

Yes, that's right and as Forestpines says, it was actually 2 rail "bogies" which could be shunted out of the way into specially provided sidings, meaning branch trains had to use the north cord, if the wartime avoiding lines were needed to be used.

These were built because the powers that be saw Northallerton, with its crossing of the ECML and old Leeds Northern Railway routes, as a strategic junction and hence valuable German target. The avoiding route enabled trains using Longland Loop to return to the ECML at Castle Hills. Fortunately, as far as I can tell, the Germans never agreed with this assessment and made no attempt to attack the Railway Station or Junction.

There are very visible remains of small bridge on the south curve which I had always taken as replacing the wartime "rail bridge". However, the last time I was up there, I had a walk up to the old formation and the visible bridge is just to the west of the obvious line of the avoiding route, now an agricultural track. This track has been built up to be more of less level with the trackbed of the south curve but when you actually get to the curve, the brick abutments of the "rail bridge" remain visible.

Google earth https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...2!3m1!1s0x487ebc9fca283cb5:0x5f3bbc0c6ed9445a doesn't really show that but the route of the avoiding lines (from just left of the "Springwell Lane" wording) and separate accommodation bridge are visible.

Northallerton West is accessible by a footpath from the accommodation crossing where Springwell Lane crosses the branch, with the actual platform Leeming Bar side of where the south Curve would have met the branch.

Steven

 

Thanks very much, chaps. That fills in a few details for me. A 'rolling bridge' - interesting. I wonder if there are any photographs of it?

Mark

 

I have certainly seen one, and I have a feeling that the caption commented that it was at least rare if not, given the "nation security" reasoning for the bridge, unique.

I have a feeling it may have been in a "history of Northallerton" rather than Railway book.

From the web, all I could find was this: http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2680

However, there is a little more detail that the low level platforms provided to work with the avoiding line here: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/northallerton_low_level/index.shtml

Steven

 

That made for some interesting reading, Steven. Many thanks

Mark

 

I'll be at Bedale 15-19 May. The multiplicity of Indians in Northallerton sounds promising but I've promised the better half a visit to Betty's as we can never face the queue in York.

 

You must be a rich man. Mind you, it is very good and we're all worth it!

John

 

I thought that that accommodation bridge was the emergency bridge too! Hence therefore the wrong title on this photo: https://flic.kr/p/45E44F

When I was last in Northallerton there was an interesting ex-NER grounded van body still surviving down Springwell Lane. And on the subject of strategic importance, the footbridge over the Middlesbrough line at its junction with the avoiding line (is that Longlands Jn?) is still guarded by things which appear to be tank traps.

 

I remember those tank traps from being very young - and having explained to me what they were. The strange thing is - that footbridge is far too narrow for a tank or even any 4 wheeled vehicle to try and get across - unless it used to be wider, of course! i have only know it for 45 years or so!

Steven