Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway Updates

I've been reading the comments with interest. I think many railways could be said to have rows of carriages and locomotives standing in sidings that are “not presented in optimum condition”, and that realistically have little chance of ever running! However, Embsay has addressed this issue and taken the sensible approach that, if we haven’t the resources to do the work (i.e. money or volunteers), then these items should go elsewhere, where at least they have a chance of perhaps running one day. Within the last eighteen months or so, three of the Mk1s have been sold and have left the railway. One wagon has also left for pastures new (it has subsequently been restored at Hellifield). The LMS “Irish” coaches are currently the subject of a £100k appeal (The Century Appeal), so that these historically important coaches can be returned to service in time for their 100th anniversaries. Both are currently undercover and drying out, so that work can begin in the near future. Not only has the running fleet received makeovers during that period, but we have also outshopped YDR3 and YDR7, the latter of which has taken its place in the dining set. It is the intention to pair YDR7 with “adapted” coach YDR8, which is currently in the final stages of overhaul within the Carriage and Wagon workshop. We also outshopped the LMS Oyster Plough Brake in November, which is being utilized in our PWay works trains to good effect. We are currently in the process of fundraising to extend our carriage shed further, as we take the view that there is no point in spending thousands of pounds on coach restoration, then leaving them out to the mercies of the Yorkshire weather! Three of the steam fleet have left the line: York is under overhaul at a private site in the Midlands, and Austerity “69” has been sold by its owners and now resides in the North East, where it too is currently under overhaul. Sentinel “Ann” also has new owners, has subsequently been restored and is now running on the ELR. The “Selby Fowler” (diesel shunter) has also been sold, and is being restored on site at Embsay by its new owners. Work on Wheldale is ongoing, and will progress at a speed dictated by the success of our fundraising appeals (a sum of in excess of £300k is mooted for the completion of the project, a little over half of which has been achieved so far). The boiler is being stripped at Embsay for assessment. Whilst the chassis is currently at Statfold being overhauled, various parts have come back to Embsay for the volunteers to work on. We often receive criticism about the larger ex-mainline diesels and shunters at the railway. What people do not realise is that they are privately owned and the situation is somewhat “sensitive”. Suffice to say that as a charity with finite resources, we are reluctant to commit them to non-railway-owned vehicles. Embsay station has had a lot of work done on it and now looks very tidy and well cared for, as befits a listed building. Work is ongoing on the replica station building at Bolton Abbey to replace the cladding and windows, with detailing being undertaken down to such things are replacing the life-expired windows with replica Midland style ones. It isn’t going to be a quick process, as the funds required to undertake this work are not exactly insignificant! As with everything in preservation, it is very easy to criticise whilst sat at the keyboard. However what really matters the most is having the funding and sufficient volunteer resources to carry out all of the work that we would “like” to do as a railway. We welcome prospective new volunteers and of course donations! Further details of the current appeals etc. can be found on the railways website. We also have the excellent “Shed News” page on Facebook, which gives regular updates on the happenings at the YDR.


I speak as a Locomotive Department & Carriage & wagon volunteer at the YDR, and not as “the management”

 

Thank you for posting such a detailed summary.
Good to hear that Bolton Abbey station building is getting a little TLC.

 

Somehow I've only just found this thread... thank you @annesi for the update, that's really interesting.

As for the comments from last winter regarding the visitor experience, I have to say that my wife and I visited a couple of years ago... it wasn't high summer but it wasn't out of season either. I hadn't been since I was a child and was really excited. We rode from BA to Embsay and back, but were a bit disappointed. To be honest... I felt there was barely anything to do other than ride 20 minutes each way. We got to Embsay, waited for the train to run round and went back... and that was it. Thankfully we'd travelled up primarily to visit the Abbey, so our trip wasn't wasted but I really felt that one of the stations needed some kind of visitor attraction or something aside from the tiny shop at Embsay.

I heard a few years ago that there were plans in place to build an exhibition shed for locos that are out of service or awaiting overhaul, similar to Middleton and Oxenhope. Is that still the case? I think if you could exhibit some of the vintage stock and some locomotives together in a shed that is accessible to the public, that would be a fantastic asset. I do appreciate that these things cost money though.

To put my comments into context, I'd dearly love to see this railway thrive. I love that industrial locos make up pretty much the entirety of the home fleet and that they get regular use - and especially that they're almost all Leeds-built or designed - and I've got fantastic, fond memories of going on event days as a child. The Vintage Trains fleet is an excellent USP too. But I'm really worried that unless they can offer something other than just a 20 min out and 20 min back trip, you risk people coming once and then not really feeling the need to return.

The Skipton extension is the obvious one but I believe the cost of rebuilding the platform and resignalling makes it prohibitive... is there any scope to go the other way towards Addingham?


Also... The E&BSR's own website says that Barclay no.22 isn't considered suitable for regular passenger trains due to its rough riding and coal capacity...
Given that the railway has been hiring in additional larger locos for passenger services (Jessie, Welsh Guardsman, 85, 5643), is there a reason why the railway decided to put their resources into restoring no.22 rather than say Primrose or Wheldale?

 

The railway haven't decided to put their resources into No.22 its owner has.
The railway has raised funds towards Wheldale's overhaul and the frames are at Statfold Barn being overhauled.
The boiler is being worked on at Embsay.

 

Ah - makes sense then. Cheers!

 

I second the news about Bolton Abeey, such a gem of a station and when I last visited pre-pandemic, it certainly looked in need of some TLC. Good stuff!

 

Thank you for your updates.
It is good to hear of the developments - perhaps you could take the time to update the thread every few months to keep the railway in the NP eye?

I'm sad to see the NCC carriages looking so poor, I worked on 241 about 30 years ago when she was part of the RPSI running fleet. I do hope they will be fully restored in due course, maybe even in NCC livery?

 

I think the plan at some stage was to use our current 2 road shed as an exhibition area, but it was dropped so it could be used for loco restoration purposes. We’d still like to have a museum facility, possibly at Bolton Abbey, but funding is an issue. Like you point out, EBAR isn’t really an all-day destination at present. Similarly, although a Skipton extension would probably make good business sense in some ways, it would require a very large sum of money to connect the railway to NR, and would put an additional strain on volunteer and funding resources (more track miles, more wear on the stock, plus compliance/training issues to consider too). I believe the trackbed at Addingham has been built on. Both I fear would be long term ambitions, if they were ever to happen at all.

At present 22 is being worked on by its co-owner in the 2-road shed, along with one of the class 31s and one of two 08 shunters kept in there. I’m not sure what their plans are for 22s use, possibly similar to the role of Illingworth I would think. We have hired in larger locos of late, such as Guardsman, as we’ve been running longer trains due to social distancing. Beatrice’s owner (John Beasley) normally restricts her to 5 coaches, to avoid undue wear and tear and the big bills that come with operating at the max. Wheldale’s wheels will be going into the 2-road shed to be worked on, once they arrive from Statfold on Friday evening. As I work with John for the vast majority of the time that I’m at Embsay (having been involved in Beatrice’s overhaul, her ongoing upkeep and the restoration work on his GWR Toad), John has asked me to be involved with the work on Wheldale too, as he is the project leader. I’ve done similar stuff in the past at the NYMR and on Sir Nigel Gresley, so I’m hoping that my input will be helpful to the railway. It doesn’t mean that I exclusively work with John though, as I repainted the cab interior on Meaford this time last year and was heavily involved with the interior repaint on the LMS Oyster (I think I spent in excess of 50 days on the combined pieces of work). I also spent several months helping with the refurbishment of the MK1 coaches, which was undertaken prior to our reopening trains in the summer of 2020, by carrying out very considerable amounts of revarnishing on them. I understand that the railway is working on applying for a grant to get the NCC coaches done too, and at present these are just at the drying out stage (which we are permitted to do, as it’s not classed as “working” on them). There are some nice photos of them on the shed News page on Facebook and on the railway’s website. Unfortunately, nothing in preservation ever happens quickly, and progress is very often slowed down by a shortage of volunteers and available funds, which is the case at Embsay and quite a few other heritage lines I’m afraid.

 

Thanks for a detailed update again.

When the work at bolton abbey station is complete will the work on the island platforms recommence? It sort of got part done & then left.

 

Wheldale’s boiler is in the process of being stripped at Embsay, after which it will be shotblasted prior to assessment by the boiler inspector, so that the scale of the work required can be determined. As far I know, no contracts have been let for any of the work as yet, and the last time I looked only 180k had been raised out of projected 300K to complete the overhaul. Although Primrose is at present stored on site, it isn’t the railways property, so we are unable to carry out any work on it. Sadly, the owner passed away two years ago, and as far as I am aware the legal processes with the estate are still ongoing. Once that is complete, it will be up to his beneficiary as to what happens to it.

 

Thanks again for another explanation!

What is Illingworth's exact role? I get the impression that she's less powerful than the Austerities, naturally, but still pretty gusty - mainly used on vintage trains? She's a gorgeous loco.

Am I correct in thinking that of the current operational fleet, only Beatrice and Illingworth are actually based at Embsay full time - WG, Cumbria and Jessie being hired in? Is Wheldale the next out after 22 or is there something else under restoration at the moment?

The work you've done on the MK1s and the Oyster is stunning so I can't wait to see the NCC coaches when they're finished.

 

Yes, Illingworth isn’t as powerful. She is limited to a maximum of 3 coaches I believe, so is only usually used for off peak loadings or with the Vintage Carriages set. Illingworth and Beatrice are permanent based there and on long-term hire to the railway. Cumbria is hired in from the Furness Trust. WG and Jessie are on short term hire, bought in for the Santa trains. WG leaves this week, and was sat in Embsay station attached to the freight train for tomorrow’s photo charter, when I left there tonight. Not sure when 22 will be out, but I suspect it will be a while yet. It is never wise to give a date, as it’s a moveable feast with any restoration. Wheldale is a long way off, at least two years or more I would think. No other steam locos are currently under overhaul. There are some recent photos on Facebook of the boiler and the wheelsets from Wheldale (I’ve been working on those for the last four days). One of the NCC’s is gradually being stripped of its metal cladding as time permits, to assist the drying out process. It’s head painter John Furness’ handywork you see on the Mk1s and the exterior of the Oyster. He also does all the painting on the vintage coaches. The major projects I’ve done for them are the interior on the Oyster, plus all of the cab repaint on Meaford and a large amount of Beatrice’s cab repaint, along with a load more assorted bits and pieces on the latter, major parts including the running plates and smokebox. Over the past year or two I’ve also done the buffer beams on Cumbria & Illingworth, Illingworth’s wheels and the smokebox (twice) on WG. I tend to get the odd project here and there, but not the big high-profile stuff, as I don’t have the skill and experience of John Furness. John Furness & John Beesley are mentoring me with the painting though, so I’m learning a lot from them. My other ongoing project is helping with the restoration of John Beesly’s GWR Toad, so plenty of painting to do on that one. However, I’ve specialised in wheel preparation and repaints, so that’s why I’m now doing Wheldale’s wheels for them.

 

Cool, thank you! Is Jessie staying for the spring/summer season or will something else be arriving to support Cumbria?

 

Are there any photographs of the Oyster restoration and/or completion anywhere please?

As owner of one of the other three surviving examples I'm both pleased to see another restored but now can't claim I have the only restored and working example!

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Beautiful set of films, and a real USP for Embsay to be able to put this on

 

Cracking little loco. looks like you had a good day with it.

 

A few video clips from the first of two 30742 charters we organised and ran earlier this week. 0-6-0ST No.1208 'Illingworth' is seen hauling a short freight set and a couple of vintage coaches from the Stately Train collection. Taken on the 15th February 2022.

Video Available Here

 

very pretty. does the e w on the brake van stand for anything in particular ?and also was it usual for GPW to be given BR Bauxite and white wheel rims ?

 

Really nice to see the Oyster brakevan restored and out and about!

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