This blog post is entirely my own view, not those of any organisations mentioned, it is purely intended as a ‘thinking aloud’ piece.
This was inspired by a recent Facebook post about the little used section of the Wensleydale Railway between Leeming Bar, Northallerton West and the interconnection with the East Coast Main Line (ECML) north of Northallerton Station.
The Wensleydale Railway (Northallerton West to Redmire)
As with most heritage railways, the vast majority of trains are ‘self contained’ within the heritage line, so having the maximum amount of line available is a key objective for most lines.
As an enthusiast, I have only once (to my own discredit) travelled on what is the very picturesque and interesting line between Leeming Bar and Leyburn, and with work ongoing to reach Redmire ongoing at present, seeing the line reopened to the west is the obvious priority at present, but hopefully expansion to the east to Scruton and Northallerton West will hopefully follow soon when resources allow.
Northallerton West would make for a reasonable interchange with mainline rail services on the ECML, being a fairly short walk (just under a mile) between the two stations, and outwardly could be an ideal operation for a shuttle bus service between both, and perhaps into Northallerton itself.
Wensleydale’s Mainline Link(s)
The Wensleydale Railway is somewhat fortunate, like many ‘major’ heritage railways in having a mainline connection, which allows for potentially easier movement of locomotives and rolling stock to/from the line by rail rather than road.
This connection is, however reasonably limited to my understanding, being only a single headshunt, linked to the ECML facing southward, meaning any incoming train would require a locomotive on each end to be able to enter the siding from Northallerton station, stop, and then reverse direction to head towards Leeming Bar, or vice versa.
The first option to improving this could be the addition of a run round loop on the above siding, allowing any loco hauled trains to run-round here, this could even potentially allow for another station (Yafforth Road), if a platform was built and would allow observation of passing trains on the ECML as an added bonus. This might need to be north of the Yafforth Road (B6271) bridge. This would allow a railtour approaching from York (or places beyond) to access the WR without needing multiple locomotives or double ended vehicles such as a Class 43 HST set.
The second option could be adding pointwork to the northern end of this siding to allow a train to exit the Wensleydale Railway directly heading north towards Darlington, or similar travelling from Darlington to branch eastwards towards Leeming Bar, and again could be combined with option one above to give something of an ‘interchange’ between a passing railtour (maybe en-route elsewhere) and Wensleydale Railway trains?
The main issue with the above is the constraints on the ECML timetable, with it being such a busy route, and indeed a fast one, accomodating a substantial rise in movements of typically slower railtours (steam locomotives and heritage carriages) which have a comparatively low speed limit may be a problem – not an insurmountable one but a challenge nonetheless.
A third option would be more ambitious in terms of construction, but could offer a very useful link, which would be to have an entirely new connection towards Yarm, which could take a few different forms, and would be advantageous in being a link to a ‘secondary’ mainline, with less demanding traffic…
Leeming Bar to Yarm (for Whitby)?
Interestingly, it appears that the Wensleydale route was never directly lined to the Northallerton – Yarm line towards Teesside, but outwardly a connection could be made direct between Northallerton West station and the former Northallerton Town station, and would pass either above or (more likely) below the ECML.
This would be a mirror of the East Lancashire Railway’s ‘Ski Jump’ over the Manchester Metrolink near to the former Bury Knowsley Street station, which was built in 2003.
With a journey time of approx two hours by rail from Northallerton to Whitby, based on existing timetabled trains, that could offer a cross-Yorkshire connection from Coast to Dales, this building on the existing occasional use of the Esk Valley Line by the NYMR as far as Battersby and regular scheduled steam/heritage train ‘plandampf’ between Whitby and Northallerton/Wensleydale could be a major tourist draw, boosting areas along the course of the route, and with an existing heritage railway presence at each end of such a route could allow for easier servicing/stabling as required.
Given the potential of the Wensleydale Railway to eventually link to Garsdale on the Settle and Carlisle Line, such a connection could be very useful if once again the route became a transpennine connection.
With the use of the Wensleydale for military purposes, that is a further use case for a direct link at Northallerton, though a more minor one (less frequent services but perhaps extremely vital).
An alternative, cheaper solution could be to build a new curve starting east of Northallerton West, and connect to the Northallerton – Yarm route near to Mulberry Vale, Northallerton, or indeed a simple extension parallel to the ECML from the existing headshunt, but this would be a more arkward connection.
Please leave any thoughts/comments!
Ryan Hogg 