The Wensleydale Railway - Hawes to Garsdale

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 The Wensleydale Railway  - Hawes to Garsdale 


History

Tucked away in a remote corner of the Yorkshire Dales is Hawes station. Situated on the disused section of the Wensleydale Railway, Which ran from Hawes Junction (later renamed Garsdale) on the Settle & Carlisle railway to Hawes. The station was originally opened in 1878 and was part of the Midland railways "Hawes Branch". There was an end on junction with the North Eastern Railways line from Northallerton at Hawes station. The North Eastern railway, and later LNER ran the majority of the services over the line. The exception being a service to Hellifield nicknamed the "Bonnyface" which ran as a single day return. The line towards Northallerton closed to passengers in 1954. But Hawes was still served by passenger trains from Garsdale till 1959. Freight and goods trains ran until 1964 when the full line was closed. Today the section from Redmire to Leeming Bar and Northallerton is still open as a heritage line.

Hawes Station today

Thankfully the station was not demolished and in the 90s the national park took it over, and it was turned into a museum and tourist information centre. Since then trains have sort of returned to Hawes, in the form of a former industrial 0-6-0 tank engine and rake of MK1 coaches. Although these are merely on static display and would need to be relocated if the line was ever reopened.

The locomotive carries the number 67345 which was the last steam locomotive to work through Hawes. 67345 was a NER Wordsell 'G5' 0-4-4T. The engine is in reality Robert Stephenson 0-6-0 7845 of 1955, which was numbered 12 and spent its working life at Hams Hall power station in the Midlands. 7845 was withdrawn in the early 1970s with boiler issues and was eventually bought for preservation and moved to the North Norfolk railway. However, it does not seem to have ever worked in preservation. A number of these locomotives were built for work at various power stations across the country, some were even exported abroad. Although the majority saw work at power stations around the Midlands shunting rakes of 20T coal wagons around.


Thankfully a number of these tank engines survive although at the time of writing none are currently operational. Examples can be found at; North Tyneside (pictured above), Avon Valley, Wensleydale railway (Leeming Bar), Great Central Railway and Ferryhill engine shed, Aberdeen.

In service 7845 would have carried a livery very similar to that of Nechells No4. Which is now a resident at the GCR and under overhaul. When 7845 was originally installed at Hawes it was painted in a fake lined BR livery. This was replaced with a plain black finish, which weathered and sadly looked rather shabby. It has now been repainted into unlined BR black livery and now carries the name “John Baker”.

It would be nice to think that 7845 could be restored and used if the line is ever reopened. But, years of industrial use and outside storage will make this task even more challenging.


The line today and possible future uses.

Appersett Viaduct. Author -The joy of all things

 The trackbed between Hawes and Garsdale remains mostly intact with only a few missing bridges and trackbed breaches. One of the most impressive structures on the line is Appersett Viaduct, which still stands. Further, towards Garsdale there is Mossdale Viaduct and the 245 yard tunnel at Mossdale Head, which are also intact. But, the tunnel is a bit wet inside!


It has long been the goal of the Wensleydale Railway based at Leeming bar to reopen the line from Redmire, their current terminus to Castle Bolton, Aysgarth and onto Hawes and eventually Garsdale. However, in early 2020 it was announced that a new company had be formed who wished to reopen the Hawes-Garsdale section as the "Upper Wensleydale Railway". This wouldn't be as a heritage line it would instead be as part of the national network with regular timetabled trains. The scheme was shortlisted for phase 2 of the "Reverse Beeching Fund", in June 2020.

Today Garsdale station is still open and sees regular trains from Leeds & Carlisle and Blackpool during the summer months. Originally the station was named Hawes Junction but was renamed Hawes Junction & Garsdale in 1900 and to simply Garsdale in 1932. The above photo shows the disused Wensleydale railway platform on the right.

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