Our goal is to restore passenger services to Redmire station by September 2025. This will coincide with the 200th anniversary celebrations of the World’s first passenger service on the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825. We need your help.

What has been done?

The line from Leyburn to Redmire has been surveyed, all defects noted, and an action plan produced to bring the line back up to passenger standards again. Work started west of Leyburn in 2023, changing sleepers, removing trees and sorting out earthworks and drainage.

This section of the line is in a cutting and over the years the earth on the north side has gradually drifted down onto the track. This has all had to be dug out and shored up to prevent recurrence.

The drainage here is also very poor. Approx. 260m of concrete U tube drainage channel had to be dug out to remove damaged pipes containing asbestos.

How can you help?

There is a 0.75-mile section of track close to Wensley Station that needs to be slewed away from the embankment edge. The earthworks which carried the railway along the foot of the cliffs below Leyburn Shawl have eroded and material fallen into the adjacent fields. Some sleeper ends have been left exposed and unsupported.

This is a big job which will require contractor support. The track section has been surveyed by a Civil Engineer and plans made to slew the track away from the embankment edge onto what was once part of the quarry sidings.

It sounds simple, but it will involve approx. 1,000 tons of ballast (at a cost of around £25,000), the hire of machinery and qualified operators, works trains and our operating staff, permanent way engineers to approve the work, plus hiring a tamping unit (this alone will cost around £10,000) and last but not least, the efforts of our volunteer teams.

There is also a short section of track just east of Wensley crossing which needs attention and that should get us to Wensley. Next, we need to start work on the line to the west, notably Preston Bank as it runs downhill towards Redmire Station. Some of the rail necessary is already on site and we have some other materials, but we will need significant support to complete the job.