The Weardale Railway Project

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Community Service to be discontinued.

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Video of our most recent visiting steam tour.
(courtesy of Tim Ruffle)

The Weardale Railway, situated in County Durham, U.K. was a mothballed branch line from Bishop Auckland following the River Wear westwards to Eastgate-in-Weardale, a distance of approximately 18.7 miles (30km). (Find us)

The line was originally built by the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1847 to transport limestone to the ironwork of Teesside, and by 1895 had been extended to its final terminus of Wearhead. Although the passenger service was withdrawn in 1953 (apart from a limited summer Sunday service between 1988 and 1992), the line was retained for freight use transporting bulk cement from the Blue Circle works at Eastgate. This use also ceased in 1993, so the line was mothballed and threatened with lifting.

For more about the line's history

Click Here

With support from Wear Valley District Council, 1993 saw the formation of The Weardale Railway Preservation Society. This was a group of supporters of the line whose aims were firstly to prevent its removal, and secondly to promote its future. This original support group is now registered charity number 1088897, The Weardale Railway Trust Ltd. This organisation helps to fund the work involved and provide the voluntary assistance, and its members receive a regular magazine to keep them informed of the project's progress.

Volunteers - Working volunteers are always in demand whether helping operations as driver, guard, crossing keeper, etc, station duties in the shop, cafe, ticket office, or behind the scenes maintaining and refurbishing rolling stock and track. All volunteers need the protection of training and the Trust's insurance, therefore it is in everyone's interest that:
All working volunteers must first become members of the Trust to benefit from the insurance cover provided.
Upon receipt of the completed application form and payment new members are invited to submit their skills and time available to the Volunteer Coordinator who will put them in touch with the relevant team leader.

The aim of creating a community project that would integrate a regular passenger service with enthusiasts' specials and freight facilities is unusually ambitious. Therefore the specialised tasks of negotiating with Network Rail, accessing national and EU grants and running scheduled services has been undertaken by Weardale Railways CIC (formerly Weardale Railways Limited).

Every heritage railway depends heavily on its volunteer workforce, some to operate passenger services, some to source, maintain and renovate the necessary infrastructure and rolling stock. In our organisation, many of these 'hands-on' workers are currently based in part of the Wolsingham site formerly owned by Weardale Steel, adjacent to the line itself. This site is being developed as The Wolsingham Railway Centre, the main depot for our operations.

Further information on each of the groups can be found under "Partners".

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If you have visited our railway and would like to comment, good or bad, we would like to hear from you.
Only by knowing what we do well, not so well, or not at all, can we improve the service to our customers.
Please email your Weardale experience to comments@weardale-railway.org.uk

If you want to be part of our future, please visit the TRUST area for more information, then print an application form and return it to Stanhope Station.

If you shop on the internet and would like to boost donations to our funds, visit retailers' websites via our portal.

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