The Weardale Railway is a British single-track branch line railway providing regular daily passenger service between Bishop Auckland (West), Wolsingham, Frosterley and Stanhope. Services began on 23 May 2010 after a lapse of almost sixty years. The railway originally ran from Bishop Auckland to Wearhead in County Durham, a distance of about 25 miles (40 km). It was built in the nineteenth century to carry passenger and freight traffic. As late as 1993 the line remained in use as part of the national network, serving a large cement works at Eastgate (latterly owned by the Lafarge group) and providing a summer Sundays-only passenger service between Bishop Auckland and Stanhope.
The rails were lifted in the 1960s from the extreme western section of the line between Eastgate and Wearhead (passing through Westgate and St John's Chapel, County Durham). The trackbed itself has been removed in at least one place on this last section.
The line currently runs 18 miles (29 km) between Bishop Auckland and the site of Eastgate-In-Weardale, Making the line the fourth longest preserved standard gauge railway in Great Britain.
Read more about Weardale Railway: 2008-2010: Line Development, 2010 Reconnection To The National Network, Stations, Rolling Stock, Trivia
Famous quotes containing the word railway:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)