RAIL LINK May 2019 News and Information from the Wensleydale Railway Association (Trust) and Wensleydale Railway Plc
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Edition 179 RAIL LINK May 2019 News and information from the Wensleydale Railway Association (Trust) and Wensleydale Railway plc DATES FOR YOUR DIARY NORTHALLERTON BRANCH MEETINGS - held at the Cricket Club, Farndale Avenue, Mondays at 19.30. Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a WRA(T) member to attend. Monday 20 th May - AGM followed by a presentation by Helen Ashworth & Rebekah Jerram, Wensleydale Railway plc TRAIN SERVICES – During May there will be services every Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, plus Bank Holiday Mondays. The 2019 railway advertising leaflet can be downloaded from - https://wr-rail-link.co.uk/download/2019-WR-Timetable.pdf TORNADO IS RETURNING! Tickets are on sale for our steam services, footplate experiences and afternoon tea service on Tornado in May and June! TEDDY BEAR AFTERNOON TEA ON TORNADO - To celebrate a certain bears favourite locomotive we are hosting on 19 th May a teddy bear themed afternoon tea on Tornado complete with marmalade sandwiches! Teddy Bears travel free, so don’t forget to bring yours and please note this event is suitable for children and adults alike! We will set of at 14.15 from Leeming Bar Station and travel west up to Redmire with glorious views of Penhill before returning to Leeming Bar at 17.00 approximately. Tickets are: Adult £32.50 and Child (14 years and under) £17.50. For more details and to book, see https://www.wensleydalerail.com/future-events/ or ring the office on 01677 425 805. WHIRLWIND EXPRESS ON TORNADO - All aboard the FIRST EVER non-stop run of a steam engine on the Wensleydale Railway since it reopened! The Whirlwind Express will begin at Leeming Bar and travel to Northallerton West, then Redmire and then back to Leeming Bar over 44 miles of track. Your journey will begin at 6.30pm at Leeming Bar on 31 st May and will return to Leeming Bar at approximately 9.00pm. There will be a bar on board serving a wide selection of drinks, savoury nibbles and sweet cakes. For more details and to book, see https://www.wensleydalerail.com/future-events/ or ring the office on 01677 425 805. PHOTO SHOOT OF TORNADO AT SCRUTON STATION - A rare photo opportunity is occurring on May 21 st at our award-winning heritage Scruton Station. The iconic steam locomotive Tornado will be pulling into the station at 7pm where it will remain for 2hrs allowing visitors to get some terrific shots of the engine at our picturesque station at sunset and into the early evening. The station will be open from 6.30pm and refreshments will be available. Photo pass tickets are £5 per person. For more details and to book, see https://www.wensleydalerail.com/future-events/ or ring the office on 01677 425 805. THE BOTTOMLESS PROSECCO COCKTAIL TRAIN is back by popular demand! - Join us on May 11 th for an evening of fun, laughter and bottomless bubbles on a Wensleydale Railway event train into The Yorkshire Dales! A selection of bottomless prosecco and cava cocktails will be served throughout the journey for £32.00, which includes return train travel from Leeming Bar station. If prosecco cocktails are not to your taste, instead you can receive three beer/cider tokens with train travel for £25.00. Extra real ale will be available to purchase from our bar. We also have a train ride only ticket available for £15. For more details and to book, see https://www.wensleydalerail.com/future-events/ or ring the office on 01677 425 805. WENSLEYALE 2019 - We are proud to announce that WensleyAle 2019 will take place at Redmire station from Friday 24 th to Sunday 26 th May. Including 40+ Ales, Gin, Prosecco, Live Music, Street food and of course Tornado. And if this is not enough 37250 will be returning to service over the weekend as well. See http://wensleyale.com/wp/ for more details. SATURDAY MAY 11 (SETTLE) - A general and widespread invitation is extended to friends, contacts and beneficiaries (even if they did not know him personally) of the remarkable public transport knowledge and campaigning work of the late Dr John Disney. Amongst his national achievements was being part of the team that provides local DalesBus services in the Yorkshire Dales. For more details see below. FATHERS DAY AFTERNOON TEA TRAIN - Treat your top Dad to a scenic journey through the Yorkshire Dales all while enjoying a locally produced afternoon tea served at your table of one of our heritage carriages. It will be accompanied by unlimited tea and coffee and all the Dads on board will receive a bottle of Yorkshire Ale! There will also be a bar on board for additional drinks. We will set of at 14.15 on the 16 th June from Leeming Bar Station. Tickets are: Adult £32.50 and Child – 12 years and under £17.50. For more details and to book, see https://www.wensleydalerail.com/future-events/ or ring the office on 01677 425 805. LONDON BASED MEMBERS’ VISIT To The Nene Valley Railway on 13 th July 2019. See lower down in the newsletter for details of this visit. ------------------------------------ Page 1 of 7 NEWS FROM THE WR PLC BOARD At the April Board meeting, there was the usual debate over finances with good news that the oper-ating profit appears to be some £8,000 greater than the previous year (though the accounts are not yet final). Costs are higher however, but the draft report for the financial year was agreed to show an encouraging picture. Plans for the next Tornado visit are well in hand and advance ticket sales are healthy, although continuing efforts to maximise the benefits of the visit are to be made. The very welcome announcement of the HLF grant towards the refurbishment of the Leeming Bar Station House was received with great pleasure and the team (particularly David Walker and Virginia Arrowsmith) who had done a tremendous amount of work in the application were warmly congratulated by the Board. It had been agreed earlier that the building would be leased or sold to the Trust as part of the conditions applied by the HLF and it was agreed that a sale is the preferred option. Plans for the accommodation needs while the refurbishment is undertaken were discussed. Provisional ideas for increasing office space are being considered. A positive response to the “advertisement” to try to find a Chair for the Board had been followed up and it is hoped that there will be an announcement by the time of the next report from the Board. The Board discussed the monthly reports from Terry Larder, Rebekah Jerram, Helen Ashworth and Virginia Arrowsmith. A good start has been made in compiling risk assessments and it was agreed that a safety topic would be selected each month for publication in Rail Link. Events and Volunteering reports showed on or ahead of target progress and the plans for the coming season for heritage and education were approved. A grant of £2,000 has been awarded from the MOD for the costs of the Armed Forces Day on 29 June. Phil Smith RAILWAY NEWS FROM THE VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR Jon, Rebekah and myself passed our Crossing Keepers Exam earlier this month as part of the Railway’s plan to train more staff for crossings/guarding and driving so watch this space as we continue to be assessed. The 30 volunteers who visited Keighley & Worth Valley Railway earlier this month enjoyed a great day out riding on the line and visiting their numerous goods and maintenance sheds!! Thanks to Phil Smith for organising. We are planning a visit for volunteers to the British Steel railway in the autumn too. Next year KWVR celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Railway Children film that made the Railway famous. Rebekah and myself met the manager of Bolton Castle a couple of weeks ago and agreed the continuation of the joint ticketing arrangement between the Castle and the Railway. Bolton Castle are also having a stall/presence at WensleyAle Festival this year too. WensleyAle Festival - I have been busy approaching local businesses for sponsorship for various aspects of the Festival from the Gin Bar to the casks of beer and cider. Taplin and Mageean, the new gin distillery based at Leyburn Station are sponsoring the Gin Bar providing their 4 different gins to sell and are giving informal gin talks during the Festival. Last weekend’s Gin Train featured their gins and was hugely successful with 97 people on board. Neil Guest’s Matrix Power has generously sponsored the beer glasses and we have a brand new WensleyAle logo this year for the first time ever – again a corporate sponsor. If you or any of your contacts businesses would be interested in sponsoring a cask for £75 or anything else please get in touch with me as a company can offset it against their tax. Rebekah has a pile of A4 posters and flyers for WensleyAle Festival if anyone can help with distributing them around the Dales but also wider afield please. The flyers have just arrived in the office and so have not been placed in any outlets yet so any help would be much appreciated to get them into camping sites, B&Bs, hotels, tourist information, libraries and generally shops . However we have paid for the WensleyAle Festival flyer to be inserted into Richmondshire Today distributed to Reeth, Hawes, Redmire etc which should land on doormats early May. Volunteers’ Summer Party – Friday 24 May As part of the WensleyAle Festival we would like to invite all volunteers to the opening night on Friday 24 th May at 6pm till 9pm at Redmire Station with a free train leaving Leeming Bar at 16.35 and returning from Redmire at 9pm arriving at Leeming Bar 21.58.