Wensleydale Railway celebrates successful industrial diesel weekend event

Wensleydale Railway held its first industrial diesel locomotive event between 24-26 August.

The volunteer-led management board have hailed the Bank Holiday weekend event a success and plans are underway to repeat the event in 2025.

The railway operated its entire diesel shunter fleet and a total of 6 different diesel locomotives ran services between Scruton and Leyburn across the weekend. The 3-day event was well-attended and customer feedback positive.

Tim Williamson, Rolling Stock and Engineering Director at Wensleydale Railway said: “This was the first time we’ve held an industrial diesel locomotive event. Events like these are predominantly aimed at railway enthusiasts and we wanted to gauge visitor interest. From the feedback that we have received, visitors really enjoyed the event and we have already started planning next year’s event.”

Nick Keegan, Marketing and Fundraising Manager at Wensleydale Railway said: “The event was a series of firsts for us. It was the first time that both our class 14 locomotive NCB No.38 (D9513) and Sentinel 0-6-0 shunter have operated services on our railway. It was also the first time that our resident class 37 locomotive has worked our passenger services since recent repairs and repainting work was carried out.”

He added: “The success of this event is down to the hard work of our volunteers and staff. They put in a huge amount of time and effort to make this event possible, and we are very grateful for their amazing support.”

Wensleydale Railway is currently working to restore passenger services from Leyburn to Redmire and has recently launched a fundraising appeal (https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/redmirenextsteps).