The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a 15 in (381 mm) minimum gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs 7-miles (11.3 km) from Ravenglass to Dalegarth Station near Boot in the valley of Eskdale, in the Lake District. At Ravenglass the line ends at Ravenglass railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line.
History[]
Original railway[]
The original Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway was a 3 ft (914 mm) line opened on 24 May 1875 to transport hematite iron ore from three mines near and around the village of Boot to the Furness Railway standard gauge line at Ravenglass. There has previously been a dispute about the gauge the railway was built to. It is shown as 3 feet in records but is quoted as 2 ft 9 in (838 mm) in some books such as the ABC of Narrow Gauge Railways. This figure was believed for many years until the present company discovered a sleeper from before the line closed, with spacings between holes made by track spikes confirming the gauge was the wider one. The confusion probably stems from the fact that the line was built under the condition that it was "of a gauge not less than 2' 9" ".
Following requests from the residents of the Eskdale valley for a passenger service, the railway was upgraded to meet the minimum standards of the Board of Trade, and the first passenger trains ran in November 1876. It was the first public narrow-gauge railway in England.[3] However, the cost of upgrading the line for passengers left the railway company with substantial debts which it was unable to pay off. The company was forced to declare itself bankrupt in 1877, although trains continued to run under the control of a series of receivers.[3] Nonetheless, in 1880 a tramway was built connecting the line near Beckfoot railway station to newly opened mines across the River Esk at Gill Force.[6][7] All but one of the iron ore mines closed within 10 years of the railway opening, and there was not enough traffic from other sources (local goods and passengers from the villages and farms of the valley) to sustain the railway. The railway "struggled on" by carrying granite from local quarries and became popular with summer tourists.[7] The Summer 1898 Furness Railway timetable shows five weekday trains along the line with three on Sundays.[8]
In 1905, a passenger train was derailed at Murthwaite due to a combination of a defective locomotive and defective track.[9] By 1908 the track-work was in such poor condition, it was declared unsafe for passengers by the Board of Trade. The railway closed to passengers that year. Goods trains continued to run whilst attempts were made to raise money to rebuild the railway. These attempts failed, and the railway closed completely in April 1913.
Preservation[]
Locals and railway enthusiasts formed the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway Preservation Society to save the line, with financial backing by Sir Wavell Wakefield, Member of Parliament (MP) for Marylebone and owner of the Ullswater Steamers, and Colin Gilbert, a stockbroker. These efforts were successful, and at the auction in September 1960, the society made the winning bid and saved the railway from closure. Control of the railway passed to a new private company, with the backing of the preservation society, an arrangement that is still in place. When the new owners took control of the railway in 1961, the railway was in poor condition, suffering from the lack of investment since the late 1920s. There were only two steam locomotives, River Esk and River Irt, both of which were well worn and in need of overhauls. To allow for an expanded timetable, the preservation society raised funds to build a third steam locomotive. River Mite (2-8-2) entered service in 1967 and, although owned by the society, has been on permanent loan to the company ever since. The two existing steam locos would be rebuilt with new boilers and tenders in the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1968, the death of Colin Gilbert led to the railway company becoming the property of Sir Wavell Wakefield, who by that stage had become Lord Wakefield of Kendal. In the early 1970s it became apparent that, with passengers rising, another locomotive was required. This time the company constructed the locomotive itself. Northern Rock (2-6-2) was complete in time for centenary celebrations in 1976. A further addition was made in 1980 when the company constructed the B-B diesel locomotive Lady Wakefield.
Other significant locomotives include Bonnie Dundee, built in 1900 as a 2 ft (610 mm)-gauge tank locomotive before being donated to the R&ER by a member and converted to 15 in (381 mm)-gauge, later converted again from tank to tender configuration; Synolda, (renamed Prince Charles) a twin to the original 15 in (381 mm) loco Sans Pareil, built in 1912, saved from Belle Vue Zoo in 1978 and now in the railway museum; Shelagh of Eskdale, a 4-6-4 diesel built in 1969 incorporating parts of the Heywood loco Ella; Perkins, a rebuilt 0-4-4DH locomotive, which started as a quarry shunter before being rebuilt into the steam-outlined Passenger Tractor and then again in 1984 into its current guise; Douglas Ferreira, a B-B diesel loco constructed in 2005 and named after the general manager of the R&ER from 1961 to 1994. The most recent addition to the loco fleet is Whillan Beck, a 4-6-2 tender loco built by Krauss in Munich in 1929, which entered service at Ravenglass in 2018.
Since the 1960s, the condition of the railway has been significantly improved and visitors have increased. Most of the work to rebuild the railway was overseen by Douglas Ferreira, who was the general manager between 1961 and 1994. Today, there are 120,000 passengers each year with up to 16 trains daily in summer. Trains run most of the year; the railway is only closed in January.
In October 1998, the railway's engines River Mite, Northern Rock, and Cyril were taken to Germany for a period of excursions on the Dresden Park Railway, a former Pioniereisenbahn in Dresden. Whilst in Dresden, the locomotives ran with two of that lines Krauss & Co. built locomotives dating from 1925. In 2016, the R&ER was able to purchase a sister engine, built by Krauss & Co. in 1929 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 in Seville, Spain. Since its arrival in Cumbria, this locomotive has been named Whillan Beck.
In early 2020, the railway was forced to temporarily suspend all trains due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent UK-wide lockdown. This was the first time since the Second World War that passenger trains had been forcibly suspended for such a prolonged period. Following the relaxation of lockdown restrictions in July 2020, passenger trains resumed on 30 July.
Locomotive Roster[]
Steam[]
Diesel[]
In fiction[]
The Arlesdale Railway in The Railway Series by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry is based on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. In Small Railway Engines (1967), Awdry relates part of a holiday he spent visiting the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway with the Rev. Edwin Boston; the two appear in the book as the Thin Clergyman and the Fat Clergyman, respectively. The Arlesdale Railway was also the focus point in Jock the New Engine, with an incident that was inspired by an accident that happened on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, when Perkins crashed in the back of the shed, and with cameos in other books.
The fictional railway's locomotives are each based on Ravenglass locomotives: Bert, Rex, Mike and Jock are the steam locomotives River Irt, River Esk, River Mite and Northern Rock, while the Sudrian diesels Frank, Sigrid of Arlesdale and Blister 1 & 2 are the Cumbrians Perkins, Shelagh of Eskdale and Cyril. The Arlesdale Railway stations are also visibly based on the Ravenglass ones: Arlesburgh is Ravenglass, Ffarquhar Road is Muncaster Mill, Marthwaite is Irton Road, Arlesdale Green is Eskdale Green and Arlesdale is Dalegarth. Bert, Rex and Mike first appeared in the Thomas & Friends TV Series in the special Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure and later appeared in Season 20.
The line features in The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams; the canine protagonists evade the force of paratroopers searching for them by riding from Eskdale to Ravenglass on an empty train.
In the first two instalments in the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise of theme park simulation series, RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, the model for the basic "miniature railway" ride is based on the engine No 10 Northern Rock.
Trivia[]
- Railways Restored - North West England
- The railway features in a Mr. Perkins' Railway segment.
External Links[]
Gallery[]
