SOUTH TYNEDALE STARTS SLAGGYFORD SERVICES
Extension means STR now connects two stations on Alston branch.
Services on the South Tynedale Railway’s long-awaited Slaggyford extension started on June 12. Bad winter weather hampered the railway’s efforts to bring the extension up to passenger train standards, and the advertised March 30 opening was deferred with three days’ notice. However, trains were run over the extension on the weekend of June 9/10 for the benefit of pre-booked passengers, who received a souvenir ticket, refreshments and a fridge magnet. Until agreement can be reached with Cumbria County Council over the reinstallation of the Slaggyford level crossing gates, the crossing will be hand-worked. With the opening of Slaggyford, the STR connects two stations on the Alston branch for the first time. The branch was closed in 1976 and the first STR trains ran in 1983. The one-mile extension from Lintley makes the STR four miles in length, and is the culmination of a three-year £5.6 million grantaided development project which attracted £4.24m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The railway is pursuing its long-term ambition of reinstating services to Haltwhistle, where it will connect with the national rail network. The extension was inaugurated by HRH the Duke of Gloucester and folk singer Kathryn Tickell on July 24 last year. The STR has sold its Henschel 0-4-0WTT Thomas Edmondson to a railway in Germany. Deemed to be unsuitable for the longer running line, it left for its new home, without nameplates, on April 25. Helen Kathryn, the other STR based Henschel 0-4-0WT, left the railway last November. Its owner is stripping it for an extensive overhaul at its new home in Threlkeld quarry.