Haworth engine shed flooded by Storm Ciara
THE Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) faces a sizeable repair bill after Storm Ciara flooded the line’s engine shed at Haworth Yard on February 9.
The railway was forced to immediately cancel services as Bridgehouse Beck burst its banks, flooded the yard and turned the trackbed through the station into a raging torrent.
It was a repeat performance of the flooding at the same location in 2005 and on Boxing Day 2015.
The yard and shed were left filled with mud, tree debris and rubble. KWVR operations manager Noel Hartley fears that several locomotives, especially diesel electrics, were left needing expensive repair work.
Flood defences installed in the past five years held the floodwaters back from the volunteers’ accommodation and some storage buildings.
Thanks to a marathon effort by volunteers, services were able to run the following weekend.
The flood damage came at a time when the railway was preparing to replace the 115-year-old Ingrow Bridge 11 at a cost of £150,000, with most of the work carried out by volunteers between March 16 and April 3.
The new precast concrete beams were delivered to Ingrow Yard by road, where they were transferred to rail wagons and hauled to the site by Class 20 No. 20031 and Class 37 No. 37075. There, they were unloaded by the Bahamas Locomotive Society’s Cravens steam crane.
On February 27, GWR 2-6-2T No. 4144 was delivered from Didcot Railway Centre for the March 6-8 spring steam gala.