Open day to showcase progress by Cumbrian railway station revivalists
A RAILWAY heritage project that has seen the rebirth of a Cumbrian station located within stunning scenery on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is to hold an open day on August 13 to showcase the progress made since its reopening gala 11 years ago.
The station is Kirkby Stephen East, which was opened by the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway on the line from Barnard Castle in August 1861. By the mid-1930s it had become a busy railway centre despite its rural location, with a fourroad locomotive depot, a carriage shed, six sidings, a goods shed and cattle pens, while one of the station’s features was a broad central platform incorporating a bay platform with two train sheds either side whose roofs were each 166 feet long.
Roof loss
Inevitably the rise in car usage during the 1950s affected passenger numbers, and a sign of what lay ahead was that one of the train shed roofs was dismantled, although there were reports at the time that the one in better condition was removed rather than the other one.
By the early 1960s the end was nigh and the engine shed (coded 12D) was closed in November 1961 and the station, with the line, two months later. The station was subsequently used by a bobbin mill, but this closed in 1992, and the yard space and goods shed, which still stands today, were converted into a caravan park and campsite.
The site’s revival for railway use started in 1997 when the newlyformed Stainmore Properties Ltd purchased the derelict station and 6½ acres of surrounding land, on which it planned to establish a heritage centre. Three years later a second business, Stainmore Railway Co, was founded to help with the site’s restoration, this work initially comprising repairs to the station and remaining train shed roof, restoration of a number of rooms, and laying a short section of track.
The railway launched its first full operating season in 2012, a year after its reopening gala, and in 2017 another landmark was reached when a joint venture was announced with the Locomotive Conservation and Learning Trust to restore the trust’s preserved J21 class 0-6-0 No. 65033, built by the North Eastern Railway at Gateshead Works in March 1889, and its 120-year-old NER stores van No. 2.
2024 return
The £1.6 million project attracted a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £954,000, and the work on the J21 is being carried out by Locomotive Maintenance Services at Loughborough. It is expected to return to steam at Kirkby Stephen East in the first half of 2024, when it will reappear in NER green carrying its original No. 876, while the store van’s restoration has been undertaken on site by Stainmore Railway volunteers.
Meanwhile, a 300ft-long two-road carriage shed was opened in 2018, and the railway’s locomotive stock register now includes the National
Collection’s NER 901 class 2-4-0 No. 910 of 1875 on display, two Peckett 0-4-0STs built in 1948 – exCourtaulds’ F C Tingey and former Blackpool Gasworks’ Lytham St. Anne’s – a former NCB 0-6-0ST built by Hunslet in 1954 numbered 68009, and ex-quarry 1962-built Hibberd 0-4-0DM Elizabeth.
Stainmore Railway Co director Alan Gunston said the open day on August 13 would include railwayana stalls, tours of the carriage shed, and public train rides over the centre’s half-mile demonstration line headed by Lytham St. Anne’s hauling Gresley teak carriage BTK No. 3669 and BR Mk.1 TSO No. 5049, while Elizabeth will also be in operation. Admission is free. Visit www.kirkbystepheneast. co.uk