Back on track 50 years later, and this Hazel takes it all in

She had made the trip once before but only years later was the former Hazel Hartley able to appreciate that, at just under five months, she had been the youngest person on the historic last passenger train to run between Northallerton and Garsdale on April 24, 1954.

It became a real family outing that day for the Hartley family because Hazel was accompanied not only by her father, Harry, but by her two-and-a-half-year-old brother, Roland, and her sisters Sally and Jean, aged five and seven.

There were some gaps in the ranks this time but other family members were reunited on Saturday as Wensleydale Railway, which has reinstated passenger services over part of the remaining line, marked the 50th anniversary of that last run between the two original points 40 miles apart.

Mrs Blueman and Roland joined their father, an 85-year-old retired railwayman from Northallerton, his brother, Walter, and his wife, Joy, for a commemmorative run for 22 miles between Northallerton and Redmire.

In 1954 Harry Hartley was one of three track walkers, based at Aysgarth, who patiently trudged many miles a week in all weathers to keep a close watch on the condition of the old Wensleydale line and its fences bordering farmers' fields.

Passenger services between Northallerton and Garsdale were withdrawn in 1954 for lack of custom, with alternative bus services optimistically being offered, but Mr Hartley said: "It was unbelievable in a way. We didn't think such a thing could happen. I always thought closure should never have taken place."

Mrs Blueman, from Skelton-on-Ure, near Ripon, said: "I was obviously too young to remember the journey I made in 1954 because I was so young, so I was looking forward to seeing the line 50 years later for the first time.

"It was brilliant and brought back so many memories because my grandparents used to live at Leyburn. There seem to have been so many changes."

Wensleydale Railway hopes before long to bring the ultimate attraction of steam to its revival operations. But where the 1954 run was made behind a 65-year-old steam engine, the commemmorative journey was undertaken by two vintage diesel multiple units coupled together to form six carriages, making more room for about 150 passengers as well as a catering team serving afternoon teas.

And while a laurel wreath was freely fixed to the engine 50 years ago, with black mourning crepe tied to carriage handles, it was understood that impenetrable technical questions prevented any distinguishing features from being displayed on Saturday, a curious omission noted by more than one passenger.

The commemmorative journey ran first from Leeming Bar to Castle Hills, Northallerton, at or near a point where Wensleydale Railway hopes soon to open a temporary halt while discussions continue to find a way of gaining access to the main line station, where modern trains sweep past at up to 125mph, almost twice the speed achieved 50 years ago.

At 4.10pm or thereabouts the special train repeated the historic 1954 departure from Northallerton to head for Redmire, from where Wensleydale Railway hopes to reinstate 18 missing miles of track to Garsdale. Another piece of history was made because it became the first Wensleydale Railway train to run the full remaining distance between Northallerton and Redmire.

Passengers arriving at Leeming Bar found reminders of the station's former importance for freight traffic, which was always more remunerative than passengers.

A restored 1953 Ferguson tractor, on which Edward Harrison had laboured for ten days so that it could be ready in its original condition for the occasion, was parked alongside a contemporary Land Rover outside the former goods shed and unloading dock once regularly used by the local agricultural machinery firm of John H Gill and Sons. Now, like the railway, the company is not even a shadow of its former self.

Waiting on the platform were 85-year-old Rita Craske, of Askrigg, a passenger on the 1954 train, and 70-year-old Josephine Hopper, from Thoralby, who wore her original Yorebridge Grammar School uniform now kept in the Dales Countryside Museum at Hawes.

Mrs Craske was accompanied on the final train by her son, Andrew, who was almost five and who on Saturday bought commemmorative tickets at £25 apiece for his mother and Miss Hopper.

Mrs Craske said: "It was a very sad occasion in 1954, with crepe on the carriage handles and a wreath on the chimney of the engine. Everyone was very sorry that it stopped.

"My parents used to come up from the Midlands and said it was a beautiful line, with all the bluebells, but it was used perhaps more for goods than for passengers. People didn't travel around so much in those days."

Miss Hopper, who lived then at Askrigg, recalled school friends using the train and said family members in Lancashire travelled to and from Garsdale.

She said: "The line cut our farm in two, but the trains were our friends. You knew what time it was by the trains going up and down."

Edwin Boocock, who still lives in the row of houses where he was born a few feet beside the line at Newton-le-Willows, travelled with his daughter, Janet.

Mr Boocock, 91, said: "I would hope the line takes off with passengers again. Maybe we didn't think as much of it in those days as we should have done."

It proved to be a double-barrelled commemmoration for 77-year-old Derick Appleton, of Thirsk, the fireman on the 1954 train who celebrates his golden wedding with his wife, Joyce, in August.

Mr Appleton remains modest about his place in history but, judging from a contemporary photograph shown around the train, his coal heaving efforts 50 years ago produced plumes of smoke.

On Saturday he had a chance to exchange memories with 75-year-old Bryan Croser, also from Thirsk, a fellow fireman based at Northallerton engine shed between 1949 and 1955.

Mr Croser said: "I went all over the place on different routes on the footplate, but there was nothing nicer than leaving Northallerton at 7.15 in the morning at this time of year to go up to Wensleydale."

Opinions were more cautious about developments and passenger patterns in the future, which should soon see Wensleydale Railway running between Northallerton and Redmire and increasing services by laying additional track for trains to pass at Bedale and Constable Burton and to run round at Leeming Bar. It was suggested that the main hope lay in tourism rather than any attempt at another regular passenger service.

Wensleydale Railway hopes to restore a service to the station at Scruton, where reclamation work has been started by village volunteers, and is investigating some form of reinstatement at Newton-le-Willows, where all traces of the former buildings have vanished.

Mrs Craske admitted that she had mixed feelings about prospects beyond Redmire.

She said: "I am a bit bothered about the rest of it. People have bought bits of land from the railway and we have a friend whose garden was once the line.

"It is going to be a big upheaval for the line to go round and bridges will have to be made. I suppose it could be done but it will be a very expensive job.

"I would not use it for shopping because the station was well out of the village at Askrigg, but it is a very good destination for tourists."

Mr Croser said: "It's a difficult question to answer. There has been a long spell without passengers on these branch lines, but from a tourist angle it must be top of the list."

Mrs Blueman said: "In rural communities, if people have not got their own transport rail is better. Tourism is bringing visitors into the countryside and we are trying to get people away from using their cars.