The line from Harrogate to Northallerton closed to passenger traffic in March 1967 - a Beeching cut. Beyond Melmerby, a few miles north of Ripon, the line closed completely*. However, the section from Harrogate (or, to be more precise, Starbeck) to Melmerby remained in use for freight. A daily trip working shunted the yard at Ripon, then worked on to Melmerby, where there was an MoD depot. The depot closed at the end of 1968 - so that the trip on 31st December, to collect the last wagons, would be the last working along that stretch of line. I made my way down to the station with a school friend, and my newly-acquired 35mm camera, to have a look at the last train and perhaps take some photographs. The freight, headed by a pair of then-new class 20s, had already arrived. We took a photo of the locomotives standing outside the goods shed - I seem to recall the crew were taking a break. The crew were intrigued by our interest, and asked us if we wanted to come up into the cab and take a ride  - we didn't need much persuasion. Neither did I when I was asked if I wanted to have a go at driving. (I did have to be reminded, a mile or two along the line, that there was a 30mph speed limit on the line these days...) I wondered, as we took the junction a little short of the former main line junction at Melmerby, whether we would have to leave the train when it entered the depot. No problem - it was closing anyway. The regular driver had taken over again for our entry into the depot, though I was allowed to drive it back again to Ripon. So there it is - my claim to fame! The locomotive depicted is, I believe, a Thomas Hill "Vanguard" rebuild of a 1942 Fowler, MoD No 244 or 245. If it's the former, it still exists, preserved at Haig Colliery museum. The freight service to Ripon lasted a few more months, then it too ended, and a year or two later the track was lifted. The fine iron viaduct over the Ure is no more - instead, the Ripon bypass uses the former railway route to skirt the City. *The route was temporarily reopened after the July 1967 derailment at Thirsk, which involved the class 50 prototype, in a Deltic bodyshell, "DP2". © Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2011