Return from Oxenhope to Keighley
Worth - a glance
2 March 2003
The drive home from York could either be
direct, or leisurely (with a pub lunch???) - we
chose the latter, and took the somewhat
circuitous route to Oxenhope, terminus of the
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Slow
traffic meant we arrived with only a minute
to spare before the train was due to leave -
but in best railway tradition, it left a few
minutes late anyway, so we needn't have worried.
I had hoped for one of the rarer locomotives - perhaps the L&Y
0-6-0, or the Taff Vale tank. In the event, we had stalwart class 5
no 45212, recently returned to working order on the North York
Moors Railway, and only lately returned to its original home in
preservation.
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
The run down the valley is inevitably a gentle one, given the
gradients. Damems loop is the usual passing place for trains - "I
wonder what the other service will be?". There in the loop was
one of the smallest standard gauge passenger trains operating
anywhere - the German-built (Waggon und Maschinenbau) four-
wheel railbus, one of a set of five built in the early BR DMU era
in the late 1950s.
The breeze was chilly - we didn't hang around at Keighley, and
having photographed the run round manoeuvres, we rejoined the
train. In contrast to the downward journey, the regulator was
well-opened, the exhaust echoing loudly off the surrounding hills
and mills...
And so we arrived back in Oxenhope, in plenty of time for the
promised lunch, just a little way up the Hebden Bridge road,
which like our short rail trip, was excellent.
Link:
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
