Return from Oxenhope to Keighley
Worth - a glance
2 March 2003  
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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
E79962, Damems loop Esso tank wagon, Keighley Wagons - and the Garsdale turntable, Keighley 45212 runs round at Keighley 45212 getting away from Keighley 45212 at Oxenhope