The Yorkshire Dales Railway was a branch line linking the town of Skipton with the villages of Rylstone, Threshfield and Grassington in North Yorkshire, England. There were two stations on the line - Grassington & Threshfield and Rylstone - and a connection via the Skipton to Ilkley Line to Skipton. It is also known as the Grassington Branch.
The railway company was authorised by Act of Parliament dated 6 August 1897 and opened its single-track line on 29 July 1902. It was operated by the Midland Railway from the start.
Regular passenger services ceased on the 22 September 1930, but freight and occasional excursion trains continued until 11 August 1969. The line was then cut back to Swinden Quarry and today it remains a freight-only line.
The station at Grassington was built as a through station despite being the line's terminus, as there were plans to extend the line northwards to Hawes, where it would meet the Wensleydale Railway. These plans were never realised, however.
The name "Yorkshire Dales Railway" survives as the trust that operates the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway.
Famous quotes containing the words dales and/or railway:
“Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)