Garsdale railway station

Garsdale railway station is a railway station which serves the immediate hamlet of Garsdale Head, Cumbria, England, together with the valley of Garsdale and the nearby towns of Sedbergh, Cumbria and Hawes, North Yorkshire. It is operated by Northern Rail who provide all passenger train services.

Adjoining the station are sixteen Railway Cottages built for its employees by the Midland Railway around 1876, the year the Settle-Carlisle Line opened. A further six cottages were added near to the Moorcock Inn soon afterwards. The station once boasted the highest water troughs in the world (just along the line at Ling Gill), and a waiting room where Anglican church services were held. In steam days, Garsdale had a turntable with a wall of sleepers around it to prevent locomotives being spun by strong winds as happened in 1900, this being the inspiration for the story Tenders and Turntables in the book Troublesome Engines in The Railway Series by Rev W. Awdry.^[2] The site of the Hawes Junction rail crash of 1910 is near to the station which was originally known as Hawes Junction, as it was the junction of a branch line to Hawes. This branch line was closed in 1959, but the main line is in regular use for both passenger and goods trains. It is the long term aim of the Wensleydale Railway to extend their rails along the former route from Redmire to connect with services here, allowing through journeys to Northallerton on the East Coast Main Line.

Services

Garsdale has seen a modest improvement in service levels at the recent December 2011 timetable change, with an extra morning service in each direction. This brings the service level up to that seen at various other stations on the route (such as Langwathby), namely six each way on weekdays & Saturdays and three each way on Sundays. The station is also served by DalesRail trains between Blackpool North/Preston and Carlisle on Sundays during the summer (two trains each way).

The Ruswarp statue

A lifesize bronze statue of a Border Collie dog has been located on the southbound platform. This honours a dog called Ruswarp (pronounced Russup) who was the inseparable companion of Graham Nuttall, one of the founding members of the group set up to save the Settle-Carlisle Railway from closure in the 1980s. On 20 January 1990, Graham Nuttall went walking in the Welsh mountains and never returned. His body was found on 7 April 1990. His faithful dog had remained with him throughout this time. The sculpture by JOEL is in honour of both the dog and Graham Nuttall and was unveiled at the station on 11 April 2009 (20 years after the Settle-Carlisile saga came to an end, in which the line was completely saved) by former B.R Manager Ron Cotton and the ex-head of the North West & Cumbria TUCC Mrs Olive Clarke.^[3] The station buildings (previously out of use due to leaking roofs) were also reopened to the public as part of the ceremony. For further details of the story visit The Settle-Carlisle Partnership website.[1]

External links

• Train times and station information for Garsdale railway station from National Rail

References