Wensleydale Railway given custody of National railway Museum photo archive

A 3,000-image photo archive from the National Railway Museum is to be used by the Wensleydale railway in North Yorkshire as a unique reference and research resource for historians and railway enthusiasts.

And coupled with the railways own image archive, will see the line which runs from Leeming Bar to Redmire setting up its own gallery at Finghall Lane Halt, which once featured as Rainby halt in the Television series All Creatures Great and Small.

Guy Loveridge, Chairman of Wensleydale Railway plc said: “We are delighted to have been granted custody by the Science Museum Group of an over 3000 images from the NRM photographic archive.”

“ This will be paired with the Railways’ own extant image archive and future acquisitions and gifts to form a reference and research resource for years to come, which will see us developing Finghall Halt as a dedicated Gallery where people can alight from our services and enjoy the images both on the wall and on a dedicated digital viewing screen.”

He added: “ Many of these images, some dating back into the early 1900s, have never been shown publicly in this way. There is a wealth of material, and we already have plans for an exhibition in 2022 themed Royalty on the Rails which will utilise a selection of the newly arrived collection.

Guy said:” This is an exciting addition to the Railway’s Heritage Offer .” He added: “Wensleydale Railway volunteers have done a full refurbishment and repaint of the former station waiting room at Finghall Halt, which will be the location of the new Richard King Gallery. The wonderful archive of photographs will shortly benefit from the attention of a couple History students, joining the plc as interns, from Teesside University, who will undertake cataloguing and digital scanning to allow the creation of a reference archive”

Guy said: “It is a great honour for the Wensleydale Railway to become custodians of the archive and enthusiasts will be able to purchase duplicate photographs of certain images from the archive with all the proceeds going to the railway.”