Stainmore Railway Company is a volunteer-run, non-profit preservation company formed in 2000 with the aim of restoring

Kirkby Stephen East railway station Kirkby Stephen East railway station was situated on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway (known as the Stainmore Line) between Barnard Castle and Tebay. It served the town of Kirkby Stephen in England and was a junction station for the Ed ...

Kirkby Stephen Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, North West England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns: Kendal and Penrith. ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In 1997 a company called Stainmore Properties Ltd. was formed, with the intention to convert KSE into an authentic North Eastern Railway focused heritage centre representing the early 1950s. The Stainmore Railway Company was subsequently formed to restore the site. Since then essential repairs have been made to the roof and station, a number of rooms have been restored and a short section of track has been laid along the formation of the old

Eden Valley Railway The Eden Valley Railway (EVR) was a railway in Cumbria, England. It ran between Clifton Junction near Penrith and Kirkby Stephen via Appleby-in-Westmorland. Passenger traffic ended in 1962 and the line was reduced to the track between the j ...

, with some sidings and yard infrastructure within the station area and surroundings. A quantity of rolling stock that is authentic to the site has also been brought in. The station was formerly on the

South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway The South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway (SD&LUR) built a railway line linking the Stockton & Darlington Railway near Bishop Auckland with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (the West Coast Main Line) at Tebay, via Barnard Castle, Stainmore S ...

, and was also the eastern terminus of the

. The company has re-instated approximately a third of a mile of running line on the former

formation to allow train running. There is the eventual aim of joining up with the heritage Eden Valley Railway (at Warcop). August 2011 marked the 150th anniversary of the railway. To commemorate this occasion a series of events were held during 2011, leading up to 'Stainmore 150', a large gala, where Steve Davis, the then-head of the National Railway Museum, drove the first fare-paying passenger train from the station in over 50 years, hauled by ex. Kirkby Stephen locomotive BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 no. 78019. In 2013 the Stainmore Railway Company began its first operating season, running Peckett and Sons 0-4-0 'F C Tingey' on selected weekends. In 2014 this was joined by

Yorkshire Engine Company The Yorkshire Engine Company (YEC) was a small independent locomotive manufacturer in Sheffield, England. The company was formed in 1865 and produced locomotives and carried out general engineering work until 1965. It mainly built shunting engi ...

'Stanton 50' which operates diesel hauled trains on some weekends when there is no steam service. In June 2017 it was announced that a joint Heritage Lottery Fund bid between the Stainmore Railway Company and the

Locomotive Conservation and Learning Trust A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the us ...

, to restore both LNER J21 65033 and an ex. North Eastern Railway stores van, no. 5523, as an interpretation vehicle to travel with the locomotive, had been successful. As part of the joint bid, it was agreed that, once restoration is completed, the locomotive will be based at Kirkby Stephen East and become the project's flagship locomotive. As a result of this, work is currently underway to create a vastly more flexible track layout within the station yard, as well as building a new restoration shed and authentic locomotive watering facilities. Part of the new work means that a short stretch of the former

formation across Bridge 149 has been re-instated.

Locomotives

Rolling stock

References

External links

Company websiteCelebration of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Stainmore line in August 2011
{{Heritage railways in England Heritage railways in Cumbria