New platform surface for Wensleydale’s Leeming Bar and Scruton stations

Wensleydale Railway in  North Yorkshire has announced that platform improvement works at two of its seven stations are now complete.

Leeming Bar station has a new platform surface, and Scruton station now has anti-slip materials on its wooden platform surface.

Leeming Bar's platform surface was made from crushed and compacted gravel that was rough and uneven in places and which provided poor drainage.

The railway secured a grant from the Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund and a donation from PNP Events Ltd, which enabled it to partially resurface a section of the platform. The Wensleydale Railway Association (Trust) funded the rest of the surfacing work, including through a generous legacy gift from the estate of the late Richard John King and also from Wensleydale Railway plc.

Contractor A.E. Duffield & Sons Ltd of Ripon began work began on 17 April by removing the uneven yellow tactile paving slabs along the platform edge.

Workers then re-laid the slabs and installed a new drainage channel down the central section of the platform, before applying a new tarmac surface.

The new platform provides improved safety, ease of use and access for visitors, especially wheelchair users and people with impaired mobility.

The work also complements the recently-completed station building renovations and adult changing places toilet facilities.

Nick Keegan, Wensleydale Railway's Fundraising and Marketing Manager, said, “We are ever mindful of the need to ensure that our railway is safe, accessible and inclusive to all our visitors whilst ensuring that we preserve and promote the UK's proud railway heritage for future generations to enjoy. This project is a great example of funding, collaboration and teamwork producing terrific results. It is just one aspect of our ongoing plans to improve the railway's infrastructure and our continuing commitment to providing an enhanced experience for our visitors.”