HISTORY OF THE DERWENT VALLEY
The Derwent Valley Railway's most notable fact about it's history is that in was never nationalized. The railway was private from it's inception to the day it closed it doors to business. It went about it's business almost unnoticed, being cut back gradually from its terminus at Cliffe Common on the Selby to Market Weighton line to Dunnington in various stages, with the last major source of freight, a grain driers at Dunnington closing in the early 1980s. A revival was tried by the National Railway Museum using mostly by 'Joem' on steam passenger trains between Layerthorpe and Dunnington, but unfortunately, this didn't manage to save the line, and it was closed to traffic from Layerthorpe. The branch to Layerthorpe off the Scarborough line in York carried on with traffic for the Rowntree's factory, but this also ended in the late 1980s. The line was mothballed until 1989 when it was transformed into a cycle track by Sustrans. The half a mile of track adjacent to the Yorkshire Museum of Farming was donated to the museum, along with John Fowler 'Churchill" which had worked at the Grain driers in Dunnington, and (most helpfully for us!) the light railway order for the section of line left.
Had the Great Yorkshire Railway from Starbeck decided to move a bit sooner, who knows how much of the original Derwent Valley Railway could have been saved. Given time, hard work and the resources, the line maybe extended from it's current length, but that remains to be seen......
I have separated the history of the railway into sections, and at the moment, this contains mostly photographs, many printed here with kind permission of Geoff Cryer who's website can be visited at www.geoffspages.co.uk
'BLACKBERRY LINE' - Part 1 -DVLR History Pre Preservation by Mark Waudby
'BLACKBERRY LINE' - Part 2 - DVLR History since preservation by Mark Waudby