Nidd Valley Light Railway

Nidd Valley Light Railway
The former station building at Wath
Overview
Status	closed
Locale	North Yorkshire
Termini	Pateley Bridge Lofthouse
Stations	4
Operation
Opened	11 September 1907
Closed	31 December 1929
Operator(s)	Bradford Corporation
Technical
Line length	6.5 mi (10.5 km)
Number of tracks	Single
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Old gauge	3 ft (914 mm)

The Nidd Valley Light Railway, was a light railway in upper Nidderdale in North Yorkshire, England. It was owned by Bradford Corporation Waterworks Department and the Corporation also operated its public passenger services. Power & Traction Ltd of London obtained a Light Railway Order for the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) railway from Pateley Bridge to Lofthouse in 1900, but these powers were taken over by Bradford Corporation. A contract to build Angram Reservoir was awarded to John Best & Son in 1903, and he also won the contract to build the public railway and a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) private extension to the reservoir site. This was initially built to 3 ft (914 mm) gauge but was converted to standard gauge by 1907, when the public railway opened. Best had his own locomotives, and Bradford Corporation equipped the public railway with second hand locomotives and carriages from the Metropolitan Railway.

The Angram Reservoir project was completed in 1916. The Corporation had obtained powers to build another reservoir at Scar House in 1913, and in 1920 decided to proceed, using direct labour rather than a contractor. The railway was upgraded, with the purchase on new and second hand locomotives, a railmotor for the public services, and second hand carriages for the workmen's trains. Curves on the line above Lofthouse was eased, and a short tunnel was built. At its height, the Corporation were running fourteen locomotives, three steam navvies and 19 or 20 steam cranes. The work was essentially completed by 1931, but filling of the reservoir did not begin until 1935 and the official opening was the following year. With the work complete, the railway was lifted, and a sale was held at Pateley Bridge. Scar Village, which at its peak had housed 1,135 people, of which 780 worked on the project, was reduced to eight occupied houses by 1936, with seven pupils at the school. The railway workers were not entitled to a pension, but pensions were awarded to four men who had served for many years.

The origins for a railway in the upper Nidd Valley can be traced back to 1887–88, when Bradford Corporation began to investigate the valley as a source for the public water supply, following the discovery that Leeds Corporation had obtained rights to the waters of the River Burn, a tributary of the River Ure, above Masham. Alexander Binnie, who was the Waterworks Engineer for Bradford at the time, and Professor Alexander Henry Green, a geologist from Oxford, visited the area, and Green advised Binnie that the valley was suitable for the construction of large dams. The Bradford Corporation Water Act 1890 was obtained on 14 August 1890, authorising the construction of four dams, but in the meantime, Binnie had moved on to work for London County Council as their Chief Engineer, and was replaced by James Watson of Dundee. A second Act of Parliament was obtained on 27 June 1892, by which time the four reservoirs were Angram, Haden Carr, High Woodale and Gouthwaite. Gouthwaite Reservoir was designed as a compensation reservoir, to maintain flows in the Nidd further down the valley.