Garsdale Railway Station

Garsdale railway station is a railway station which serves the immediate hamlet of Garsdale Head, Cumbria, England, together with The Valley of Garsdale and the nearby towns of Sedbergh, Cumbria and Hawes, North Yorkshire. It is operated by Northern Rail who provide all passenger train services.

Adjoining the station are sixteen Railway Cottages built for its employees by the Midland Railway around 1876, the year the Settle-Carlisle Line opened. A further six cottages were added near to the Moorcock Inn soon afterwards. The station once boasted the highest water troughs in the World (just along the line at Ling Gill), and a waiting room where Anglican church services were held. In steam days, Garsdale had a turntable with a wall of sleepers around it to prevent locomotives being spun by strong winds as happened in 1900, this being the inspiration for the story Tenders and Turntables in the book Troublesome Engines in The Railway Series by Rev W. Awdry. The site of the Hawes Junction rail crash of 1910 is near to the station which was originally known as Hawes Junction, as it was the junction of a branch line to Hawes. This branch line was closed in 1959, but the main line is in regular use for both passenger and goods trains. It is the long term aim of the Wensleydale Railway to extend their rails along the former route from Redmire to connect with services here, allowing through journeys to Northallerton on the East Coast Main Line.