LEADERS of two neighbouring communities travelled together as an historic railway development was celebrated this week.

Tuesday marked the exact 150th anniversary of the first passenger train from Leeming Bar to Bedale in the first stage of a progressive extension of the Wensleydale branch westwards from Northallerton to Garsdale, on the Settle to Carlisle line.

Ellen Dunning, Mayor of Bedale, and Bob Pocklington, chairman of Aiskew Parish Council, were among invited guests who helped to celebrate the occasion by travelling on a 40-year-old "heritage" diesel unit operated by Wensleydale Railway.

The company, which has leased the surviving 22-mile section between Northallerton and Redmire from Network Rail for 99 years, restored passenger services in 2003 and re-opened the station platform at Bedale last year.

Despite its name, Bedale station lies in the combined parish of Aiskew and Leeming Bar, which has three level crossings as well as the only signal box left on the branch line.

The station house was once the home of the late Tom Plummer, stationmaster from 1943 to 1966. During the 1951 Pageant of Bedale, celebrating the 700th anniversary of the market charter, he donned a top hat and frock coat to play the stationmaster welcoming the first train into the station on February 1, 1855.

The station is now the focal point of a £1m regeneration programme planned by Hambleton District Council which, if permission is granted, will see craft-based workshops and gallery space opened in buildings in the yard. The station buildings would be re-opened for Wensleydale Railway services.

The journey of just under two miles from Leeming Bar to Bedale takes only a few minutes but Couns Dunning and Pocklington stayed on the celebratory train until it reached the terminus at Redmire.

Coun Pocklington said: "Wensleydale Railway may not achieve all it would like to achieve, but if it achieves half it will be something that can be built on over the years.''

He hoped the railway company could achieve a renewed link to the main line at Northallerton, and extend further westwards from Redmire, and thought the Bedale station redevelopment could help the local economy.