THE army, which saved the remaining section of the Wensleydale railway from extinction eight years ago, has returned to lend a hand as the 22-mile branch is prepared for a new lease of life.

Military muscle has been employed to restore a length of double track at Leeming Bar station as local railway campaigners continue with their plans to bring back passenger trains, initially between Leeming Bar and Leyburn.

The so-called passing loop, on the industrial estate side of the line, will eventually be linked to the main section of track so that if a train is hauled by a locomotive, the engine can run round from one end to the other, making movements easier.

Wensleydale Railway, which owns Leeming Bar station and is on the verge of leasing the surviving Northallerton to Redmire line from Railtrack, enlisted the help of a territorial army unit based at Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, for the new track-laying project.

Royal Engineers officers and senior NCOs, whose unique unit specialises in railway construction, used the project to train members of a pioneer squadron of the Royal Logistics Corps in the principles of track laying.

The soldiers have spent two training weekends at Leeming Bar, using their own plant and equipment to spread hundreds of tonnes of ballast, and will complete track-laying in August.

The Leeming Bar project is using part of a mile of track donated to Wensleydale Railway by Railtrack and the First Engineering company.

Collaboration with the territorials came about because both Mr Clive Roberts, engineering director of Wensleydale Railway, and Maj Mike Hann, commanding officer of the Royal Engineers' unit, have full-time jobs in the railway industry.

Mr Roberts said: "It has saved us quite a bit of money compared with what it would have cost if we had had to bring in a contractor."

He said Wensleydale Railway had considered installing the passing loop at either Leeming Bar or Leyburn, where the company has a 99-year lease on the station, but chose Leeming Bar because access was better.

Maj Hann said the project was giving valuable training to the pioneer squadron, which would be heavily involved in building a new railway siding for a defence supply and distribution centre at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

Maj Hann, whose full-time job is as a railway civil engineering consultant, said: "I already knew Clive Roberts and we were pleased to help. Everyone benefits in this way - the Wensleydale Railway people get their piece of track laid and there is hands-on training for the soldiers because we can pass on our skills to them."

Leeming Bar, where Wensleydale Railway is keeping a 30-year-old buffet car and a brake van on relaid track in the former goods yard, was the terminus of the original section of the Wensleydale line from Northallerton in 1848.

Over the following 30 years the branch was extended in stages through Bedale, Leyburn and Hawes to Garsdale, on the Settle to Carlisle line. Regular passenger services ended in 1954.

After the line lost its daily limestone shipments in 1992, its future looked bleak until the army ran a test train carrying small tracked vehicles the following year.

It proved so successful that the Ministry of Defence invested £750,000 in an upgrade, including a new railhead at Redmire, for occasional trains carrying army vehicles to and from Catterick Garrison.

Wensleydale Railway launched a share issue last November designed to raise £2.5m to help complete lease of the line from Railtrack and to improve the track further for limited passenger use. So far, about £650,000 has been raised and the offer is being kept open.

Mr Scott Handley, chief executive of Wensleydale Railway, said the company was confident it could deal with areas of the track needing immediate attention for passenger trains, initially at low speeds.

Talks with Railtrack over the lease had been delayed by difficulties in the railway industry, however, and planned passenger services would not start before next Easter because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.