Meet the firm helping preserve Keighley Worth Valley Railway, which featured in Peaky Blinders and The Railway Children

The railway was made famous by the 1970s film adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s ‘The Railway Children’ with the sequel premiering on July 15.

Dudleys is advising Keighley Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society on its buildings at stations in Haworth and Oxenhope.

The Leeds-based firm is providing structural inspections and surveys and advising on maintenance required to preserve the buildings in good order for the next 50 years.

Andy Walker, managing director at Dudleys, said: “We feel honoured to be working with the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society in its mission to preserve these important heritage sites for the future.

“We are providing our services at charitable rates since the Society relies on volunteers and donations to keep operational.

“As well as the iconic public buildings, we are assessing functional buildings on each site where mechanical works take place and parts are stored.

“There are four stone built, single storey steel portal frame buildings in Haworth and three steel frame single storey buildings alongside an old stone shed in Oxenhope.”

Opened in 1867 by local wealthy mill owners, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway is a preserved standard gauge line which joins the national railway network at Keighley and runs five miles up the valleys of the River Worth and Bridgehouse Beck to Oxenhope.

When the line was closed by British Railways in 1962, The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society was formed with the aim of returning a daily passenger service to the Worth Valley area.

The society reopened the branch line from Keighley to Oxenhope in June 1968 and has since operated steam train journeys every weekend, daily during the summer, and also runs special events.

The railway featured in the 1970 film version of ‘The Railway Children’. The 2022 sequel, ‘The Railway Children Return’ was also filmed on site.

The railway has played host to many film crews, the most notable in recent years has been the World War One drama, Testament of Youth, the children’s classic, Swallows & Amazons and the successful TV series Peaky Blinders.

James Barlow, civil engineer at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, said: “As a volunteer organisation we rely on the skills we have available at the time.

“Our current civil engineers manage the railway civils and drainage but inspection of large buildings is not something we have the capability to undertake.

“Dudleys has stepped in and supported us with this and we are very grateful for the work that the team is doing to allow us to start to build a long term maintenance strategy for our Haworth and Oxenhope sites.

“Haworth is essential to the maintenance of our locomotive fleet with Oxenhope being the home of our carriage and wagon maintenance department as well as the site of our exhibition museum which is open to the public.

“We are really pleased with the work that has been produced and look forward to working with Dudleys in the future to develop plans for the sites and other areas of the railway.”

Dudleys has extensive experience in historic rail refurbishment projects with previous work including the conversion of the Engine Shed at Whitby Train Station. It has also recently been appointed to assess the signal box foundations for the Wensleydale Heritage Railway.

Dudleys is a privately owned consultancy employing a team of 25 skilled engineers. The firm, which was established 12 years ago, operates in all key real estate sectors including residential, industrial, commercial, retail and education.