Last year, I told you about the nine-day closure of the Esk Valley line, during which time Network Rail undertook major engineering work on one of the many river bridges and replaced track dating from before the Second World War. The work went well, the information to potential passengers was good and the only concern to mar an exemplary operation was that one of the rail replacement buses ended up on its side in a ditch – something which I suspect would have attracted rather more attention had it been a train.
Over the February week which would ordinarily have been half-term, the Orange Army was back, relaying track which this time was comparatively new, merely dating from the 1940s! Again, all went well, and there is no doubting that much of the line is now in better shape than for many years past.
