The railway that isn't there... by Ron Evers

Across the River Derwent from Bossall lies Scrayingham and it was proposed to build a bridge over the river. This would of course have been a major engineering feat and was never commenced.

The years in the mid-twenties saw the little line at its zenith. Then in 1930 two things happened. Firstly Sir Robert died, at the early age of 39. He was an extremely active man as you will have gathered, another hobby was a fire-brigade - quite another story - and what with cricket, social functions and his soldiering activities he literally burned himself out. He was active to the end - shortly before his death, an ailing man, he would still delight in taking the throttle of the engine and drive it as though he were a boy - often to the annoyance of Mr Batty on the engine with him.

The other thing to happen was the rapid advance of motor transport. this in itself would not have killed the railway, it was too near Sir Robert's heart for that, but with his death the railway died too.

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