The Weardale Railway is an independently-owned British single-track branch line heritage railway between , Witton-le-Wear, Wolsingham, Frosterley and Stanhope. Weardale Railway began services on 23 May 2010, but decided to run special trains rather than a scheduled service for the 2013 season. The line was purchased by the Auckland Project in 2020 with a view to restarting passenger services. In 2021, a bid was submitted to the 'Restoring Your Railways fund. In October 2021, the Department for Transport allocated funding for the development of a business case. The railway originally ran from Bishop Auckland to Wearhead in County Durham, North-East England, a distance of , built in the nineteenth century to carry limestone from Eastgate-in-Weardale, and provide passenger services to Weardale. Passenger services ceased in 1953, leaving only freight services to Eastgate until 1992. After the quarry's owner Lafarge moved to road transport in 1993, the line was threatened with closure by British Rail (BR), and it was taken over by a group of enthusiasts. The Weardale Railway currently runs for between Bishop Auckland and the site of Eastgate-in-Weardale Station, making the line one of the longest preserved standard gauge heritage railways in Great Britain. Background gained its first rail link in 1842, when the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) backed Bishop Auckland and Weardale Railway (BA&WR) gained the powers via an Act of Parliament to build a railway line from the S&DR's station at via Bishop Auckland and Witton-le-Wear into Crook, County Durham. The BA&WR initially built a temporary terminus at South Church, which opened on 19 April 1842. After completion of the Shildon tunnel, the BA&WR erected a permanent station on the current site, which opened to freight on 8 November 1843, and passengers on 30 January 1843. All operations were sub-leased as agreed to the S&DR. In 1844, after the West Durham Railway extended from a junction with the Clarence Railway at to Crook, the S&DR extended the BA&WR from Bishop Auckland along the river valley to Witton-le-Wear, and then into Crook. In 1845, the S&DR came to an agreement with the Derwent Iron Company to sub-lease the southern section of the former Stanhope and Tyne Railway. It extended the line from Crook to and then to Blackhill. That line was opened as the Weardale Extension Railway (WXR). In July 1845 Parliament passed the Wear Valley Act, which allowed the extension of the BA&WR from a junction