It is not only the major schemes costing millions that can achieve recognition and success at the National Railway Heritage Awards. One of the smaller schemes entered for the 2014 competition — the recreation of the long-lost lamp room at Levisham station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway — was to be judged the best entry in the Supporters’ Award when the award ceremony was held in London on 3 December 2014. On a glorious day March day — Wednesday the 25th — representatives of the NRHA, award sponsor J. &. J. W. Longbottom and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway gathered at Levisham for the formal unveiling of the plaque.
From the left are Simon Gudgeon, from J. & J. W. Longbottom Ltd (sponsors of the NRHA), John Bailey, Chairman of the NYMR and Levisham signalman, Simon Barraclough of NYMR, who lead the project team that designed and constructed the Lamp Room, Robin Leleux, Chairman of the NRHA’s adjudicators, and Philip Benham, General Manager NYMR pictured at the unveiling on 25 March 2015.
The NRHA plaque installed in the lamp room at Levisham following its unveiling on 25 March 2015 surrounded by all the paraphernalia of a traditional lamp room. It was the recreation of this long-lost facility at Levisham that drew considerable praise from the judges in the 2014 competition.