It is quite a while since a new ‘Tales from DalesRail’ has been added to the website, see: Graham-Nuttall-A-Personal-Footnote.pdf and this new one is particularly poignant as it remembers the life of Graham Nuttall, a keen DalesRailer, and his faithful dog Ruswarp.
Graham Nuttall and his faithful dog Ruswarp
Few people reading the pages of this website will remember Graham Nuttall – one of our Rail Rambler and DalesRail regulars back in the 1970s & ‘80s. Graham was a quiet, unassuming character who enjoyed his rail trips and usually walked alone with his faithful dog, Ruswarp. In the way that our rail trips and walking groups operate he was accepted for who he was – just another person who enjoyed being with like-minded people enjoying a day out together.
Regular DalesRailers will have seen the statue of Ruswarp on the southbound platform at Garsdale Station and read the words on the accompanying plaque about Graham and Ruswarp’s contributions to saving the Settle & Carlisle line from closure in the late 1980s as well information about his tragic early death.
Garsdale was one of his favourite destinations and he was a regular traveller there. He often stayed with the old lady who ran the post office from a cottage on the lane leading from the station to the main road. From there he would spend long days walking in the surrounding fells with Ruswarp.
The link in the introduction takes you to an article written by the founder of Lancashire Rail Ramblers – the late Howard Hammersley as a personal recollection of and tribute to Graham at the time of his death in 1990.
Statue of Ruswarp at Garsdale station