North Yorkshire Moors Spring Gala 25th - 27th April + 2nd - 5th May 2014.

See #2 (Bar 45248 which is undergoing repairs).

Also on website: http://www.nymr.co.uk/special-events/spring-steam-gala/

 

Planned for eight locos out each day of the first w/e. Note the word 'planned'.

 

Excellent, thank you.

 

Locos for Friday now up on Website:

No.29, 44806, 44871, 45407, 47406, 4464, 61264 and 62005, with D7628 assisting with the "Top and Tail" requirement to Whitby.

Steven

 

Locomotive allocations now added to timetables for this weekend:

http://www.nymr.co.uk/special-events/spring-steam-gala/

Steven

 

Roster details:

http://www.nymr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Friday-25th-April-Gala-TT-AV1-Locos.pdf

http://www.nymr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Saturday-26th-April-Gala-TT-AV1-Locos.pdf

http://www.nymr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Sunday-27th-April-Gala-TT-AV1-Locos.pdf

 

A poor offering in my opinion for the first day. Fog and drizzle dominated the day. Despite the lack of visibility I also noticed the lack of a K1 on its early rostered services, although I don't know if it came out to play later. I gave up after the 14:15 freight. Let's hope for better luck tomorrow!

NYMR Spring Gala - Day 1

 

The gala in general, or just the weather?

 

Apologies Robert. My photos were the poor offering in this instance, due to the weather!
Hoping for some sun tomorrow!
I was a bit baffled by the lighter than normal timetable today. There was a big gap after the first train from Pickering before anything else ran. But that's my only complaint as far as the gala went.

 

Better luck was had today. The wind and drizzle were still present, but thankfully the fog had lifted. There was even a hint of Sun at times!

NYMR Spring Gala - Day 2

Anyone know what happened to the Jinty? I was waiting for the shuttle before a plan move to Moorgates for Bittern. I ended up racing the A4 across the Moors as the Jinty never came, and the shuttle wasn't run. Thats the only time I've ever been thankful for that low speed limit!

 

Crack in the blast pipe was what I think the problme is - out of action today definite and quite possibly tomorrow. There seemed to be hopes the K1 would make tomorrow.

Steven

 

No Jinty or K1 tomorrow is the latest tonight, at least Jinty can appear next weekend.

44871, 75029 face Whitby.

45407 & 62005 if out due to be turned to face Whitby tomorrow as well.

61034 Chiru appeared today AKA 61264

Excellent gala so far - bonus second Battersby trip this afternoon

 

A video from Friday and Saturday;

 

Obviously the Jacobite is great for revenue to keep the K1 running and pay for the next overhaul. But am I the only one who wants to see it south of the border a bit more?
For whatever reason the K1, K4 and the B1's are amongst my favourite engines. In recent years I've been spoilt with the others but the K1's always in Scotland.

Also, other random point. If every year the NYMR loses three gala engines for the second weekend, why haven't they moves the dates back a week? Ok so this year it was Easter, but what about previous years?

Despite the above questions as always I had a great time over my two days. Was glad not to see a diesel on the first Pickering services this year.

 

At Grosmont Saturday 26th

 

The no-show of the K1 is not the NYMR's fault, they hired it in good faith but have been badly let down by NELPG who would seem to have brought it to the NYMR in poor condition and made little effort to fix it in the time it has been there prior to the gala. NELPG of today seem to be poor shadows of the past.

 

"The no-show of the K1 is not the NYMR's fault"

True enough and it's a great shame it wasn't running and the reason I didn't go to the gala.
I have to mention that when I went to the railway three weeks ago I had travel with 29, 61264, 75029 and 44806. On that day 44806 banked a diner and a also train hauled by 61264. There was also a Sulzer out and the class 37 was taking freight wagons through to Pickering for inspection prior to the gala, truly a Mixed Traffic event and all on a mere green timetable day early season! Better than many a gala elsewhere.

 

Just an observation from a few photos and videos I've seen, was there an operational reason (aside from the Whitby trips) for so many trains being banked? I'm sure I'm not alone in believing the raison d'etre of the moors to be the scenery and gradients; it seems a shame to waste the latter on what would appear to have been quite short rakes already.

 

I know not, but suspect they realise the timetable collapses rather too often through the Pickering runrounds taking an age. The extra loco helped expediate things at Pickering.

Of course where needed there wasn't help. 60019 failed to get up the bank out of Grosmont on the diner on Friday. 61264 came to the rescue and made splendid work of pushing the diner + A4.

I find it a bit depressing that so many drive in, grab their phots and drive home. Where was everyone for the superb service of late evening trains on Friday? OK the trains were not empty and the Vera Lynn people seemed satisfied with the numer of pies sold and pints of beer drunk, but I thought the turnout from the steam enthusiast fraternity at large was poor. Standing on Goathland footbridge near midnight was magic. The dimly lit station is always atmospheric at night, but the thick mist on Friday added to the scene. 61264 on teaks was heading to Pickering with steam escaping from the steam heating down the train, then 45407 rolled in on the dining set, adding to the steam effects. Just two of us were there to watch this timeless scene. Earlier, superb was listening to 61264 from the front coach as it climbed out of Levisham through the awful moors weather late at night. I was enjoying the thrash whilst supping my next pint of Vera's Ale (served via hand pump in the teak buffet) - there were just three of us in the front coach.

David

 

Album uploaded with selected shots from Saturdays visit here = https://www.flickr.com/photos/goldsteam/sets/72157644361497771/