North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

On behalf of the Good Burgers and folks of Wareham ..... Oy, Moosh!

https://visitwareham.com/

(I know ..... it surprised me too!)

 

That’s my next holiday booked then

 

And I was surprised too! Especially as most of the "Things to do" and "What's on" aren't in Wareham at all! I'm sure Gladiator 5076 will agree and confirm!

 

There are café facilities at Goathland (in the old goods shed) and Levisham (Weighbridge Tea Hut). Ice cream at Levisham was always welcome after a train ride to Newtondale and then a walk through the forest to Levisham...

 

I think that the NYMR is now too involved with running to Whitby to withdraw and become simply Grosmont-Pickering once more. What I can say is that running to Whitby is a real pain operationally and I doubt that you'll find anyone involved with the management of those operations who wouldn't prefer it to revert to a Grosmont-Pickering operation once more.
I've one piece of advice for those involved with the Swanage Railway plan to run to Wareham - Don't.

 

As a Levisham signalman I’m biased of course but it’s good to be able to agree on something. The welcome from the tea hut team is as warm as the their ice creams are cold. Maybe the headline profit they generate is not that significant in the greater scheme of the railway’s finances but because it’s a 100% volunteer activity their profit margins must be amongst the highest on the railway.

 

Try telling that to our Canadian correspondent!!

 

Steve talks sense, I won’t name them but the gent who goes by a certain 14xx auto tank’s name just talks BS, let’s not give Ontario’s village Idiot anymore publicity.

 

good job that the welcome isn't cold and the ice cream warm

 

What impact do Whitby services have on the intensity of internal (Pickering - Grosmont) services? I know pre-Whitby they could have up to 3 trains running at any time, which I imagine allowed for a greater frequency of services from any station than the current 1 train per hour?

 

Effectively hourly at best as Goathland-Levisham is just under 30 minutes .
There today and there is an unadvertised internal service 1330 GP (37403) and 1600PG (92134).
Not advertised as they’re not selling internal tickets I’ve been informed .If that’s correct you really couldn’t make it up !
0920 around 30% full,1200 nearly 100% with two one way coach parties .
1000 WP I had front 60 seats to myself GP.

 

Appreciate the comment about the practical daily workload but maintaining loco's and stock to a recognised mainline standard (albeit a limited part of the network) has to be a good thing in its own right surely. I think I am right in saying the Severn Valley maintains all its loco's at least (not sure about C&W) to mainline standard even though for steam at least there is no Network Rail running aspiration.

 

Though to add the Tea Hut at levisham is only open at weekends, I was thrown off recently when I did an unusual weekday turn (a friday) and rolled past a closed tearoom.

 

..... and one has to wonder how profitable those trains were!

 

Not through choice! When planning consent was secured for construction of the Weighbridge tea room one of the conditions was that opening is restricted to weekends and weekday gala days.

 

On 1330 GP and 4 TTIs and a buffet person outnumber the number of passengers in the front coach …I suspect not many passengers further back .

 

The 9.20am departure from Pickering this morning was virtually a full whilst the 12 noon departure had four spare seats left (out of 317 seats). Whilst the majority where travelling to Whitby there was also a significant number travelling to either Goathland or Grosmont.

 

May I be so bold and ask why that advice?

 

I can't speak for @Steve, but I note from any discussion of operation on to "mainline" tracks, that the constraints on how a heritage railway operates get more onerous, bringing it under regulatory requirements that wouldn't apply within the heritage railway bubble, and requiring the railway to work according to national network rules in respect of timetables, disruption, etc. This thread, the two about Swanage, elements of the many about the WSR and doubtless others all provide interesting insights into just how demanding - and expensive - that can be.

I'm sure @Steve can clarify just what the operational demands are on the NYMR that make this so onerous there, despite the "big railway" only being the outer end of a very lightly used rural branch line.

 

Really I boarded at 0916 and walked through five coaches that were around 40% capacity and sat in coach A with about 10 other passengers.Walked down the train pre Grosmont and perhaps a little fuller .Quite a few boarded at Goathland .