North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Where as you don’t have to worry about things like this on a nice piece of kit like ohhhh an EE Type 3? Just sayin…

 

Given the choice between a Schools and an EE type 3, I’d take the Schools any day. The best thing about a Type 3 is getting off it.
Just saying……

 

The cab of Cheltenham:

 

Have a mate who’s an ex Barton Hill driver who’d definitely agree with you on that one my friend!

 

Absolutely, if it’s anything like the day I spent as second man on a 33 on a filming job. Much of the time was sat around awaiting instructions, but the noise and vibration never stop. Never again.


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All services on the NYMR between Pickering and Levisham have been cancelled today:

Due to operational reasons out of our control, we've had to make the difficult decision to cancel our advertised services on Wednesday 28 September.

We will still be operating a reduced hop-on hop-off shuttle service between Levisham, Goathland, Grosmont and Whitby and all services will be half price for this day only (28/09/2022). Tickets available from Booking Offices only.

Anyone know why?

 

No signalman available for New Bridge box

 

Unofficial strike action ?

 

There's been a shortage of bobbies for most of the year it seems, with turns regularly being filled last minute. The Gala was very much an exception as folk resurface for the weekend.

 

How many are needed each day for the whole railway?

 

I'd presume 5 - 5 boxes (Pickering, New Bridge, Levisham, Goathland and Grosmont) and 1 bobby per box

 

Almost right. New Bridge controls Pickering ( Pickering South box is just a demo.one) so for a normal day it's four

 

Can either of the intermediate boxes be switched out, allowing a less frequent, but still full line service?

 

Certainly I believe years ago Levisham could but couldn't say if it still can be. I assume so.

 

Only Levisham can be switched out in theory but it hasn't been possible in practice for a number of years. In any event the benefit of doing so is limited to those times when there is no need for trains to pass there. Consequently the impact tends to be on shortening the signalman's hours or removing the need to cover the few evening Pullman turns rather than reducing the number of signalmen required.

 

How does (did) that work with the level crossing, was it crew operated?

 

When the box is switched out the crossing goes to road user working. There are manual pump handles each side ( with instructions) and a release lever to lower the barriers. Inevitably some users fail to lower them after driving over the crossing. In that case post mounted white flashing lights in the Up and Down directions will not display. Their flashing is a signal to footplate crews that the the barriers are fully down across the road. In the absence of a white flashing light the train will stop some distance from the crossing and a member of the crew will have to walk to one of the barrier pedestals and use the barrier release level to lower them and trigger the white flashing light.

 

Isn't this one of the reasons that some evening dining trains used to go to Battersby ( or maybe they still do)?

 

If it’s been a shortage all year ,perhaps some of the Park Street office staff should be trained up ,would actually be a benefit to operations then.

 

That suggestion has already been made on another forum. Resilience from within the paid staff may indeed have some merit but it's far from a simple cost free solution. The implied suggestion that Park Street office staff are no benefit to operations is nonsense. Without the support provided by their roles there would be no operations!
Then the cost has to be factored in. To train a signalman from scratch probably needs a minimum of around 20 practical training turns. There 's also the theory course. Ideally that would be done on a voluntary basis out of working hours but an employer can't insist on that. Once passed out competence has to be maintained and documented. So that means practical experience has to be reasonably frequent......probably at least one turn a month to prevent the signalman "going rusty". That's for one box. Shortage of signalmen can occur at any of the four boxes so to cover them all with a competent staff member means four days a month.
Recruiting a staff member for one job, which has to be justified by cost/benefit analysis, and then requiring the employee ( if he or she agrees) to spend around four working weeks training, and almost one working week a month doing something else, is economic illiteracy.
Of course the ideal is if the staff member volunteers to acquire and maintain such competence in their own unpaid time. Then the occasional diversion from the day job would probably make sense. There are already examples of that such as one of the marketing team volunteering on the footplate and ready to help out in an emergency. However, much as posters on the other forum might wish otherwise, an employer cannot make volunteering in any capacity a condition of employment.
I can' help but speculate that perhaps there would be greater enthusiasm for such volunteering from amongst the paid staff, whether at Park Street or elsewhere, if they weren't subjected to unfounded sniping suggestions that they are a burden on the NYMR.