NYMR Autumn Steam Gala 50th Anniversary 21st-24th September

Is there an outside hope 44806 may make the party?

 

Work is being done, but don't get your hopes up. Better for jobs to be done right rather than rushed

 

Hotel booked a while back, just done 2 x rover tickets for the 4 days, looking forward to an eclectic mix of motive power. In two minds about 55189, great in black, but somewhat unreliable when away from home (cf WSR a while back). Little use as a train engine I would have thought, unless there are going to be two coach shuttles along the way. Would look good as a banker up to Grosmont or for the demonstration freight if planned.
Everything crossed for good weather.

 

And hopefully, certainly for me, no rail strikes.

Sent from my moto g(7) play using Tapatalk

 

The issues with the Caley tank at the West Somerset were due to spark arrestor issues. It turned up at the West Somerset without one and it was not allowed to run without on the line. An attempt was made to fit a makeshift arrangement which suffocated the loco and badly affected it's performance.
The correct spark arrestor was dispatched from Bo'ness to Minehead (a not insignificant drive) and was fitted for the final 2 days of the gala. I travelled with it over the full line and it handled 4 coaches without issue (the WSR is certainly not flat!).
The young fireman explained it needed firing completely differently to any other loco he had worked on, but once mastered it steamed really well. It should look very good on the NYMR, shame about the boring black though, not a patch on Caley Blue!

 

Yes any strikes and then I have no way of getting there
Fingers crossed

Neil

 

Presumably, the Caley will spend most if the gala piloting the Lambton tank and handling short freights.

 

Thanks for reiterating the WSR event, agreed the WSR is less than flat. We were told that a similar arrestor was lent by the NNR but this was word of mouth stuff. Agreed after the lack of steam and running out of water, challenged by the steep climb out of Blue Anchor, the following days were somewhat better. Why did it turn up without its' spark arrestor in the first place? Liveries are of course a matter of opinion, while I like the blue I like what I remember, black! Good to have a change every now and again, paint funds willing. It will certainly be interesting double heading with the Lambton tank.
There were also the problems at the Gloucester and Warwicks, I was told with brakes?

 

Why couldn't it run passenger shuttle trains, or goods trains, out of Pickering to Levisham? That's a pretty flat bit of route!

 

A lot of us won't see it if it stays at that end of the line.

 

I wondered as its 50th Anniversary and because they hauled the first train together whether 29 would spend most of the weekend paired with the J27. Leaving 55189 on the freight shuttles.

 

That’s your problem.

 

And the problem of about 75% of other visitors.

 

So you say only 25% of visitors can be bothered to buy a ticket and ride on the railway?

 

I'm riding on the Friday and photting on the Saturday. I tend to stick to the 1 in 49 until the end of the day, as a lot of people do. Not many people would bother getting off at Pickering to ride the Caley to Levisham and, yes, it's very annoying for photters when they do that.

 

Leviathan is as far South as I travel at galas as the section from there to Pickering is pretty boring. If a visiting engine is restricted to that section then it’s likely I wouldn’t even see it, let alone travel behind it.

 

Surely getting off at Levisham, doing a round trip with 419, and rejoining a normal service at Levisham would make sense?

Chris

 

I realise different people have different things that attract them, but it would seem wilfully perverse to me to go to all the effort of attending a gala and then choosing not to see one of the attractions just because it is restricted to a "boring" section of line!

Tom

 

I know a lot of people who do that. I tend to ride behind every loco on the 1 in 49 and go to Levisham once on something special. I've never had any thrash South of Levisham.

 

The point about a gala weekend is surely to encourage people to ride the full length of the line on trains, rather than staying off them and taking photographs. I'm perhaps atypical in thinking that photography is largely a waste of time and that riding on the trains is far more fun, but the climb from Levisham to Summit is just as exhilarating as that from Grosmont to Goathland in its own way.