North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Always been "Scarbs" for me!

I miss the direct EMR summer service from Nottingham.

 

With the many pages of management analysis read over the last few months, I was very interested to see how things are on the ground when I visited today on my way back South/East for a trip on the Autocar and Class 47, taking advantage of the full diesel timetable which suits my tastes (unlike 99% of other visitors).

Firstly the Autocar and trailer were a delight and I really enjoyed my trip, especially the trailer where the full width second class compartment was sampled. The NER stock looked very fitting at Goathland, Levisham and under the roof at Pickering in heritage surroundings. A very nice idea to run the vehicles and I hope its visit is as commercially successful as it clearly is with the public.

For me the Autocar has (temporarily) satisfied the thirst that the withdrawal of the Gresley set has created, and I hope the popularity of the pre-BR experience can stir some vigor along the road to bringing them back. They are without a doubt the greatest loss to the NYMR in recent years in my opinion. I'd like to bounce back from this comment to another positive which was getting a stand-out reception from LNERCA members at Pickering who had their shed and projects open for viewing today. I have never visited this shed before on previous visits and it was wonderful to see and discuss their work. The quality evident was something else and I was very impressed.

The rest of the railway and rolling stock was running well and also presented well, good pickings to be had out of the tearooms at Pickering and Goathland. The two 6-coach rakes of Mk1's were comfortable.

The front of house volunteer staff were clearly disappointed at the lack of steam and were making constant references to it (I only overheard four volunteers over the afternoon but of those, three made mention of it!) which I would caution as to the message being sent out. It is a difficult one but i think a balance can be struck of acknowledgement and not patronising visitors who are strongly unhappy with diesel substitution but also not putting off more neutral people who are on the fence and have potential for being won over if the diesel is being energetically pitched in a positive light. For example the run round procedure of the 47 at Pickering (and displaying an air of power by reverberating under the canopy!) attracted much interest.

I will finish with the general interactions with staff being very positive and the Yorkshire welcome was there in spades. I had several friendly exchanges with platform and on train staff and I am very pleased to say that I was not harassed when taking a responsible position in the vestibule to look (*not lean out to the waist!) out of the window at the carriage stable etc. Over zealous policing on the trains towards responsible adults is a MASSIVE turnoff to me so I was grateful to being left to myself to enjoy the journey.

Thank you to all at the NYMR for providing a good day out.

Sent from my moto g(8) power lite using Tapatalk

 

I’m glad that you enjoyed your visit. After all this is what it’s all about. The Autocar and trailer are a real jewel and it’s great that their stay and use has been extended. It would be even better if it became permanent but then I would start to fear for their future given the railway’s track record of use then abandon.