North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Just checked - the estimate I was givenin December was just under 17,000, with Xmas/New Year running expected to bring it to the 17,000 mark. Still pretty impressive. I believe that the B1 is close to joining the 100,000 miles in preservation club.

 

I noticed there is an 'Annual Steam Gala' in September 2018 !, didnt there used to be Spring & Autumn Gala's ?

 

The Moors' dropped the Spring Gala a year or two ago. As with so many events these days on what ever line due to costs and fewer visitors etc...

 

I think the spring steam gala has gone in favour of the concept of running a single visitor in the week before most other attractions open (e.g Flying Scotsman, Royal Scot and, this year, Tornado) which has proved very popular with coach tour operators and other party groups, and is much more profitable.

 

I agree, there's nothing wrong with it. But for as long as I can remember, more than half of locos that can be painted either in pre-nationalisation liveries or BR liveries have been painted in the latter. We've been over-saturated with BR liveries and starved of Big 4 liveries, especially for the LNER. It's like if you have Chicken and Chips for tea every night for a month. After a while you'll start to crave an alternative

 

I often wonder how many galas make a reasonable profit. over and above what would be made on a normal operating day.

 

Irrespective of profit, they are popular with volunteers and supporters.

 

Surely the reason for painting locos in BR colors is so that they match the trains that they are normally hauling. To me there is something appealing about seeing a heritage train in appropriate heritage colors. A uniform SR or LNER train with an appropriate liveried loco is a wonderful sight but sadly there are too few coaches around to make this feasable very often. Fortunately there are loads of very useful and durable Mark 1 coaches made up into a variety of BR color schemes which look really good with a BR liveried loco at their head. For this reason I am sorry to see locos move away from matching the coaches they are hauling. Some say that uniformity is boring but railways have always strived for uniformity and this is part of preserving that. I like to think that we are about accurately re-creating what we can, not making fairground trains where we don't have to. I expect this view to be unpopular on here because many posters only seem to think about the locos and not the train that they haul. Just a personal view, because when I'm on an engine it really does not matter to me what color it is painted.

Peter James

 

I suspect the daily takings are much higher, but whether they cover costs is a different matter, difficult to say without knowing what they are. Yes, they are popular with enthusiasts and therefore there may be other, intangible, benefits to help justify them. What would be interesting would be to have some estimate of what the linesiders contribute!

 

The Severn Valley Railway's popular autumn steam gala originated as a one day event specifically put on for the indulgence of volunteers, so that they and others could enjoy an intensive train service with every available loco in steam. It was seen by the company as a sort of thank-you for all the efforts the volunteers had made to ensure the success of the railway. It has proved to be a successful, and profitable event ever since, albeit we can no longer turn out fourteen resident locomotives for the event as we once did in 1978.

Andy

 

I seem to recall that the first NYMR galas were about running anything that was serviceable at the time, whether steam or diesel. With the diesel gala now also dropped from the programme perhaps this concept could be revisited, although the NYMR's diesel fleet is somewhat depleted these days.

 

It’s a fair view, but I suggest misses the point when railways then preserve stations to different eras. A BR train in a pre grouping station jars just as much as a malachite green loco on a set of blood & custard mk1s.


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That's not really a problem on the NYMR is it? The stations there are pretty timeless.

Peter

 

They are all specifically 'set' in different eras actually Pete, but it has been commented upon more than once that perhaps not enough is made of the point for most people to realise it.

In fact, the 'year'/decade for each station is referred to on the leaflet for 2018, as has regularly been the case in the past. Grosmont is 1952, Goathland 1922, Levisham 1912 and Pickering 1930s, all reflected in paint schemes. Of course, country stations were often the last to be repainted and I seem to recall some debate about whether BR North Eastern Region had ever got round to painting Grosmont in its present colour scheme as the general feeling seemed to be that it was in (very) faded LNER colours at closure!

Steven

 

A policy I got the ball rolling on, I'm proud to say. Up to that point everything was a pastiche of North Eastern Railway colours.

The uniformity Peter James seeks never really existed. I for one welcome the move to be more representative of different periods of history, rather than slavishly trying to recreate things as one generation remembers them.

Sawdust.

 

Wish we could apply the same to the rolling stock!

 

But do all the station equipment and staff uniforms match the date of each station's paint scheme?

 

For me it is not about "slavishly trying to recreate things as one generation remembers them", rather it is about making best realistic use of what has survived. I like to see a period train from whatever period, it just so happens that this is really only possible on most railways with 1950s era Mark 1 stock. I'm no fan of diesels, and certainly not Deltics, but the recent tour from York to Liverpool with a blue Deltic and matching blue and grey stock was a joy to behold - it was a perfect match and this is what I personally like to see. Now if your loco is a non runner, sat in a museum, it really does not matter what livery you choose to paint it. But if it is predominantly hauling BR liveried Mk1 coaches I like to see a loco to match.

Peter

 

I've always thought that the post war designs of the LMS and SR are quite hard to distinguish from Mk1s, so a train of maroon or green Mk1 s doesn't look to bad with a postwar-LMS or SR liveried engine.

 

Now that's an idea; a set of Southern Region green coaches.