North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Then why isn't it advertised on the bronze timetable? Neither is the 09.15 ish Grosmont - Whitby ECS in the morning.

 

The 9.15 ex Grosmont this year is not ECS, but will be operated as the Whitby Hopper, allowing a return back to Grosmont off the 12.35 arriving back at Grosmont at 13.00.

 

But that assumes that most of any Heritage Railways passengers are actually there for more than "a ride on a steam train" using coaches that are different (and far more comfortable) than the modern rubbish they may get on the National Network. It is almost a mirror of the mainline tour debate about a diesel on the back, most I suggest will not care about the stock or which region the loco originally worked on.
I have no idea of the percentage of "enthusiasts" on an average day, but I suspect it is not very high. To me the best feature of the NYMR is the climb up to Goathland from Grosmont, but often from viewing the webcam, as here at my local railway in Swanage the greatest percentage of passengers appear to sit in the coaches nearest the entrance where they boarded, so to the average punter that does not matter much either I suspect.
You have a line that goes from somewhere to somewhere, part of which is coastal, something a lot of lines would love, with a "famous" place en route. If that becomes "a money generator" surely that is a good thing.

 

The challenge there as a supporter of Whitby running but also a frustrated “internal” traveller, is that dovetailing timetables on the very restrictive infrastructure is difficult.


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In which case why aren’t they advertised? If they are, please tell me where?

 

31128 arriving tomorrow for a 6 week stay. Then something else to replace it - 37403 from SRPS has been mentioned in the past.

 

Here's an interesting way to waste half an hour. With my favorite Moors based Lambton Tank No.29.-

 

As an interesting side note. No 29 has a cast iron plate bolted to the driver side steps into the cab, registering her to run on the British Railways network. In particular from the Lambton system in/round Washington to Lambton Staithes on the south bank of the Wear opposite what is now Sunderland football clubs Stadium of Light. The former Wearmouth Colliery site. Part of the line from Sunderland city centre out to South Hylton is now part of the T & W Metro, with the line to the staithes cutting off I'm lead to believe at the "new" University station on the Metro. Being a little wicked pity the BTC registration doesn't still apply. Be handy running shuttles Grosmont-Whitby.......

 

31128 has just arrived in Grosmont as viewed on the webcam!

 

Wow, an R1 - one of the last surviving Stirling locos to remain in service. Where’s that been hiding since 1959?

Tom

 

If we can find another 3 R1s they should be able to work the trains from Grosmont to Goathland

 

I think it has been in the Box Hill experimental engineworks where it has undergone significant experiments aimed at finding a workable alternative to coal as a fuel.

 

Like this you mean?



Grosmont level crossing could do a passable imitation of Folkestone Harbour ...

Tom

 

Sorry, they've already been earmarked for the Remembrance Line to Folkestone Harbour.

 

Oops forgot the quote doh

 

76079 sat in platform 3 at Grosmont (webcam) as I type.

 

As a lifelong railway enthusiast staying at Levisham for Easter, and planning some time on the railway, I do find the time tables somewhat bemusing. If you access the website from different search criteria you get different timetables, or activity suggestions when I just want to ride and plan my day on trains accordingly (especially if it's widdling down)!
Can anyone advise, with the hopon hopoff ticket can that be treated as basically a line rover ticket for the day, or is that another ticketing option not covered anywhere (yet)?

 

With a Moors Explorer hopon hopoff ticket between two stations you simply need to choose a time for the outbound service and then you can subsequently board any of the other Moors Explorer services running that day between those stations.

If you purchase a Seaside Special or Yorkshire Express ticket then you will have reserved seating on the outbound and return trains to and from Whitby, but with these tickets you can also board any of the Moors Explorer services running that day though you won’t have reserved seating on those services.

In your case, staying at Levisham, if you want to travel the while journey between Whitby and Pickering then I’d purchase a Seaside Special ticket departing Pickering on the 9.20 (except Sunday) which will depart Levisham 20 minutes later and arrive Whitby at 11.10 then depart Whitby at 14.00 back to Pickering arrive 15.4o then back to Levisham on the Moors Explorer on the 16.00 off Pickering. But because of the short platform, if booking in advance then you will need to a book a seat on the Seaside Special in either coach B or C (seats in coach A are released on the day for walk-up customers on a first- come first-served basis, but then again the booking office at Levisham is not always open because of volunteer availability).

As an alternative to the 14.0o return departure from Whitby, you could alway travel back on the 12.35 Whitby departure and which becomes the 13.30 ex Grosmont Moorlander Explorer service to Pickering service arriving 14.40 (as a further alternative you could alway break your journey at either Grosmont, Goathland or Levisham before catching the 14.00 ex Whitby following service picking up your reserved seats back to Pickering).
Further suggested itineraries are given here.
https://www.nymr.co.uk/Pages/Category/suggested-itineraries

ps whilst this sounds a bit complicated most passengers are simply wanting a return trip to Whitby or a there and back to Grosmont or Goathland. In the good old days (pre COVID), there would be many days when 9.20 ex Pickering first service of the day could be packed to unpleasantness, or those travelling to Whitby would all try and return back on the last train of the day, again potentially leading to an equally unpleasant experience (in terms of passengers having to stand the whole way back to Pickering). I think the current website tries to balance the passenger loadings to try and ensure their trains are not overloaded, but then this leads to the website we see. It is a fine balancing act… passenger comfort (in terms of trains being overloaded or not) v a more complicated website particularly for the railway enthusiast.

 

Thanks for your reply, my aim would be to travel (probably on the Sunday) from Levisham up and down the line to Goathland as much as possible without having to book a specific train, but it looks like this is not possible. We did do this last year, despite the timetable and other itinerary only trains suggesting otherwise, with the guy in the ticket office selling us what was effectively a day rover ticket, not advertised anywhere we could find. He even gave us a photocopy of a typed timetable of all trains running which the coloured ones appeared to be unable to do. I guess it will be the same again, or we'll just walk for a change!!