North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

A bit more rain in recent days hopefully this may allow a loosening of firecon restrictions?

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The firecon situation isn't due to be reviewed till next weekend.

 

Ok thanks for the update. We are up here for 2 weeks and booked to Whitby this Tuesday so I shall have to reconcile with a diesel.

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Full diesel service today.

http://www.nymrdiesel.org.uk/

Next booked diesel passenger workings Sunday 31st July
47077 on 1000 & 1400 Pickering-Grosmont, 1230 & 1705 Grosmont-Pickering and
37264 on 1430 & rear of 1705 Grosmont-Pickering, 1400 Pickering-Grosmont and
31128 on 1030 Grosmont-Pickering, 1200 Pickering-Whitby, 1630 Whitby-Grosmont.

 

76079 on Grosmont Whitby services today and the Q6 working with diesel supervision so 2 steam locomotives in use which was a lovely surprise

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Normal steam service returns from Monday 8th August, with Monday to Thursday Gold Timetable attached,
https://www.nymr.co.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=7319fc80-6b54-4814-bde6-7cc58db29873
Note that from Monday and until 4th September that kids (5 to 15 yr old inclusive) go free.

 

No significant rain forecast for the next week, trackside is very dry.

 

NELPG News 330 confirms broken stays as the reason for J27 absence from roster and postponed trip to K&ESR. As the railway is now entering peak season I assume the loco is unlikely to see much use. Great to see the Q6 being used and working well.

 

Will it head to Tenterden later in the summer or no point now? KESR seem to have a decent active fleet at the moment

 

News states KESR next year instead being discussed, in the meantime it should go to the GCR in the autumn.

 

You can see the stay work in this photo taken 8th August with the shining stay heads

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It does bemuse me that the NYMR is proudly touting "Steam is back!" all over their social media, yet the majority of trains are still diesel hauled and, what probably really annoys the customers, there is no indication before the train pulls into the platform of which trains are going to be diesel hauled.

 

Typically it hasn't been uploaded today yet, however there is usually a loco roster updated on the website each day show which loco is on which service - although that is subject to change.

Seeing comments on Facebook I believe there is currently a steam ban on the Grosmont-Whitby section so that would explain the diesels hauling those services. It could also be lack of steam locos available necessitating the use of diesel as I believe quite a few are currently receiving maintenance/washouts etc.

 

This isn't the only thread where we get good explanations for when and why steam is running or not, but indications that prospective customers are not being informed as well as they might be.

 

Until last weekend, the NYMR had been running diesels between Pickering and Grosmont but the line onwards to Whitby had been using steam in the shape of 76079 without problem. After appropriate measures had been put in place to follow every train through Newtondale to summit with a firefighting team, it was decided to re-introduce steam throughout from Monday. Inevitably, there was then a small fire at Sleights and the Railway was asked to go over to diesel haulage over N.R. Steam continues to be used between Pickering and Grosmont but, as always happens on a Gold T/T, some trains are diesel hauled over this section as New Bridge can only accommodate two steam locos and three locos are required out of Pickering each day. Currently 63395 and 92134 are each doing two round trips/day.

 

What's the practical logistics of that? (I'm thinking operational, signals, tokens, distance etc?). I've seen similar done on a. heritage railway in NZ with a vehicle following behind a service train at a distance of a few hundred yards, essentially on a "line of sight" basis, but wondered how you would do it on a busier single track line?

(I'm assuming that "Follow every train with a firefighting teams" means they are coming by rail e.g. in a rail-mounted vehicle; apologies if they are following by road parallel, but that seemed less practical).

Tom

 

Remembering back to that documentary series on a few years ago, I think that was exactly how it was done. I couldn't find any pictures of the fire fighting teams on Google, but a few bring up a very handy looking track/lane next to the line. Happy to be corrected

 

Does IT have a part to play here? Anyone who has used one of those 'find my phone' apps has seen the sort of tech I feel could have a part to play.

Anyone who has seen W3W will know this planet has been divided into a grid of 3m squares, each described with a unique three word identifier, the words separated by a full stop. As an example (and as you might expect), party.party.party is to be found in California, whilst kill.me.now is in Bracknell (or damned well ought to be!).

https://what3words.com/products/what3words-app

Before hands are thrown in the air in horror, recall it was our heritage lines (specifically the Talyllyn and La'al Ratty) which developed and ironed out the kinks in lower cost automatic level crossings.

 

To be effective, that solution relies on there being a signal - something that is far from guaranteed on the NYMR (and many other lines).

There's a separate conversation to be had about whether W3W is as good as it suggests. Uniqueness is far from guaranteed, especially if soundalikes are considered, while the commercial model raises interesting ethical questions.

 

I too have seen this done on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway in NZ, However here in the UK the signaling regulations only permit one train in a single line section at any one time, so unless the NYMR have special dispensation between Goathland and Levisham in which case the Fire train would have to carry the token through the section. Perhaps someone from NYMR can add a comment to this to confirm or dispel,