North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

As usual, there is a fundamental problem with what you write - you use a range of words -"imagination", "wit"and "courage", all of which seem to be completely alien to the present NYMR management. I guess they will probably say that they never look at social media (apart from Tripadvisor, perhaps?) and so are blissfully unaware of all the criticism that they have been receiving of late. Perhaps one of them should call an urgent Board meeting to discuss it and formulate a plan to deal with both the causes and complaints, and come up with a plan to address both, before this season develops into yet another disaster. And please don't come on here telling how the visit of SNG was a "great success" because it really only depended on the weather being favourable, otherwise the popularity of the loco is well understood, it was like shooting fish in a barrel! It'll be interesting to see if the visit of "Bahamas" has the same resonance (and such a short time after 60007).

 

Does the public timetable show them diesel throughout? If not and Wednesday is the busiest day of the week , then the unsuspecting passengers returning on the packed last train from Whitby will find their expensive train trip back to Pickering all diesel. How disappointing.

Jon

 

The red timetable give 264 miles of travel in total. Todays planned steam mileage is 108 miles, just 41%.

 

Worse than that - 45428 was showing as only doing P-G-P-G today, so 54 miles. Total steam mileage, 90 out of 264, or 34%. And only 45428 was publicly accessible, so really only 54 out of 224 miles was steam. An absolutely pathetic 24%!

 

AFAIK 80136 was on the 10.55 ex Pickering as planned so, along with the 36 miles on the diner, that’s where I got my 108 miles.

 

I can't "like" any oftoday's post. For the start of the season it is a particularly poor showing. If there have been problems with locos they should have been ironed out from test running - public services should not be used as test runs! Am I not right in thinking that 926 and 4480 have also run recently, so why the shortage?

 

An update from someone at Grosmont MPD- 44806 is currently stopped due to the AWS/TPWS systems being looked at by people from Network Rail and the company who supplied the electronics for mainline running. 926 currently has the regulator out due to issues that were found over February half term. Work progresses on all the other engine that are having winter maintenance. 45596 will be in service from Saturday doing Grosmont-Pickering but is being taken to Whitby as well on Saturday as a test to see whether it can negotiate Larpool Curves.
Hopefully everyone can understand the shed has been very busy this winter and aren't holding back engines just for the sake of it, we want them out as much as you all do.

 

Interesting, what time may I ask?

 

I think the key word there is 'planned'. Looking at the red timetable on the website (apparently that is "in use" today) it shows the 16.40 ex-Grosmont as having limited seating (despite the fact you're probably going to have less trouble getting a seat on that than the following train from Whitby). Nothing suggesting it will be diesel-hauled.

The 17.10 ex-Whitby is shown as scheduled diesel as far as Grosmont , so if I've paid for my £49 ticket, personally I am going to be more than a little annoyed to learn that NYMR always intended the journey to be diesel throughout .

Jon

 

There's never been a 5X to Whitby I don't think and it is a longer wheelbase than your typical Stanier 5 (5428, 806, etc) so better to be cautious and test it rather than advertise then pull it

 

I'm on holiday at the moment so don't have access to reference books to check on wheelbase. However, according to Wiki, a Jubilee is only 9" longer overall than a later build Black 5 so I doubt that there will be any problem. Don't disagree that it would be sensible to prove it, though.

 

It is generally well understood by those here I think that those at the coal face do their utmost to ensure that the service runs as it should. It is however little comfort to disappointed customers, some of whom might not be in a position to understand quite so easily. That doesn’t mean I or anyone else blames the shed team, but it might mean that the organisation as a whole needs to reexamine what it is doing and what it tells the world it will do to make sure that the two match. Where that isn’t happening that’s generally only a criticism that can be levelled at the leadership. It must be very difficult at present with the openly admitted squeeze on resources to ensure the service runs as advertised. Hope it all improves for you all.

 

Good to hear re 806. Hopefully, NYMR will soon have another engined passed for Whitby and take the pressure of Eric.

 

What's the state of play with 29 & 2392? They are ideal locos for the early season and pottering around on the P2 diagram with three coaches would be no problem at all for them on days with no diner.

 

Ah, yes, I missed that one. Still only 72 miles of non-diner steam - 32% of all mileage.

It seems to be the same every year though - not enough locos available at the start of the season. The issues with 44806 are unfortunate, but there's seemingly no sign of 92134 as yet. Would having more staff employed have helped get 926 back into traffic sooner? It's been 6 weeks since it last ran, but I'm guessing most of the staff have been employed putting the two 5s back together.

I appreciate two or three need to be kept ready for winter services, but five months should be more than enough time to get 4 or 5 locos serviced. The fact it seems to happen every year would indicate a deep rooted problem, as @21B said. Precious little overhaul activity seems to have taken place over the winter from looking at the MPD Facebook page, it's virtually all maintenence work. No wonder 34101 and 80135 have been in bits for 35 years!

 

The NYMR seems to do piston & valve exams every year independent of mileage and I've never really understood why. The reason given is that we then won't have to stop a loco mid season to do this. However, back in the day, P & V exams used to be done every 20-25,000 miles and its rare for a loco to do more than half that mileage in a year. With regard to doing it mid season, I'm sure that with a bit of organisation it can be done at an extended boiler washout if necessary. That's what used to happen on BR.

 

How many steam loco miles does the NYMR do in a typical season? From how many nominally operational locos?

Tom

 

So at the same time that Lineisclear of this parish (who seems to have gone rather quiet) has been dwelling on the financial challenges facing the NYMR, the railway appears to be paying PR and marketing people not to do their jobs properly?

As it happens I did try to find direct contacts for said people by logging in to LinkedIn, to privately offer some quiet suggestions from many years of experience in their field. Unfortunately most, if not all, seem to be hiding behind the pseudonym "LinkedIn member" - again making me wonder why they're in the marketing and PR business if they're not capable of facing negative press and rolling out a positive PR strategy for what was always going to be an unpopular decision? Public relations... the clue's in the title.

 

In the new timetable, if I'm correct, there'll be no steam until 1200 at Pickering on Saturdays?

 

On a personal basis one of the problems I find is that, generally, all the people involved are good, likeable people who I wouldn’t wish to criticise individually. It is simply the way the railway is both being run and managed that I find difficult to accept. The example that you cited of bog standard responses to individual e-mails is a good example, as is the decision to use diesels on the last trains on a Wednesday as a convenience rather than a necessity. There are so many more examples I could mention.