North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Does that mean they were planning to start the work right before services restarted for Easter?

 

In other words Bridge 42 is closed to all traffic with immediate effect, with the result that Grosmont is cut of from the rest of the line. Trains will still run from Pickering to Goathland. Fortunately the Santa trains are only operating from Pickering anyway. Loco hauled services will operate top and tailed with steam and diesel. All coaching stock is at Pickering together with 44806, Lambton No.29 a Class 37 and 47077. Looks like the A3 escaped yesterday in the nick of time.

Peter

 

Am I right in thinking the only way off the shed at Grosmont is through the tunnel and over the crossover immediately south of bridge 42? So if access to the bridge is denied, nothing can come off shed? I can see why @Steve has said about an extra crossover in the past.

 

Can't really 'like' your post, Peter, because it shows how bad things are but thanks for posting an update of the situation.

 

It's obviously bad that Bridge 42 is closed to all traffic. I'm unclear from the announcement and clarification by @torgormaig whether that means that the repair work has been brought forward because its more extensive than previously thought, or the bridge is now unfit for use and can't be used until repairs are complete.

If (which I suspect from the urgency of the announcement) it's the latter, how much risk is there that the line will remain closed into the spring?

 

An emergency crossover was seriously proposed during the early 90's as it was realised that a derailment on the traps on the shed exit road would bring the railway to a standstill, especially if it was a serious one. It was also seen as a way of relieving congestion on the shed exit road, especially as it was then necessary for locos to go to shed for water and could be at the same time as one was coming off to work a train, as often happened back then. It was all part of the scheme to reorganise Grosmont with a scissors crossover to the north of the tunnel. The signalling was installed for this when platform 4 was created and Grosmont 'box built but the economics at that time meant that much of the plan was shelved and we only got the one crossover.
I gather that the idea of a crossover south of the tunnel is back on the cards. Unlike when the bridge collapsed on the Valley, there is no viable means of moving things from Grosmont by road.

 

It's not going to be a five minute job, by any means. I understand that it will require the track bed digging out down to the arches so that they can be repaired. That will require the removal of the track and probably auxiliaries before that can commence.

 

Thank you. Let us pray for a mild and dry winter.

 

Is the work that's now required more than initially thought? I can't get my head round the idea it was planned to start work in 3 months time. The railway has plenty of experience over the years of bridge repairs and must know it never goes smoothly, despite all the planning. At least starting the new year gives them a full 12 weeks before Easter.

 

Purely a guess on my part but I wonder if the stated three months' should have been three weeks. That would have allowed all the planned trains to operate. I'm also guessing that the results of the inspection suggested it was not considered sensible to continue running trains over it but that is not what you want to put out in a press release.

 

Depends if the original intention was to generate donations - a bit of desperation might help an appeal along - but that doesn't seem to be an issue now. The suggestion of a second, southern, crossover for emergency use also made me smile, given that the railway can't afford to replace worn out pointwork that used to be used operationally.

 

I suspect they meant March but didn't count it right. That would have given them a window between Feb half term and Easter.

This will be where the FS money is going then!

If there is one slight positive out of this, and I am struggling for one, it is the dining team getting some real world experience of operating from Pickering. There has been a lot of talk of moving it there over the years, including investment towards it when building the new carriage shed, but some reluctance to actually do it. This should at least test some of the operational challenges to see if it might be practical longer term.

 

Martin

I think Peter's post needs to be read in conjunction with this post

 

Issue was estimated at £250k last spring, the shed problem was c0nsidered at the time, nothing new.

 

Ive no detailled knowledge of the NYMR but assuming the bridge is the one over the River Esk south of Grosmont station and that the line is closed to passenger traffic wouldnt the easy option be to slew the running line to Goathland on to the "headshunt" (not sure thats the northern term) from the loco yard? That would be about half a days work for a crew and a tamper. if access is still required to the running line to the bridge id be surprised if the NYMR dont have sufficient spares to cobble together at least a siding grade single turnout. If not the wider heritage pw community would certainly be able to find something.

 

I would have thought that on Monday morning the first job for the PW gang will be to slew the southern most end of the Grosmont shed headshunt over to make an end connection with the running line so that locomotives & stock can access Grosmont shed from Goathland station on a long siding. The Ops and S&T depts meantime making the necessary arrangements for this to operate safely under a possession.

Once done all stock not at Grosmont station will be available for operating the railway and PW dept will have access to both sides of the work site, either via Grosmont station, or via Goathland/Grosmont Loco & the tunnel.

Making such a connection should be possible in a single 8hr shift.

Andy.

 

That's probably what is going to happen now. I've not spoken to anyone to get better knowledge.

 

I think that's the easiest solution. Fewer cables and gubbins at the headshunt end.

 

Maybe, but is there a need to do this? It seems that at present all the necessary equipment that is needed to operate the current curtailed service is already at Pickering. Lets give them time to assess the situation and formulate the way forward. It is not the first time that Grosmont has been cut off from the rest of the line - it happened in 1986 with the bank slip at Beck Hole and again in 2009/10 when Bridge 30 was renewed. There maybe a need in the New Year to extract the 9F from the shed as it is due to visit the GCR for their gala. The Q6's boiler is also heading off for repair soon but I suspect that decisions there can be made after the immediate crisis has been managed.

Peter