Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway Updates

Yes HE2890 is on hire for the rest of the year, the P3 contract was to May but I beleive Embsay would be happy to keep it

 

I doubt the NYMR would have much work for the P3 this year either. They've got a much more limited service than historically and stretched finances. I suspect they wouldn't be unhappy at losing this one off the hire bill for another year. NELPG seem to have built up a good relationship with the Embsay team and the engine is well suited for the work there. I'd be surprised if they didn't get to keep it for another season.

On a side note its not a bad thing for NELPG to be more broadly based than just at the NYMR. It offers more security of work for their engines and means more people get to see their work as well (as the LNERCA have found with their carriage fleet in recent years).

The Embsay team have done well to foster those relationships.

 

You may be right, but I find it very sad that both the LNERCA and now, increasingly, NELPG are finding that their best interests lie away from the NYMR. It really amplifies the fact that the NYMR has lost sight of its roots as a heritage railway and is quickly becoming a rather bland tourist attraction. It's not for me any more, as I cancelled my membership, together with plans to leave legacy - and, sadly, I think that, increasingly, I'm not alone in that - but but for many of us , we joined (in my case 0ver 50 years ago) to support a heritage railway, not an out-and-out, unashamed, purely tourist attraction.

 

Slightly ironically the P3 would've been perfect for the first 3 months of the NYMR's services as it turned out. Likewise the teak set could've been used. Oh well.

 

But that's thinking like a heritage railway, and offering something better than usual. It was never going to happen!

 

NELPG News 352 reporting loco to remain at YDR until September when it will return to NYMR for Autumn events.