North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Do other Thomas events run for as long as eight days?
I can understand a weekend event of three days would concentrate custom nicely to fill the trains, but can it stretch to eight days?

Income per seat seems to be around £16.50 for a parent/child combination.

One morning departure to Whitby from Pickering with 200 passengers paying £48.50 (£9700) is equal to 587.8 Thomas passengers.

Will the hordes descend?

 

Mini Beer Festival in Goathland

Mini Beer Festival

Goathland Station Tearoom
2, 3 & 4 May - Bank Holiday Weekend

Get ready for an unforgettable May Bank Holiday weekend filled with laughter, good company, and amazing local ales at Goathland Station Tearoom. Step into the heart of the North York Moors and experience the charm of our Mini Beer Festival.

 

Mid Hants dates (15 days in total across two events) although that has been well established for some years.
23 - 31 May & 4 - 9 August 2026

 

Thomas is an event that will utilise the whole of Pickering station and it is a closed space (see website for what’s going on.) If there were other trains running into Pickering it would effectively let people in to that event free of charge. I think other lines that put on Thomas events effectively use the whole railway for it, which isn’t really practical over 18 miles.
I can see the logic in doing the whole event on shorter lines where it would be possible for the loco to work throughout but that’s not realistic on the Moors where a round trip to Grosmont is going to be about three hours and Whitby is a non-starter for obvious reasons.

 

Thank Steve. I'm still struggling to believe its not possible though I do appreciate its definitely not easy to create total separation between the two different products. This feels like they have cut off their nose to spite their face. Its great they are trying something like this, but if its taking away the core market then it doesn't feel very sensible to run it that way.

My random thinking (if its successful and they want to try again)...

The KWVR did really well last year by making people use the train from Keighley in order to attend the Railway Children show at Oxenhope. The main car park at Oxenhope was shut off as was filled with various shipping containers that were dressed up into different catering stalls and gift shops. Initially I was a bit annoyed I couldn't park at Oxenhope which is the closer station to me, but it actually added to the experience. You got all the anticipation from others around you on the way in, and the excitement of the shared experience on the way out.

I wonder (assuming any relevant permissions could be sought) if there is a way to utilize that field at Levisham more, maybe with a big marquee. The NER Autocar or another short train becomes your shuttle so you have control of numbers. You can have Thomas running brake van trains in between other services. And you can still have your through trains for the regular customers. The obvious harder issue would be getting all the equipment in and out of the site but having seen Grosmont with the crane, and the heavy stuff in and out of Grosmont sheds (via Esk Valley) nothings impossible these days.

Whilst other Levisham passengers will no doubt see a little of whats going on they won't get the full package without tickets to the events area.

No doubt it wouldn't be easy to do but if you can physically run a festival pretty much anywhere these days (with permissions) then you must be able to run smaller scale events like this in that sort of space.

EDIT - apologies this pipedream may have got a bit carried away!

 

I think you could, but I’m not sure “Thomas” would be the right thing to do it for. Railway Children has the great advantage that the play is damn good, and doesn’t need a railway setting - I saw it with the kids in Keswick’s Theatre on the Lake 15 years ago and it worked brilliantly. Thomas is a bit more railway dependent…