North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I wasn’t aware he was referring to the here and now, more a generalisation.
I won’t pay knowingly for diesel haulage, so as has been said, they need to make it crystal clear.

 

I must admit, almost every other heritage railway is clear about which services will be diesel hauled, both pre-planned and short notice, be it for fire risk or failures.

Most publish a loco roster at least a week in advance...

 

I did not understand and therefore wondered what football excursions might have to do with the NYMR. Post #11390 was the explanation that I needed.

 

Do they? And even if they do by the time the day arrives often a work of fiction.

 

I'll do some research on many key heritage lines, in no particular order:
Bluebell - https://www.bluebell-railway.com/locomotive-roster/ - many months ahead, often fairly accurate, but at least an attempt
Severn Valley - https://svr.co.uk/locomotive-roster/ - a week or two ahead, regularly updated
KWVR - https://kwvr.co.uk/about-the-railway/weekly-roster/ - A week or two ahead, often with TBC, but updated
GWSR - https://gwsr.com/about/locomotive-roster/ - published month-by-month
Spa Valley - https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/locomotive-roster/ - one or two weeks at a time, sometimes out of date
East Lancs - https://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/loco-roster/ - currently out of date
Mid Norfolk - https://www.midnorfolkrailway.co.uk/maroontimetable - posts loco details on timetable pages
Isle of Wight - https://iwsteamrailway.co.uk/plan-your-visit/in-steam-this-month/ - month-by-month
Watercress - https://watercressline.co.uk/about/loco-roster/ - a few days at a time
Swanage - NO ROSTER (they did one until recently)
Great Central - NO ROSTER
West Somerset - NO ROSTER
North Norfolk - NO ROSTER
F&WHR - NO ROSTER
RHDR - NO ROSTER

At this stage I'm starting to run out of railway that I know of!

 

GCR Roster is sometimes down the page - but its unclear how often this is updated Timetables-fares - Great Central Railway

 

You've gone for pretty much everything I would of thought of. The only other one I know definitely has a roster is the Nene Valley that's normally fairly accurate though does have 'TBC's' on there are the minute - Locomotive Schedule | Nene Valley Railway Ltd

The main issue I have with the NYMR though isn't so much of a hardened roster, its the fact that they don't even commit to putting steam on. Its mixed messages. The home page has a lovely montage video that literally has more than 20 shots of steam engines and one of a diesel advertising the railway and the experience they expect you to have. The timetable though says it will either definitely be diesel or might be steam, but nothing is definitely steam. And when you get there I'd bet on it being around a 75% chance the service you want to use will be diesel. Mixed messages and likely disappointment. The only way to guarantee steam is to only go for a gala.

Most other railways will at least commit to a service being either steam or diesel on the main timetable.

 

Every evening the NYMR Operating Department in conjunction with the MPD produces a planned loco roster for the next day. This is sent to various departments for information and is usually put up on the NYMR’s website first thing in the morning. However, it is not easy to find unless you go looking for it. It’s also not always accurate as it is often a cut and paste job from the day before and mistakes can and do appear. It’s usually possible to work out the errors if you know what usually happens. For example 44806 might be correctly shown as being on the first train from Grosmont but suddenly changes to a different one for the return working from Pickering because that was the loco that did it yesterday and it hasn’t been changed.

 

The Ff&WHR usually puts a post on facebook of which locomotives are planned to operate which trains during the coming week.

 

I hear that the S160 has been pressed into service, seemingly on instructions from high level, despite the fact that people aren't passed out on it so shed staff are having to accompany them. Still nothing on their website about the current need to use diesels.

 

Must have been reading NP

 

Repton was out on test again yesterday so hopefully thats not too far away from regular service now. But still no news on Eric, the 9F etc. 29 seemingly available for Driver Experience but not being used on internals? Despite no FIRECON seemingly in action. Lots of talk on Facebook about them being on FIRECON but nothing announced. A really strange situation.

I did note that the internal was up to five coaches the other day (unless I miscounted!). Whats 29's limit for full line distance? Is that the reason its not being used?

 

Someone on a different forum was complaining that you need a degree to understand the fares table.
Personally I think the fares part of the table is very clear, maybe that is just me, although I will happily agree some of the logic is far from clear.
https://www.nymr.co.uk/plan-your-visit/fares/

So my take is:

A rover covers Whitby, but that station is never mentioned.
To me Pickering to Goathland is three stops not two (Levisham, Newtondale, Goathland) and hence Pickering to Grosmont is four stops. It may be "sections" to the railway as you can not pass at Newtondale, but would the general public understand that as Newtondale is shown as a request stop in the timetable. Yet interestingly the single fare references adjacent stations not sections.

Is Whitby to Goathland return covered by the two stop return?

Why in the holidays is a Pickering Goathland return plus a single from Grosmont to Goathland (if you wanted to walk down the hill) cheaper than a Pickering Grosmont return but more expensive out of the holidays?

 

I think your take on the subject proves that you need a degree to understand it. You wouldn't be asking those questions if it was simple.

 

No longer being a volunteer, I'm not privvy to what the firecon status is but it doesn't appear to be all diesel.
29 can manage 5 coaches. Whether its loading has now been dropped to four, I can't say.

 

I thought a bit on this one before I put this out there but to be honest I don't think it should have taken intervention from the top in this case. The NYMR have put significant investment into this project with a limited time to get anything back from it. I believe its ticket is up in 2028, though not sure what month. That doesn't give a lot of chance to make the most of that investment and learn as much as possible for the Dame's conversion. This dry spell is exactly when it should be out, when steam crews aren't being used on other engines and are available for training. Yes it might cause short term pain in releasing others who are already trained, but that was always going to happen at some point if that training didn't happen earlier in the year.

 

They must be desperate for traction (no insult intended to the S160), reports are that they can't afford to run the loco due to the amount of diesel that it is using, rumoured to be the equivalent of 12 tons of coal per day.

 

Is it a confirmed fact that the NYMR paid for the conversion? Or did Pete Best pay for it himself?

 

This sounds fairly ominous for the NYMR, if the cost of 12 tons of coal a day is an insupportable load. (I'm assuming, of course, that the fare revenue income from the services allowed by said expenditure is enough to cover said cost; if it isn't, they shouldn't even be running the service.)

Noel

 

Several pages ago it was said a ton of coal delivered to the NYMR was £400. Are you telling me its costing close to £5000 a day to run??