North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Fire risk or not, the number of steam locomotives available for service has been very low this Summer, probably the lowest I have known. I'm not sure why 29 hasn't been used for service trains, but it seemed to start with 44806 holding the fort (which then was pulled for washout and maintenance), then a week or so of nothing except the occasional appearance of the S160, followed by Repton, plus Tornado's visit. If the fire risk magically disappeared overnight, or indeed there had been no fire risk to begin with, I suspect the roster wouldn't have changed much at all.

 

They haven't run steam regularly for a couple of months now (60163's empty stock workings excepted), well before the self imposed steam ban came in. 926 has only just returned from winter maintenance and has worked about 3 days. 2253 appears once or twice a week at most. 44806 was out almost daily until 6 weeks ago when it was stopped for a boiler washout. 92134 has been out of traffic for a couple of months, 45428 even longer. They simply don't have any locos available for traffic.

 

But being short of steam locos at a point in time is not exactly something unique to the NYMR. I can think of a number of railways it has happened to over the years. You can even say WCRC is short of steam loco suitable to be used on the mainline.
There have been many posts on here that seem to imply this is some sort of a majorly unique event.

 

It's certainly not unique, but I can't think of a time when the NYMR specifically has had so few steam loco's available. I'm not really pointing fingers on the reasons why either, as I think it's mainly down to "s**t happens" with the usual delays and complications. What I am saying though is the fire risk is nothing to do with the current steam locomotive availability.

 

Again, I repeat my question, did you not get the nationwide alert?

There has been no rain for an unprecedented length of time (yes, it is worse than 76). The moor is a tinder box. "Self-imposed" suggests that this is not a good idea.
I'm not involved, so I don't need to temper my words unlike others. The HRA is saying "don't run steam" on a virtually nationwide basis, the NYMR is on the east of the country (which generally gets less rain) and runs through a national park.

Read the runes.

 

You’re missing the key point of what me and other respondents have been saying.

They have been running hardly any steam locos way before the nationwide fire risk was announced!


As many have said, since the late reopening it was the two Black 5s but mostly Eric, the 9F which covered diner services, the odd appearance of Omaha whilst 29 was mostly allocated to driver experience. Then all steam was removed while Tornado visited for a couple of

It has become a chiefly diesel run heritage railway for the last couple of months a the fact is the vast majority of the paying public don’t want to pay £50 to sit behind a class 37 for 3 hours!

 

Which was why I flagged the points about "National Park" and "East of the country".
I get the point about lack of steam locos, but I've seen no acknowledgement the other way. This year has been low on rainfall since June at the latest.

 

Fire risk is acknowledged as being present, no doubt. But fire risk or not, it would have made little difference to the roster for the past two months IMHO. What strikes a nerve for me is to say fire risk is the reason, when the only available coal fired steam has been used during the given period.

 

Is it acknowledged? Don't see it myself.
As I've said previously, the detractors to the current regime shoot themselves in the foot by the continued conspiracy theories and attacks on the current board.

 

I'm told that the S160 and the Schools are out today. Have to wait to see if it's true but if it is, what's your next comment going to be?

 

Then that will be a bad decision. Ironically that they are being too keen to use steam. Possibly to pacify the chorus of complaints on here. If the place catches fire, it will be ironic

 

We had rain last night in Newcastle so if that happened to North Yorkshire as well then maybe they are taking a chance. We also had rain just over a week ago so the North East is not quite the parched desert the rest of the country is. Despite what the national media is pushing.

 

Or maybe they've decided that the 6-10mm of rain over the local area in the last 24 hours is enough to dampen down the lineside? On the rare occasions when steam has run this year, they haven't had any fires - unlike PDSR who had their fire train out daily and still kept using steam.

 

https://www.northyorksfire.gov.uk/incident/2026-08-17-incident-summary-monday-17th-august-2026/
Amidst the other bits of mischance and stupidity, the fire brigade is still attending field fires with no obvious causes, so I hope the insurers are on board

 

That's what the roster says. 2253 finishing at Pickering tonight though.

 

I’m a bit surprised at that. I didn’t think they wanted to do that until more people had the necessary operational experience.

 

I’m long enough in the tooth to remember the days of Leander and Meander, the latter being a nickname given to Antwerp when it wasn’t steaming well and was confined to Grosmont. These were the only two operational steam locos at the time (along with D5032 and the DMU.). Leanders trains were seven coaches but, at the time, you could only run round six so the down train stopped at the inner home, the loco detached and ran into the station. Antwerp then came onto the train and hauled it into the station. This happened with each train and was a far as Antwerp went in its days service.

 

The nationwide steam ban is irrelevant. Its up to the railway to risk assess the hazards and make a decision based on their circumstances. At the K&ESR we havent been running steam engines on passenger trains since early June. The photo (DJ Bray) shows the state of the fields on Tenterden Bank yesterday. Like most rural areas Tenterden only has a retained fire brigade, backed up from the big towns 40 mins away. its not really up to enthusiasts to criticise the decisions in my opinion