North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

That's not to say that other stations can't be developed and marketed as destinations, though, even Levisham - but perhaps not Newtondale Halt! In the past there were horse-drawn cart rides from Newtondale, there's an artist in residence living on the station, and perhaps even the besom-making business could be revived as an attraction - and possibly others. Guided nature exploration tours could be based there too. Grosmont has a large engine shed that could and should be made more of as an attraction.

 

We have stayed in both the pub and a rental in Levisham village, and hence used the train from there. I am not sure what you would have to do to make it somewhere worth spending a significant amount of time. It would be like Medstead on the MHR, and nice station with an good exhibition, but not somewhere to spend 60 or 90 minutes waiting for the next train. The loco shed is a stroll, I am not sure how many non enthusiasts would bother. I know having been there once I would never convince my wife it would be worth the effort again.

 

You obviously didn't read the last line of my post. Lots of people do make the effort to walk to the loco shed but I don't thin anyone would deny it couldn't be improved to become a more attractive destination, and it is one that advertises itself by being alongside the train as it slows to arrive at Grosmont!

 

The fundamental flaw in your argument is that the greatest traffic flow starts from Pickering and always has done. The traffic flow from Whitby is substantially less than that from Pickering so abandoning or even reducing trains from Pickering would be one big 'ouch'. Traffic originating in Whitby can largely be accommodated in one train at 10.00 but, perhaps that's because the next train, at 12.35, only allows you 20 minutes in Pickering so essentially just a train ride. That's largely as a result of reducing the service from eight trains/day to the current six (five on diner days).

 

I think that, relatively speaking, running on the six miles to Whitby is a cheap operation. There may be some additional costs but there are no infrastructure maintenance coasts to consider. I don't think even the additional costs are that huge. Yes,there's the necessary gubbins on the locos but these are one off capital costs. There are track access and station costs (at Whitby) and a requirement to man control whenever trains are running. Maintenance standards should be more or less the same although there isn't the ability to look at possible deviations on a risk assessment basis. i.e. wheel tyre profiles. The book of what you can and can't do is not penned by the railway.