North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Quite amusingly following my earlier memories of Mr Barker's trials and tribulations with Repton on the 1 in 49, this popped up on my Youtube feed last night. Doubtlessly the majority of you have seen it before. Despite the obvious playing for the cameras every so often I thought the current incumbents of management could learn a bit from watching yesteryear.

Yorkshire Steam Film

 

Very nostalgic to see so many faces from the past, many of them no longer with us, and to see the railway when volunteers were valued and we had the last professional manager the railway has had, and it was prospering. What a contrast to now!

 

I think the question then is what is meant by 'local craft producers', and perhaps whether what they produce lends itself to repeat purchases. Easy enough if you're making artisanal sourdough loaves, but less likely for a bespoke nameplate for your house. I also think that the range of events that people attend as traders is wider than you might think. Off the top of my head, you could include weekly town markets, craft fairs, farmers markets, county shows, music/other festivals, niche events (e.g. Civil War reenactments), open days, etc...

 

It's still your (untested) opinion, just as mine is mine! FWIW, my view is that there is a "season" for many of the type of events you have cited, and the period NYMR should be looking at is outside the peak season. No matter, though, the NYMR's crack marketing team has sprung into action and has just announced the first of its programme of special events:

Beginners Charcoal Art Workshop

An introduction to charcoal with artist, Zoë Allen

Zoë is an artist, educator and curator whose work brings people and materials together in thoughtful, hands-on ways. She works with communities of all ages and creates, artwork, sculptures and installations using found and familiar objects, exploring how everyday things can carry meaning and spark new ways of seeing the world.

The Workshop
Zoë will guide a hands-on, creative drawing workshop using charcoal, starting with an exploration of the material’s unique qualities through mark-making and various drawing techniques.

You'll then apply these skills to create your own artwork to take home.

About the Workshop
A 2-hour session, with all art materials provided.

Pickering Station Classroom, Platform 2.

Hot drinks are available during your session, though food is not provided. If you’d like a bite to eat, our station Tea Room will be open and serving a selection of refreshments.

Booking a Place
Morning Session: 11.00 to 1.00 pm
OR
Afternoon Session: 1:30 to 3.30 pm

£30 Per Person (14+ years old*)

Book Tickets Terms & Conditions

and:

May half term fun at the NYMR



This May half term, families are invited to climb aboard for a week of excitement and creativity at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR). From 24-31 May, the heritage railway is hosting a range of family-friendly activities, including Lego building, creative art sessions, hands-on play, and birds of prey.

Children and parents alike can enjoy a full line-up of events based at Pickering Station, designed to spark imagination and celebrate 200 years of railway history. Highlights include:

Brickin’ It Workshops (24–25 May)

Budding builders can take part in Rail200 or Mini Engineer workshops from Bricks McGee, with exciting construction challenges to test their skills. Booking is essential and adult supervision is required - tickets are £5 per person (5+ years old).

I can see the cash tills exploding under the strain already!

 

Actually, that's the sort of thing the railway should be trying. Very little effort or expenditure, but an additional attraction for potential passengers to the railway. And if it keeps them on the railway rather than spending the day in Whitby, excellent. The timetable is better as well during half term with additional autocar services. Sadly, I think the high fares, very short notice announcement, diesel haulage and closure of the railway on Thursday and Friday are probably all going to conspire against the railway.

 

I don't disagree in principle - the more there is going on the better - but I don't think events like these are going to attract additional fares payers, and certainly not childless people or those with kids before or beyond Lego age. They are not answers to getting more people to come to the NYMR rather than, say, Flamingo Park.

 

I'm no fan of the current leadership, but this seems unnecessarily harsh. They seem targeted at a wide range of groups, and as a parent of young children, an event of this kind is precisely the sort of thing that can make decide to go to one place rather than another. It's not a lot, but it's better than nowt.

 

NYMR has always done large scale events well and thousands attend. It's that kind of vision that seems now to be absent. The small stuff is always welcome, but large events bring cash.
That the diesel gala in 24 made a good profit seemed a surprise to the CEO when she spoke at the AGM.
Nearly everyone I meet regrets the cancellation of Wartime Weekend. This event was enormous, hugely well liked, and I'm sure some form of 40s celebration would do well if focused on revenue generation. Sadly, the problems with additional costs seem to have scared off the management. Did it make a loss. If so, how come?
Today, does the railway have the carriages to cope with a large event?

 

I hope I don't sound like a stuck record, but I really want to see the NYMR succeed. I'm just worried that tinkering on the sidelines like this is not really doing much to make the difference needed, but if I am shown to be wrong, no-one will be happier than me!

 

Small steps - and my thought is that there needs to be encouragement to go from those small steps to something more and better

 

That's basically what I was saying on Monday. Anything that utilizes available space and brings in money is welcome, but these kind of things shouldn't be categorized as the main event. They should be extra. The bigger events seem to have got lost somewhere outside of the Steam Gala and the Diesel Gala.

In previous years I would have also agreed not much was needed to bring in customers during the main running season. But we aren't in those times anymore. The amount of empty seats says something is needed. Whether that be through more realistic pricing or giving customers something more for the money they are handing over, something needs to give.

 

Has anyone told the publicity people the railway is shut for two of those days?

 

Maybe there are plans to offer reading lessons for those who turn up expecting the railway to be open without having studied the timetable?

 

Good to see a railway making use of local resources (I understand there has been a charcoal surplus along the lineside recently )

 

https://www.nymr.co.uk/news/goathland-heartbeat-vehicle-rally-ner-autocar

 

They can't even link the correct timetable to the front page. In the half term bits on the website they are running the autocar as two extra paths (09:55 and 13:05 ex Pickering, 11:35 and 15:40 ex Grosmont) during Half Term. Yet the front page is linking to the Red timetable which makes no mention of it. This is just basics!

 

I'm struggling to work out how that Charcoal workshop integrates with the timetable, which appears to be the Red TT with Pullman that day.

If you start your day at Pickering and do the 11am workshop, you finish at 1pm but then have to wait two hours until 3:10 for a train, which basically allow you to go to Whitby and come back immediately the loco has run round. (There is a train in the timetable at 2:10pm, but that appears to be the Pullman on the day in question).

If you do the 1.30pm workshop, you can't go to Whitby afterwards - best you can manage is to get the 4:15 to Grosmont and return immediately upon arrival. You can't get a train in the morning before the workshop, at least not along the full length. You could go to Grosmont on the 9:20 and return ten minutes after arrival ...

If you chose to start your day at Grosmont, you simply can't get to Pickering in time for the 11am course. You can get the 10:35 Grosmont service which arrives at 11:40. You then have over an hour to wait until the 1.30pm course starts, followed by waiting another hour for the 4:15pm to Grosmont. You can't combine that course with starting / finishing at Whitby - you can start in Whitby, but can't get back.

Given that the course is also £30 (in addition to a potential £50 train fare), I simply can't see anyone doing the course and also riding the train - which is surely the point of adding in such events? It is simply not practical to combine the course with a train ride. At which point you have a very niche course with limited participants and where at least some of the ticket price must be going to the artist - if this event generates more than a a couple of hundred quid for the NYMR I'd be amazed. It's not really transformative but, more importantly, it is neither easily scalable nor is it particularly driving people to ride the trains. Perhaps at best you might bring some people to Pickering who like what they see and book to ride the trains on another day - but if so, I doubt you could measure it.

Tom

 

It's OK, you can do a search for "timetable" to find it.

Top results are "Two more visiting locomotives announced for our Diesel Gala!"; "S & T Blog - June 2021"; "MPD Engineering Blog - July 21"; "MPD Engineering Blog - September 21"; "MPD Engineering Blog - June 2023" after which I gave up ...

Tom

 

What a fantastic video, it should be compulsory viewing for the current Board and Senior Management Team. The comments from the Office Secretary (no glorified titles back then!) and the incoming/outgoing General Managers in the last five mins or so are particularly noteworthy.

 

It was similar with the February half term last year when 46100 visited. They were advertising various children's activities at Pickering during the week at certain time slots. From what I recall, none of them really matched up with the two trips running from Pickering each day. A great initiative but the execution was once again lacking. I seem to remember the ones that were doable before or after the train either involved rushing or far too much time waiting around.