North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Believe it was due to a derailment. All sorted now, services normal tomorrow.

 

Had a day out at the NYMR today, as mentioned the services were not going through to Pickering as there was a derailment - someone at the railway mentioned it was a tender being moved?

Bit gutted at not getting to Pickering but these things happen. Sadly 44806 failed today too- we ended up marooned at Goathland for quite a while as a result! 76079 was also running and in fine form today, had a bit of a chat with the crew on her who said they were well pleased with it, few snagging issues to sort but otherwise lovely.


Chris

 

It was Hartland's tender that was being moved as part of an engineering movement, limited to 15 mph max. I don't know the details of what happened..

 

Thanks for clarifying that,

Saw Hartland in the back of the NELPG shed, seems to have come on loads since I last saw it early on in the year, has a bit of a sentimental attachment as 34101 was the first loco I was invited onto the footplate of when I was about 12 at Pickering! I have a great picture of me sat in the drivers seat-I will look forward to its return and maybe see if I can blag the opportunity to recreate the picture 16+ years on!

Chris

 

Online bookings are now open for the NYMR Pullman Trains 2015 Programme (approximately 140 departures) here:

https://nymr.secure.force.com/ticket/

Steven

 

Hi there, a buddy and I have booked accommodation for the second week-end of your Spring Gala. Do love to see your locos working hard between Grosmont and Goatland, are there any other stretches similar. There isn't too much on the NMYR web site, do you guys have any "inside" info on visiting locos or intensive workings? We are travelling up from Hampshire so we hope to make pigs of ourselves.

Best Regards Paul.K

 

From Levisham up to Summit there is some six miles of uphill work on gradients that are rarely less steep than 1 in 100. The problem for photographers is getting there as it involves long walks and the fact that the locos are usually (but not always) running tender first in this direction. It's also heading north so the sun isn't in the best place. However, IMHO, hearing a loco work is far better in this direction.
No idea what is being lined up, loco wise.

 

Many thanks for the eyes up. Not a photographer in the serious sense but do like to see and hear the locos working hard.
Paul. K

 

I've moved this discussion to the NYMR thread in fairness to the Swanage.

Taking steam first. The NYMR needs four locos in service, one on washout, two on repairs and one on standby. There's also the times when a Pickering loco is being swapped where we have five locos in steam (which is quite frequent.) Experience indicates that, quite often, a loco is stopped for several days for unplanned repairs and, as I've said, the law of Sod means that locos never fail in ones.. As for the diesels, the Railway must have a N.R. approved loco on standby at Grosmont as a routine. It can't afford not to as penalty charges for late running can soon eat into the cash coming in. At the moment, that would have to be the Cl.25. If a N.R. approved diesel isn't available for whatever reason, then it needs to be a steam loco. The Cl.37 can't cover all the diesel diagrams so a third diesel is needed to cover for routine service and repairs.It also really needs a standby at Pickering because, if there is a problem at that end, it takes too long to get a loco from Grosmont but that can be the third diesel for much of the time. If you want to deliver a reliable service, that's what you need as a minimum and history hasn't proved it to be wrong.
It would be good to have a ninth one, as well!

 

I have to say that what you suggest Steve doesn't sound hugely excessive to me. The MHR is much smaller in terms of what is needed daily. Like the Swanage we usually have two steam turns (sometimes three when there is a pay and play or a freight or something - incidentally we and the Swanage have similar numbers of engine days with ours being around 440 per year ). We have had to cover this with only 3 locos in the past, but that leads to a lot of diesel replacement. Covering with 4 locos is acceptable, but relies on a very swift turn around of any repairs, and whilst this is arguably easier in some respects with a smaller fleet if the spare you need is on a X week leadtime you're stuck for X weeks. 5 locos means that you pretty much always have a spare. However, it has to be said that having six locos has meant that we can hire out one (or even two sometimes and for short periods) and accommodate sudden departures from operating condition without stress. I think that (assuming you're running 2 diagrams and around 400ish engine days sort of service) 5 is the sensible minimum number of steam engines. For each additional regular diagram add one loco, then adjust for local conditions, would be my thoughts. SO I get to a minimum of 7 for the NYMR with 8 being desirable.

Regarding diesels, I feel you need one more than the number you need roster on a regular basis plus a maintenance spare. We regularly need one, occasionally two and therefore we have three (actually four temporarily), but then we don't employ a fitter to look after them, and if we did I imagine we could loose the maintenance spare. Looking at your situation I would have thought that the ideal would have been four diesels. Pickering spare, Grosmont spare, Service train and spare for maintenance. None of the locos we use are less than 40 years old and maintenance is going to be a bigger and bigger issue. It wont be as big an issue as steam locos (thankfully) but heritage railways are going to have to get their minds around the need to undertake very significant refurbishment of the diesels that they use such as complete replacement of wiring. Few have done so yet. At the moment I don't think any railways are yet prepared to fund £100k + rebuilds of diesels, but that time is approaching, and the rules around purchasing new locomotives are pushing more operators to seek to return "preserved locos" to mainline service particularly class37s of late. This is going to make us more reliant on the older, smaller perhaps less reliable types in the future?

 

[QUOTE None of the locos we use are less than 40 years old and maintenance is going to be a bigger and bigger issue. It wont be as big an issue as steam locos (thankfully) but heritage railways are going to have to get their minds around the need to undertake very significant refurbishment of the diesels that they use such as complete replacement of wiring. Few have done so yet. At the moment I don't think any railways are yet prepared to fund £100k + rebuilds of diesels, but that time is approaching, and the rules around purchasing new locomotives are pushing more operators to seek to return "preserved locos" to mainline service particularly class37s of late. This is going to make us more reliant on the older, smaller perhaps less reliable types in the future?[/QUOTE]

As an active member of a diesel loco owning group I would suggest that maintenance is already a big issue for the locos that are used regularly. The investment BR made in batteries, brake rigging, cylinder heads for example is life expired now. More enlightened groups are already investing in generator and traction motor clean and varnish reimpregnation, rewiring etc. Our group has had three of its spare TMs fully overhauled, and we have been investing in other spares such as low hour cylinder heads, overhauling compressors, relays etc. In my opinion it is the solo loco owner and railway owned locos which are most at risk of a one way ticket to the scrapyard over the next few years as big ticket items fail for which money and spares have not been put aside for. Not too dissimilar to the steam loco which has been put through a couple of 10 year ticket overhauls and now the BR investment in fireboxes and barrels has finally run out and these require complete replacement which cannot be afforded.

Not too sure what you mean by smaller types being less reliable then 37s, the NYMR has had excellent service from its Baby Sulzers I believe and several railways rely on 33s. Fuel consumption is lower as well. Our 33 has run for many thousands of engine hours and miles similar to locos on the WSR and Swanage. The achilles heel for the small inline Sulzers is of course their BRCW bodywork not the actual working machinery inside. Like the rest of BRCW owners we are having to spend tens of thousands on the bodies alone exterminating the tin worms.



Brian

 

As said above the NYMRs Class 24 was putting in excellent service over the last few years, and kept having to be back into service, when we were short of locos for various reasons.
Now it is having long overdue work on it, the trouble with the Class 37 at the moment is no steam heat facility but that is still in hand and can't be far off now.

 

Just found this interesting cine footage on Youtube featuring the 1977 gala, with 2238, 2005, 1247, 4767, 29, and 2 in steam:

 

Many thanks for posting that cine film.
Paul.K

 

That film certainly brings back memories. I'd love to see 1247and the two Golden Arrow Pullmans back on the NYMR! The K1 is too infrequent a visitor these days today as well.

 

There's some more 70s footage here, this time covering most of the decade:



And some from the late 60s:

 

The railbus is the vehicle I'd like to see back on the line. As far as I can make out it has been out of service at the Colne Valley for some time, although I could be wrong about that.

 

Like 4767 in LMS post war livery

 

Believe the K1 is back in March for the 50 years since closing special event.

 

5428 has been running in the same livery since the Dads Army filming just before the Santa Specials. The change was applied very well but in a temporary manner, so I suspect Eric will be back to BR lined black by the start of next season.

Steven