92214 at Pickering

With excitement growing around England’s World Cup hopes, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has made its own ‘summer signing’ in the shape of a particularly large steam engine, aimed at strengthening its front line.

The British Railways BR Standard Class 9F engine number 92214, has just arrived on the moors and is expected to haul passenger trains from Tuesday 15 June. It will run throughout the remainder of the season.

The Class 9F 2-10-0 was the last in a series of standardised locomotive classes designed for British Railways during the 1950s, and was intended for hauling heavy goods trains over long distances. It is one of the most powerful steam locomotive types ever to have been built in Britain and one of the most successful.

This type of engine was often dubbed a “spaceship” on account of its huge bulk. A total of 251 such engines were built and the final one, engine number 92220 emerged from Swindon works in 1960 as the last new steam engine built by British Railways and was given the name “Evening Star.”

92214 arriving at New Bridge

There are high hopes that the new arrival will help to lure even more visitors to the heritage steam railway during the summer. Philip Benham, General Manager of the NYMR, said “As the last steam engine to have been built for British Railways, and one of the most powerful, the 9Fs always had a special following. In footballing terms, it’s rather like adding a top striker to our frontline. This engine has never before been in operation on our railway, and should add even more pulling power to what we have to offer. It will be with us until the end of October, and we hope it will help lure visitors to spend a good value day out with us, irrespective of what happens in the World Cup.”

Michael Portillo interviews Chris Cubitt

Former Conservative Minister, Michael Portillo, visited the Railway on Wed 9 June to film for his latest television series.
 
‘Great British Railway Journeys’ is a documentary series in which Mr Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country by train.
 
Having already enjoyed a successful first series, he visited the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to film for a second series which is to be broadcast on the BBC in the New Year.
 
‘Great British Railway Journeys’ sees him follow in the footsteps of the Victorian cartographer, George Bradshaw. 
 
Bradshaw created the world’s first book of railway timetables in 1839, making sense of the services offered by Britain’s 150 competing rail companies.  His yellow-bound guides were so common that to Victorians and Edwardians any timetable was known as “a Bradshaw”.
 
In making this second series, Mr Portillo started out in Newcastle, and went on to Chester-le-Street, South Shields, Durham and Darlington, before visiting Whitby and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. 
Travelling between Grosmont and Pickering, Mr Portillo talked to the NYMR’s Chris Cubitt, and with passengers.
 
The series finishes in Melton Mowbray

More pictures can be found here

A new facility on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway was unveiled on Saturday 5 June.    It’s a new Learning Centre, and it has been built on Platform 2 of Pickering Station.

The centre will enable the railway to realize a long-term ambition – and that its to run heritage education programmes for school pupils, college students and local groups.

It is a two-storey building comprising large classroom, purpose-built archives and a smaller reading room. The facility is to be named the “Reussner” Education Centre, in memory of Graham Reussner, the railway’s former archivist who passed away recently.

Amongst the guests were representatives from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Yorkshire Forward, – both organisations have provided substantial funding towards the project.

The Learning Centre is part of a broader “Train of Thought” regeneration programme at Pickering station.    A new Visitor Centre is presently under construction, also on Platform 2 and due for completion at the end of the year.  The third phase of development includes restoring the roof on Pickering station.

Following the opening, the railway intends to target schools in order to offer curriculum based educational programmes based on themes like ‘how do steam engines work’, ‘Victorian railways’, ‘wartime evacuation experiences’, ‘the history of rail transport’,  and ‘how do signal systems work.’

Pictures from the opening of the event can be seen here

Click to enlarge picture

A carriage which has not carried passengers for 50 years has arrived at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It is owned by the L.N.E.R. Coach Association which restores the vintage carriages which run on Britain’s most popular heritage railway.

The teak bodied and panelled carriage, No. 23896, was built in 1935 by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon company to a design of Sir Nigel Gresley, arguably Britain’s most foremost locomotive and carriage designer.
The carriage is an eight compartment vehicle with a side corridor. Each compartment has a separate door. It ran throughout the 1930s, the war and the austere 1950s until it was withdrawn from passenger-carrying service in 1961 after 28 years use.

However, instead of being scrapped, it was earmarked to become one of BR’s most secret carriages as it became part of the Easter Region Control Train. The government had ordered all regions of British Railways to make provision in case of war to ensure it could operate the railway system if the headquarters’ office were put out of action. Each region would have a 4-coach train which could be shunted onto a remote branch line to become the railway’s control. These carriages were converted to form a generator carriage, telecommunications, office and stores.

23896 was extensively altered internally, given a special number – DE321008 – and was painted black with windows whited out. It was kept securely locked and out of public view at Doncaster Carr locomotive depot.

The years rolled by until 1979 when the government decided that all these secret carriages could be dispensed with. The world had moved on – and the carriages were seen as obsolete compared to modern air-braked rolling stock.

Railway preservationists has a field day and many of the 16 Gresley-designed carriages were snapped up. DE321008 was bought by Resco Railways but in 1984, ownership passed to the L.N.E.R Coach Association who moved the carriage to store at Carnforth. A rise in rent has seen this remarkable survivor moved to Pickering where it is to jump the restoration queue in view that it is externally restored in varnished teak.

It will be restored to as-built condition with number 23896 and the LNERCA hopes to have it carrying passengers once more in time for its 80th birthday in 2015.

Visit our online shop and find a wide range of gifts books and souvenirs, plus see our new selection of  ‘Unusual and Found Objects’ where you will find a number of curious items that have found their way into the retail office for one reason or another. We don’t like to see anything going to waste, so have gathered everything together here for your perusal, and aim to raise more money for the Railway in the process! It’s an ecclectic collection of found, donated and retrieved items – from unexpected nostalgic pieces to more modern thingamygigs, and regularly updated with ‘new’ items.

Don’t forget that you can also purchase Gift Vouchers online too! 

Visit the shop at: http://www.nymr.co.uk/shop.html

Eric Treacy and Team

Thursday the 13th May 2010 is likely to go down in the history books of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway as a very good day.

For it marks the return of one of Britain’s much loved steam engines – 45428, which is named after the former Bishop of Wakefield, Eric Treacy.

This ‘Black 5’ engine returns to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway after an absence of 11 years. This is how long it has taken to complete the £600,000 restoration programme that has given the engine a new lease of life.

The engine will haul its first passenger service on the Moors at 1330hrs from Grosmont to Pickering and back. But before it does, the unsung heroes responsible for Eric’s restoration will take the opportunity to have a group photograph in front of the engine, in time-honoured tradition, to mark their achievement.

Eric Treacy leaving Grosmont Tunnel

The timing of the return of this engine couldn’t be more fitting, as it marks 32 years to the day since the former Bishop of Wakefield died of a heart attack whilst at Appleby station on the Settle & Carlisle line, waiting for a rail tour.

Bishop Eric Treacy made a name for himself as a prolific railway photographer and his work features in numerous books. The Treacy collection of some 2,000 railway images is housed in the National Railway Museum in York.

The return of this locomotive is also fortuitous as it helps to bolster the line-up of engines in operation at the final weekend of the Railway’s Spring Steam Gala. The event, which has run over the past couple of weekends, has been hit by a spate of rotten luck in recent weeks leading to several engines developing mechanical breakdowns. Consequently the Railway’s line up of steam engines has been severely depleted.

Eric Treacy entering Pickering Station

Philip Benham, General Manager of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, said “The return of Eric Treacy into traffic must be a case of divine intervention! It strengthens the line-up of engines we so badly need for a Gala of this kind.

“We have struggled in recent weeks to deliver the experience expected by our passengers because of the shortage of the all-important steam engines. As a result of the hard work of our staff and volunteers at the Grosmont engine sheds, this splendid engine will be pressed into service without further ado and will join another icon, the A4 Pacific engine “Sir Nigel Gresley” which is also making a return this coming weekend following comprehensive repairs.

“Along with a number of other engines, there will be plenty to see and do over the weekend. With fair weather too, we hope to get back on track and give our passengers a great day out, and an exciting

Eric Treacy

summer season ahead for all our visitors.”

….. except, please can you come back in five years’ time!
A unique Victorian carriage, the oldest restaurant car surviving, has found a new home on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

No. 189 was built at the Great Northern Railway’s workshops at Doncaster in 1894 as a Restaurant Third Open. This means it was for third class dining passengers and was an open saloon. It is known as a clerestory coach as it has the raised roof profile – see image – which lets more light in – a common feature of Victorian carriages.

In 1860, the three railway companies which ran services between London and Edinburgh – the Great Northern, North Eastern and North British established ‘East Coast Joint Stock’ to operate throughout and from this came the famed ‘Flying Scotsman’ departures from London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley. And so the famed railway letters ‘ECJS’ were formed.

This carriage – fitted with gas lighting – survived in passenger use until withdrawal in 1927. The body was then sold to a farmer at Holme on Spalding Moor between Selby and Driffield. There it was used as a piggery for over 60 years! A preservationist then bought the body in the 1980s and began its renovation. It later passed to carriage restorer, Stephen Middleton at the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway near Skipton. He was then approached by Doncaster College who wanted it for a classroom but there was a change of heart and the group who restores the teak-bodied carriages on the Moors Railway, the LNER Coach Association, stepped in earlier this year and secured it with the help of an acquisition grant from the PRISM Fund (Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Material, part of the Museum, Libraries and Archive organisation).

The LNERCA which is renowned for its quality restoration of carriages (those which were hauled in the 1930s by such famous locomotives as ‘Flying Scotsman’ and ‘Sir Nigel Gresley’, the latter based on the NYMR) plans to renovate the interior, installing wiring but using replica gas lamps, electrically lit. A larger job is to shorten a 61ft 6ins carriage underframe so that No. 189’s body can be married up to it. This will allow the fitting of gangways so that passengers can walk through from other carriages into this Restaurant Car.

The LNERCA has photographs of the original interior which includes ornate seating and curved luggage netting above the seats. All these will be fitted in due course. So, if you can wait five years, you can enjoy the famed Moors Railway cuisine amid the magnificent Newtondale scenery, seated in a carriage seen by Queen Victoria and used extensively during the Edwardian period between the English and Scottish capitals

Click for larger image

Two tourist attractions have teamed up to give visitors to the moors and the coast a unique experience. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has joined forces with the Northern Star Steam & Motor Carriage Company to promote the glory days of steam.

Over the winter months the North Yorkshire Moors Railway stepped in with a sponsorship deal enabling it to advertise its heritage steam railway services on the sides of “Elizabeth” – a 1931 Sentinel DG6P passenger steam bus that carries people round the town in the holiday season.

The Railway sees this as a great way to promote awareness of its services from Whitby, whilst providing funds that will help in the maintenance and running costs of the world’s only road steam vehicle in daily operation.

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“Relive the glory of steam” is the slogan on the front and back of the steam bus, and it is pertinent to Whitby, which benefited from one of the very first railway lines in the country, the Whitby-Pickering line, when it was introduced back in 1836 by George Stephenson, and later modified for steam transport by the railway king, George Hudson, in 1845.

Coincidentally, the owners of “Elizabeth”, Vernon and Viv Smith, are no strangers to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Both were involved with the heritage steam railway before embarking on their own business. In fact Vernon was the driver of the “Hogwart’s Express” at the time the first Harry Potter film was made, with filming on the railway at Goathland station.

This is the third year that the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has been running heritage steam services in and out of Whitby on the national network and last year the Railway enjoyed a bumper year, with 350,000 visitors, making it not just the UK’s most popular heritage steam railway, but the world’s.

Click for larger image

Phil Bustard, the Marketing Manager for the NYMR explains: “One of the major factors in collaborating with Viv and Vernon is to raise awareness of the fact that Whitby does have a steam railway heritage. We’d like to see more visitors to Whitby enjoying those glory days of steam, enjoying the vintage bus ride and taking the train and using it as a gateway to the North York Moors. Advertising our services on an iconic steam bus, with first hand knowledge of what we offer from Viv and Vernon, was an opportunity too good to miss.”

Last year “Elizabeth” attracted 45,000 passengers. The steam bus tours are accessed from the bandstand by the pier. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway operates daily services, and now links Whitby with Grosmont, Goathland, Levisham and Pickering.