Yorkshire's Magnificent Journey

YORKSHIRE'S MAGNIFICENT JOURNEY
Delivering our £10 million future vision

Yorkshire's Magnificent Journey is our £10 million project to ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy our 180 year old railway for decades to come. Over the past 5 years we’ve been busy delivering 7 unique initiatives. The project concludes in 2024 and you can find out more below about what we’ve already achieved and what’s still to come.

Bridge Renewals

We’ve replaced three crucial bridges along our railway to ensure that we can keep the trains running well into the future. The new bridges have replaced ones that were over 150 years old and starting to show their age. Find Out More

Fuss Free Access

We’ve made improvements to help ensure that our site is as accessible as possible for all to enjoy and feel included. This includes new specially adapted accessible carriages, enhanced signage and accessible maps. Find Out More

Carriage Stable

We have built a new £4 million carriage stable at Pickering to provide better care for our historic carriages. The new facility provides covered storage for up to 40 carriages and is making our work to care for and maintain the collection much easier. Find Out More

Goathland Learning & Interpretation

We are busy developing our learning programmes and have launched a fresh new programme of activities to engage young people with the railway. We have transformed the former pigeon van at Goathland into a new learning coach and have launched a new app. Find Out More

Volunteer Development

We have invested in volunteering including creating new volunteer opportunities across our departments and providing training and support to help volunteer development. We have also created the Outstation at Stape - a residential centre providing high quality volunteer accommodation. Find Out More

Apprentices

Our new apprenticeship scheme is helping young people gain the skills they need for a future in heritage railways. Our apprentices are working alongside our staff in engineering and lineside conservation. Find Out More

Lineside Conservation

Our lineside conservation project is helping to care for the land either side of our railway tracks. Our conservation work includes habitat surveys, practical conservation tasks and the creation of educational resources to help our visitors understand more about wildlife and conservation. Find Out More

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) and contractors VolkerLaser have progressed into the final stages of the £1.26 million construction and installation work of Bridges 24 and 25 at Goathland.

This week saw the two new 40 tonne steel structures, each spanning 50 feet, delivered by road from VolkerLaser’s appointed painter’s facility in Sheffield lowered into place, which will carry the railway over Eller Beck, replacing the old structures after 150 years of service.

VolkerLaser started work at the Goathland site in December, with the team dismantling and removing the old structure and preparing for the installation of the new structure. The NYMR’s in-house Permanent Way team will relay the ballast and tracks ready for the 2022 season. 

The bridge work forms part of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s ‘Yorkshire’s Magnificent Journey’ project, a £10 million project to ensure future generations can enjoy the 180-year-old line. It has been made possible thanks to generous funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the European Union, NYMR’s Local Enterprise Partnership and kind donations from many supporters.

Tim Bruce, Director of Civil Engineering at NYMR, commented: “We’ve enjoyed a really good working relationship with VolkerLaser, who were able to step in following the collapse last summer of engineering firm Cleveland Bridge, which was originally scheduled to carry out the work. We are now able to press ahead on schedule to reopen on April 4th.”

Jim Mawson, Operations Director for Steel at VolkerLaser, said: This week represents the culmination of many hours of planning and preparation, and it is fantastic to see the new bridges being installed on time for NYMR following the removal of the life-expired bridges in January.

“The new bridges will allow NYMR to operate continuously for many decades, and we at VolkerLaser are proud to be involved, and to be included in the Yorkshire’s Magnificent Journey project.”

Find out more about Yorkshire Magnificent Journey