North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Noting the interesting suggestion from @5944, that question also needs to be answered in terms of the (financial) cost of operating it and the (practical and financial) cost of maintaining it. Given the challenges that NYMR faces in maintaining the fleet in traffic, I suspect that's more finely balanced than may be assumed.

 

Errm....well I think the answer to that goes further back to @Steve's figures - he reckoned that a typical hire fee might be around £500 per day, maintenance costs are likely to be much the same whether it's running at the NYMR or a hirer's line, I'd have thought, maybe less at the NYMR because the suggested runs to New Bridge are going to be on a virtually straight line with a light load. Don't forget the hire fee will normally include normal light running maintenance at the hirer's railway and expense, over-winter work will be at the hiring (NYMR) organisation's expense, so the daily hire fee has to include that, which all makes me suspect that providing hire engines really is a mugs game.

 

If it is a mugs game how to people like SLL make it work? And yes I know they get some income from share sales and supporters, they all have an Austerity currently under overhaul.

 

I can't a

I'm not sure SLL are an ideal example, I can't answer how successful they are, other than to ask whether they do in fact make a profit at it. - As you say, they seem to rely heavily on share sales and donations and they are faced with the need to keep a far bigger collection than Swanage needs occupied, so they have no choice to hire parts out of the collection at times and bite the bullet and subsidise its use at other railways. Is that an ideal business model, though?

 

I did see those figures, and as an SLL shareholder, was willing to look the gift horse in the mouth. Ignoring the possibility of hiring out, my question then is about maintenance capacity at a shed which appears to be at full stretch.

 

Assuming that's from Pickering, New Bridge isn't really that far for £300 cost. It would probably be possible to do Pickering -Levisham. That's a 20 minute run which can be fitted in whilst a passenger train loco runs round at Pickering. You wouldn't get six trips in but with two people, one driving and one firing one way and swapping over at Levisham, that should work. It would have been even better if it had been double track to New Bridge!

 

I suspect the austerity situation is a bit of a red herring. The real litmus test of the 80136 deal will be what happens with the standard tank at the end of its current ticket, which I don't think is more than 2/3 years away?

 

On the Bluebell we have quite a reasonable trade in 1 hour footplate tasters which are just based at Sheffield Park, mostly within station limits. So you do lots of stopping and starting, obeying signals, in and out of platforms and sidings etc. Normally there is a bit of a sprint up Freshfield Bank (but not the whole way to Horsted) and back at the end just so you get some experience of going at speed.

They cost £340 based on one participant (driving) for an hour; we can fit five in a day (allowing for some changeover time between participants and a lunchtime PNB for the crew, who also prepare and dispose the loco) so £1700 for the day. If you use Fenchurch, you probably get away with about half a ton of coal per day, or maybe just a bit over, depending on the coal.

We don't normally run them when there is a service though, as the platform occupancy isn't available. Since they are essentially sold based on time, not covering a specific distance, it would be unfair to the participant if their experience were significantly affected waiting for late-running service trains, even if you could devise a plan to fit them in around such trains.

Tom

 

With 80135 coming on stream, I doubt much will happen with 80136. It will probably join 76079 & 75029.
IMHO, the NYMR needs to budget at least £800K a year for locos, £300K for coaches and £400K for infrastructure work, ideally more.

 

The Bluebell do it within station limits at Sheffield Park with a Terrier. One paying guest on the footplate at a time.

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/special/steam-footplate-tasters-2025/

The railway is shut two days a week most of the year now so could be run then. If services are running, then like you say, run to Levisham, but for an extra cost. Still gives each participant nearly an hour on the footplate.

 

I could be wrong but I understand that 80136 was withdrawn last month as it now needs some major boiler work. It sounds like another loco to be parked up in the back field with no plans for its future.

Peter

 

I knew 926 had started with leaking tubes and was being retubed but I didn’t pick up on problems with 80136 when I was on shed last week. Not surprised, though. With 92134 coming to the end of its ticket before much longer, things look as though they are getting tight for steam locos.
I wonder if they can hang on to Locomotion?

 

If money and space were no object you could almost have a shed just set up for repairing/replacing Standard 4 components with that many in the same place!

Seriously though you'd think there must be some sort of time saving by just moving on to the next Standard 4 when one was outshopped rather than swap those people to a different class. I know there are obvious differences between these three types of Standard 4 but if you've just worked on one it must be quicker to learn the quirks of the next Standard 4 and check through repairing and replacing the relatively similar components than moving on to something else from a different type/class/generation altogether. Or is that just rose tinted spectacles on my part?

 

wasn’t it reported that it has numerous broken firebox stays and bulged firebox?

 

I find it a bit odd for a financially struggling railway they are using the biggest loco to bank Scotsman, wouldn’t the Lambton tank have been a suitable more cost effective option?

 

I can’t speak for the NYMR, but I know when FS visited the Bluebell, we aimed to have a spare loco in steam in case of any failure. That loco had to be capable of substituting for any train, so needed to be able to pull the heaviest train in use on the day (and possibly a failed loco as well) - hence being a large one.

I don’t know what the NYMR operational plan was, but I can easily imagine they made a similar decision to ensure they had a large loco as a substitute; and from there it is not much of a leap to also use it as a banker if you deem one to be necessary. In other words, the question is not “what’s the optimal loco to be a banker?” But “what is the optimal loco to be a banker and also an in-steam replacement for any failure”.

Tom

 

There was a report elsewhere (wnxxforum.co.uk maybe) over the weekend that said the 9F worked Pickering - Grosmont on the middle trip, I assume to avoid the double run round at Pickering and again at Grosmont and to try and catch up some of the late running that appears to have affected nearly all services.

 

The 9F worked through to Pickering (and not for the first time) on the rear of the first train yesterday (Sunday) and so led the consist back from Pickering, but did not come through on the later trains. Fortunately the weather has been pretty mild so far this autumn so train heat has been less of an issue than it might have been otherwise the 9F might have seen more use - the A3 cannot supply train heat when working in reverse.

Peter

 

Crikey- where was that reported?