North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Dying indeed, if the distinction between its and it's is so completely lost- or are you blaming that on AI?

 

Sorry @Drewry Car but this did make me chuckle. And yes, as a professional writer*, I've been hoist by my own petard in that manner many times

One only has to take a cursory glance at the BBC news and sport web sites (two words) to see how radically standards in British English have dropped over the past decade, long before AI was on everybody's lips. That's the globalisation (predominantly Americanisation) of the language, thanks to social media for you.

But you can't say anything because, apparently, it 'doesn't matter'. It's funny how poorly written words 'don't matter'... yet, when anybody gets numbers wrong, it does.

* Who is living the reality of losing my livelihood, thanks to every business rushing to use AI.

 

That's 'it don't matter'...

 

Sort of, as it was created by predictive text. Definitely guilty as charged though!

The disconcerting issue for me are the three typical responses to corrections..

"Does it matter?"

"Language evolves"

"Don't be such a Grammar N**i"

In other words, I am in the wrong for being right in their eyes. Doesn't stop me trying though!

 

I'm not much assuaged by that - and if I were booking, it is the type of thing that has made me empty my basket and say "screw them".

 

I was in Pickering today. Very pleasant weather and a number of families with young children etc, which was good to see. Thomas was dragged TnT by the gronk, the steam engine facing York. However, it wasn't that busy.

 

Footbridge news.

https://www.yorkmix.com/88k-contract-agreed-for-temporary-footbridge-at-grosmont

 

Sorry to take the discussion back a few pages but - the issue of whether Repton is suitable for the line is one that seems to come up repeatedly, and it seems to be by some distance the most divisive locomotive on the line. Some people insist it has no issues whatsoever and get quite defensive about it, whilst others feel it really isn't suited.

I don't have the expertise to know, except to say that I can think of a handful of occasions where it has needed assistance to get up the hill, usually during autumn - my perception is that it does generally have more issues with grip than other locos on the line, but I can't back that up with data so stand to be corrected.

I believe I'm right in saying that under the terms of the covenant of the loco to the NYMR, they cannot sell it. But does that prevent them from, say, hiring it out on a multi-year loan to another line to allow them to bring in something else?

If the rumours of another loco to support the steam fleet are true, it would make sense to hire from Carnforth given they've a handful that they can't use on railtours - 35018 probably less suitable, but a jubilee, 45110 or 44932 would be perfect.

 

Repton is an express passenger engine built for the Hastings Line. Long, heavy trains, at fast speeds. It's a powerful engine, especially for such a narrow loading gauge. But as soon as you take it backwards up a steep hill at 25mph, it can't do it. 4-4-0s backwards are notoriously bad. Like a lot of express engines it doesn't like slow stopping services and it doesn't like backwards. I've known a Bulleid stall and fail to restart hauling a 6 set (forwards) due to poor railhead conditions. To me that was ridiculous - but not what the loco is built for.

I don't know how legitimate the argument that crews in the area of the nymr don't know their way around a Southern engine is - but I suspect given that the S15 and the Schools have been up there years it doesn't hold much strength. Southern crews slip Southern engines. (I'm not suggesting that crews are at fault, though). It is a very hard job to keep an engine like Repton from slipping on heritage line operations. I don't think lack of power is the issue - just the hills and the backwards.

As a seperate point, as an 'outsider' to the nymr, Repton as an individual engine seems horrifically unreliable.

 

Promoted heavily by North Yorkshire Moors National Park

Be bad luck when the Pickering-Whitby trains do start they have to be diesel

 

I don't think there's a problem with Repton or it's reliability normally, normally when it struggles is when rail conditions are poor, and even Black 5s have been known to slip to a stand on occasion under such conditions. I don't believe it is particularly unreliable, either, tbh. I don't know what has been going wrong with it to class it as "horrifically unreliable", but it's coming to the end of its life before major overhaul, and one might expect more niggles to be coming to the surface.

 

This has been a growing problem in recent years. The re-commissioning of an oil-fired Dame Vera Lynn has been delayed far too long.

 

Do you mean 'Americanization'?

 

To be fair, it's only recently that having an oil-fired loco has been seriously considered at all, as fire risk periods have become more prevalent and longer-lasting and to a certain degree virtually every other Whitby service could be hauled by the S160 with a loco change at Grosmont, whether that involves a NR-registered steam loco or diesel. That looks like being the medium term solution, as I for one can't see the WD coming back into service for 3-5 years so in all probability there ill be a gap when neither of those locos is in service. The real question must be how the oil-fired fleet could be expanded. Assuming that locos with copper fireboxes are not well suited to oil burning- are there any more S160s in the UK, outside the CVR and KWVR that could be acquired? Or how about a Bulleid pacific?

 

It struggled for a while years ago because it needed tyre turning. After that it didn't seem to have too many problems. Due to its uniqueness and being so different to everything else based on the line, I think it's just one of those locos that's unfairly ended up with a reputation. Despite that, many, many years ago it gave me the fastest run up the bank I've ever had.

 

You want good marketing try this on the Pickering station stay and play event
Price: £3 for each child (£1 for each additional child) Adults FREE.

 

There are bits of 3 S160s that used to be at GCRN but I believe they were sold in the last couple of years. I think the idea was to make 2 good ones from the parts.
Bulleid pacific? Ahem....Hartland

 

I was thinking of those, but didn't know what had become of them. As for Hartland, @Steve has told that there are fears the family that own it will look to sell once is is completed - but I can't see the NYMR being in a position to buy it, so the only realistic hope is that of a wealthy supporter stepping in to help....

 

...... again.

 

I was on a Diner many years back and it slipped to a stand above Beck Hole.
The engine Nigel with Roger Barker at the controls.
Needed a rescuing shove to get it going.