North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Wonder if they will have to bring a loco on loan for this year given how tight they are for locos?

Chris

 

https://www.nymr.co.uk/about/memberships/become-a-member/

£60, £150 or £500 per year for an adult. Middle one is the best value if you plan to visit more than three times a year. I wonder how much uptake there'll be for collecting Moorsline from the shops, as there is no option to get it posted any more.

Personally, I feel the first tier is very overpriced for the benefits offered, certainly compared to offerings from other railways. The Bluebell and Mid Hants offer broadly the same benefits for £35 per year. I'd imagine a lot of people will look at the headline figure and say no thanks.

Yet the second tier is an annual pass for £150 including both galas. Ok, a lot more than the previous version of the annual pass, but still a bargain if you plan to visit more than three times per year.

 

It is rumoured that a Black 5 is due to come from Carnforth - 44932, presumably, as it is main-line equipped and so will be able to work to Whitby - if, that is, it does come at all!

 

It does make you wonder about the levels of accountability at the NYMR, with a repeated failure to deliver the locos needed for traffic is this just deemed as acceptable by the board?

If in other industries machines were not available for production there would be consequences for the mangers of said departments.

 

A couple of years ago, now, I was told by a well known NYMR engineer that his maintenance budget for the whole year was £5k/ loco. That doesn’t go far when you keep breaking springs.

 

Wow,

We get close to that on maintenance on the 4x4 vehicles in a year if we have a wet winter.

No wonder stuff gets run into the ground.

Chris

 

Given the rather demanding nature of the line, that feels very low.

 

If this figure is true, of course, it puts the figure of 10K+ rumoured as being spent on a staff jolly to receive an award we know to be nothing more than a self-awarded vanity project to boost the egos of the morons who "write" the new Moors Line (with an honourable exclusion of those who do write actual progress reports), who are presumably the same marketing morons who understand so little about their customers that they issue a diesel loco gala with no indication of which locos are planned to haul which trains. Is "moronic" too weak a term, though?

 

In no way am I trying to criticise anyone at the nymr in my post, and I understand the immense challenge of maintaining a large and varied loco fleet running 5-7 days a week with such steep gradients and mileage.

What I would say, though, is that it seems steam traction isn't seen as an 'expectation' but a luxury. I tend to follow the loco roster quite regularly. A few years ago, when I was visiting for a week, the Whitby steam engine was pulled from one day to the next. I asked someone in the MPD shop what was wrong with it, and the response was that it needed a washout.

At most railways, this wouldn't be a good enough reason to run diesel. (Obviously an engine needs washing out - that's not my point). Normally, it would be expected to have a spare engine. In the event of failure, in a tight loco situation, maybe one can't be available. Diesel will have to help. But I can't think of another line where a washout is just covered with diesel routinely. You would hope that the time of the washout was planned, and that another loco would be rostered to take over the next day.

I might not be right, but it just feels that the 'culture' is that delivering a steam service is not of much importance, and that it's accepted that some days it'll be diesel. (Obviously fire risk is another factor - but would those periods not be perfect for maintainance on locos?)

 

I might not be right either, but my impression of visiting the NYMR at least annually over the past few years is that the only priority is delivering the bucket and spade brigade to Whitby, by whatever means possible, and overlooking/overcharging for everything else.

The hardcore commercially-minded part of my brain understands this, the "I've done Whitby once, have zero interest in doing it again and suspect I'm not alone in that" part is monumentally frustrated by it.

 

Yesterday 44806 was very dead with a replacement spring needed and no spares, despite having two Black Fives on the line.
I would have liked to have ridden to Whitby on a steam hauled 9.20 from Pickering but this was a class 37.
92134 was rostered for the 10.55 departure from Pickering, all four coaches of it. It would have been nice,especially as 92134 was out the day before and still hot if it could have been put out on the 9.20am as far as Grosmont which was 6 coaches and normally a very popular train. As I had donations for the shed shop I drove to Grosmont to find that 45428 had been lit up but was just due to work one round trip the 14.40 ex Grosmont and the 15.15 return.

As usual No.29 was not in use despite the shorter train being suited to its abilities. It is a very frustrating engine to catch at work. One driver described it to me as being astonishingly good.

I am fully aware of the issues with keeping locos in service but it was a very disappointing visit.

Repton is now back on its wheels and close to being back out, some motion still to fit, cylinder covers to replace and a bit of paintwork to refresh.

Some of the volunteer shed staff said that they had heard rumours of a Riley Black 5 coming on hire but the date they were given is now past.

The temporary footbridge is an amazingly quick fix and well done to those who got it built.

 

Spot on with this SECR65. I used to volunteer on the line and about 60% of complaints were due to non-provision of steam "it's what we've come for" was such a frequent comment that it became routine. On days when the Moorlander was the only steam service hundreds of pounds in ticket sales just walked away.

Fire risk periods are getting longer and more frequent. We have known this since about 1990. The only people who failed to grasp this are the Park Street professionals. The return of 2253 will help of course but Dame Vera should have been a priority overhaul as an oil-burner long since.

Due to gross financial mismanagement in many other areas economy on operating costs is rightly a consideration but it doesn't seem to have occurred to our professional overlords that whilst a diesel may be cheaper it discourages so many visitors the overall fare loss far outweighs the costs of steam provision.

Regarding washouts it is blindingly obvious that biggest washout on the railway is the current management who have lost all confidence, credibility and staff support, paid and volunteer alike.

 

44871 and 45407 are at Fort William and 45212 is under overhaul (or not yet started) so unlikely I would have thought. Even if they had not gone to FW I would have thought the mainline programme would have kept them busy.

 

What are the estimated costs of oil that 2253 burns vs coal? I thought I had read the VOR reckon oil costs twice the price of coal per trip.

 

I wonder how much a wash out costs?

Tom

 

Short answer re 2253 is I don't know. My reasons for welcoming 2253 back and pushing for Dame Vera to be a second oil burner are down to steam provision in the fire risk season thereby increasing tourist revenue.

 

About £90,000 pa, plus pension and National Insurance.

 

I have had exactly the same experience with Repton over the past few years. As a child of the Hastings line, somehow it has always managed to elude me, despite it being a NYMR regular. Quite ironic how elusive it's been, given how easily I bagged the Hastings unit's once-in-a-lifetime trip up here to Scotland

Bet it won't be ready in time for my fairly imminent latest NYMR trip

 

To answer some of this . I'll start with the Black 5's. The two on the line are from different batches so have different size springs. It seems that 44806 has now broken four springs in as many weeks and has used up all its spares. I understand that more are on order, but meanwhile Ian Riley is loaning a spare from 44871. Talking of 44871 last week it was hoped that It might be coming to the railway but we know that a week is a long time in politics and preservation and that loco has since answered the call of Fort William.

I agree that it would have been nice to see the 9F on the 9.20 from Pickering (the turn I was on today) but the loco on the four coach 10.55 then works the Diner Train which seems to be considered more important than the Whitby trains.

Today's consolation for me was to have my Class 37 diesel piloted by 2253 on the 13.30 return to Pickering - its testing continues and I guess that eventually crew training will have to begin.

Peter

 

I'm not sure it's even that at the moment - it all seems to be about the diner. When we visited last year it was in the middle of a dry spell and high fire risk (Langdale fire was at it its peak) so everything was diesel hauled, except the diner which had 60163 on the front. Even over the past few weeks with the line severed, the diner has always had steam on it, even if that meant the service train had to be top and tailed diesels. Everything seems to be geared around putting steam on the diner and screw everything else.

Edit - confirmed above by @torgormaig