North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Why is the cab still in anti-rust primer?

 

Three steam out today (23rd) with 2253, 44806 and 92134 doing the honours. 37264 & 37688 also out and about. At least, that's the plan!

 

Surprised to see that Steve. I take my hat off to any crews working in this weather.

 

Interesting that 2253 continues to come is as a late replacement. Its only just appeared on what is now V3 of todays timetable (I was looking at V2 just before I saw your post.) I wonder why it isn't being scheduled in earlier (shortage of trained crews?, still going through more thorough checks after each run before committing to the next one?)

Looking at the temps today and over the next few days I suspect 2253 is going to get some good mileage in.

 

Random thought. The footplate of a steam engine is one of the few places hotter than the outside world on days like today. Is there any difference on 2253? With the reason behind the conversion being able to run more during hot weather I wonder if there is any less suffering for the crews on that engine on those hotter days.

 

The lack of manual labour for the fireman would be a huge advantage, and to a lesser extent not having the fire hole doors open too.
I guess the rest comes down to insulation and ventilation.

 

Presumably on the lack of trained crews point, the railway will know weeks in advance who is rostered that day and whether they posses the competency? I appreciate there can be last minute changes though.

 

2253 hasn't been running in oil-fired form for very long. I don't suppose it is much different for drivers but not that many firemen will have had a chance to try it out yet. Perhaps one of shed staff is rostered to accompany anyone at any early stage of learning.

 

The more you have traction and / or route specific rostering, the harder things get - given the mixture of steam and diesel at the NYMR and the need for some trains to go to Whitby, I can imagine that crew rostering is a nightmare - and that is before you layer on the need to keep on top of expiring competence elements. (Your daily roster suddenly fails because someone hasn't renewed their working at height training and therefore goes out of ticket - that sort of thing).

That's basically how we bought Beachy Head into use. Once the workshop staff had done their running-in period and on the basis of that prepared a set of instructions, we had a week of crew familiarisation in which those rostered to go on the loco in its first couple of weeks got the chance to drive / fire the loco on non-service trains. Then, the early trips all had either an inspector or one of the workshop staff go out with the crew on their first operational day; and generally any crew who wasn't picked up in that process over the first month or so would, when they eventually got on the loco, go out with either an inspector or a driver who had significant experience on it. It worked well but obviously puts additional requirements on the inspectors (i.e. more turns to cover) and, where the person riding was from the workshop, it is a direct cost as they are taken away from other maintenance work.

Tom

 

I visited yesterday too and had a good day.

I agree, from Levisham to Goathland there seems to be lots of reduced speed sections. Unsure why.

They managed to keep on time though...ish. Lots of passengers, especially on the Whitby sets.

 

"Temporary" speed restrictions due to mounting numbers of defects with track and bridges, I believe. Victims of budget cutbacks.