The LNER Encyclopedia

Would it be possible to recreate some of the NER using steam?
I was thinking about all these new build locomotives coming on stream and the NYMR extending its operations to Whitby. How could all these initiatives be taken to a more regional level?

There are plenty of non-electric railway lines in East and North Yorkshire which go through some spectacular scenery and would attract many more customers if an “old fashioned” service were reinstated, hence the NER idea. It would take a huge effort with a much more co-ordinated approach to loco production, servicing and management to make it work. It could start small but contracts could be won on some of these lines providing Network Rail could get them up to standard for locomotive hauled passenger trains.

Lottery funding could be accessed for seed funding to kick start the project. Initially there would have to be a combined steering body comprising the Heritage movement, local and national government, Network Rail and other relevant bodies. There is no reason why this could not be a pilot scheme designed to roll out across the UK at a later date if successful.

Does anyone else think it could be made to work?
Would it be able to turn a profit?
Should it be set up as a charitable trust or a limited company?
Most importantly, what engines should be chosen and built?
Carriages?
Staff training?
New corporate image and colour schemes or a simple reversion to known NER practice?

Some of the questions in my mind revolve around such issues or choices between weekend or daily workings as well as the possibility of dovetailing the operation in, or not, with the rest of the national network passenger provision.

Could sufficient up and down pathways be found on the ECML from Newcastle to Doncaster and return to allow access to these larger centres of population?

A line reconnection between Pickering and Malton would also allow easier access to York and the available stock and locomotives at the NRM as well as through trains from York to Whitby via the NYMR and Esk Valley lines.

The potential is enormous and would require unswerving purpose for a very long time from across a huge spectrum of organisations, each of which would have to contribute, time, expertise and finances.

Thoughts anyone?

John,

It would be feasible to reconnect the 6 miles from Rillington Junction to Pickering because the route was so flat with next to no earthworks and has seen little or no development. Some time ago the Local District Council (Ryedale) rejected proposals to build a supermarket across the trackbed as it enters Pickering from the South West. There is now a Planning presumption against building on the routes of abandonded railways.

So connection to the existing station is possible, although it would necessitate replacing two level crossings. There are at least two railway structures still in place that could then be used. One is the single road brick built Pickering engine shed that used to accomodate a 4-4-0 and a Sentinel. The other is a stone building now used by a hairdresser that perhaps used to be a Goods shed and maybe dates back to the horse drawn Whitby and Pickering Railway.

So through running from York to Whitby via Rillngton junction is technically feasible, but what we lack are the locos to haul the trains. We do have plenty of Standard Ckass 4 tanks of course, but there are no A8s, as yet there is no G5 and alas we saved no B16s. We cannot recreate a passenger railway with just a J72, a Q6, a Q7 and a J27.

Colombo

An alternative route for this has been suggested already.
Does the line need to be rebuilt on the existing formation?
Or can it be rebuilt on an entirely new alignment?
The reason for this is to pick up traffic from the other 2 attractions new to the area since the railway closed. Namely Eden Camp at Malton and Flamingo Land at Kirby Misperton.
The only downsides for this would be to locate a new junction with the York - Scarborough line between the bypass and Old Malton and the possible construction of a bridge over the A64.
Would the increased revenue be enough to warrant this new alignment?
Alternatively is a through connection required or could a Park and Ride suffice at the A169 / A64 junction at Eden Camp?

I reckon the biggest drawback (apart from funding) with any proposal to reconnect the sadly-truncated southern extremity of the NYMR at Pickering with Malton would be the level crossings this would necessitate (a similar observation applies in respect of reconnecting the NNR at Sheringham). As far as I know, it is the ORR's policy that only in exceptional circumstances will permission be granted for new level crossings.

I can't see what the big deal is with the Eden Camp museum (although there again, I think the NYMR "War Weekends" are in questionable taste too). When Dame Bullhead and I visited a couple of years ago it struck me as "a museum so boring, it should be in a museum".

Bullhead wrote:I reckon the biggest drawback (apart from funding) with any proposal to reconnect the sadly-truncated southern extremity of the NYMR at Pickering with Malton would be the level crossings this would necessitate (a similar observation applies in respect of reconnecting the NNR at Sheringham). As far as I know, it is the ORR's policy that only in exceptional circumstances will permission be granted for new level crossings.

I was just about to respond in similar vein. To quote a HMRI Inspector 'We aren't in the business of approving new level crossings.' Wherever the line has to cross a public highway it will now require a bridge, notwithstanding the fact that there may once have been a level crossing there. There are too many near misses on existing level crossings to enable any argument for their safety to be justified. Pickering would require a major re-modelling to enable a line to be built and, at a quick count, I reckon that the line would need 9 new road overbridges. How much for that? Re-opening to Rillington may be theoretically possible but I really do think that it will forever be a pipe dream.