An actual trip report from me!
I thought I’d report back on the general going’s on over the last couple of weeks…
We headed off on the Monday to Whitby via a stopover with some family in Quorn near Loughborough. One mild hangover in the bag we then found ourselves in Whitby on the Tuesday afternoon (28th June) where we’d rented an Airbnb type place for three nights.
It wasn’t quite what I was expecting as it was basically a flat in a modern housing estate quite a way out of town. However it was clean and really comfortable plus a taxi back up the hill from the town centre was only about £5.80 which was fine.
A battle with NYMR website then occurred before I gave up on it and bought two tickets to Pickering for the next day over the phone.
Whitby:
It’s really nice isn’t it? I mean I had been there for the day before once but I couldn’t really remember it and it was a long time ago. I loved all the activity, the boats, the scenery, the pubs, the seagulls (I know they’re ruthless b******s but I love that about them
), OK one of them did drop a passing bomb on my jeans but I was on holiday and I just didn’t care! The fact that that same seagull had just flown away with a really cool looking guys battered sausage did help with my not getting too annoyed to be fair…
“Mummy! The seagull’s taking me!!”
Trains. That’s what we’re here for…
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Ok, well loads of you have probably been on this line but I don’t know if you’ve ever driven there from Exeter? It’s a very long way! I’ve been hankering after a trip on the line for years and years and I finally got to do it including the NR Esk Valley bit.
It didn’t disappoint…
Basically we had the ex Southern S15 - 828 from Whitby to Goathland where we went for a walk and had lunch in the village. I used to watch Heartbeat back in the day sometimes and it was lovely to see the real place and how it all sits in the landscape.
The North Yorkshire Moors was increasingly feeling to us like Dartmoor but on steroids. Quite similar but bigger and much quieter (obviously we did this trip before the summer holidays though so it will no doubt be much busier soon).
Rather than banging on about the steam trip I put all the clips of the S15 as well as a few taken from the lineside the day after on this video. If you’re not interested in steam then you can skip it!
The plan was that after the steam we’d have then picked up 37264 from Goathland to Pickering, then a mooch around the town and a quick pint in one of the two pubs recommended by
@DarloRich before taking the S15 back to Grosmont which would then have been replaced by 37403 for the bit back to Whitby.
Yep that was the plan.
37264 turned up for a slightly plodding trip to Pickering (lovely station, lovely town), both the pubs were shut, plus the S15 had failed in the afternoon due to a broken spring…
A fairly late 37403 eventually rolled in and took us all the way back to Whitby.
That wasn’t the whole story though.
What followed was one of the most storming runs I’ve had on a preserved line for a long while and the memories of belting out of Crianlarich behind the same loco in the same livery 32 (argh!) years earlier were more than alive as the sun came out and the beautiful scenery passed the windows. Mrs C was also loving the thrash and we were able to enjoy it with a couple of beers because we’d walked to the station at Whitby earlier.
Here’s a video (which I see our man
@47403 has already commented on. Thanks Mickey!):
So that was that. We did a boat trip afterwards and headed back to the apartment. I loved the NYMR, we’ll definitely do it again at some point.
The day after we did a big walk around Goathland taking in a waterfall and then back up the incline before spending a bit of time having a picnic by a stream and watching the trains going by.
Where next? North or West..?
Have van will travel, so even though we’d originally thought of heading north towards Durham, Newcastle and maybe even Northumbria we’d ended up buying a book of maps and walks in the Yorkshire Dales (it was £1.50 in a charity shop in Pickering).
It looked tempting, so with a few more bits of advice from
@DarloRich we decided to head that way instead and maybe do the stuff further north next year.
Now I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Yorkshire but it’s big. I mean
really big!
The next few nights were spent wild camping in various remote places.
In this order:
1) Overlooking Robin Hoods Bay.
2) In the middle of the North Yorkshire Moors near a pub called The Lion Inn - Blakey Ridge.
3) Underneath Pen-Y-Ghent (yes the one 44008 is named after) via a visit to Ribblehead Viaduct.
4) In a really pleasant pub carpark at Malham after walking around Malham Cove and another waterfall.
5) Very high up on top of the moors near Settle.
We barely saw a soul at the places we camped (although there were a lot of sheep) and the scenery was absolutely amazing. I’m so glad we went over that way and while I’m at it thank you to everyone who gave us advice. It was very much appreciated and useful.
Here’s some photos.
An sheep:
I asked my other half to take a picture of me looking like I was holding Ribblehead Viaduct up. Ok I know I didn’t quite get the perspective right but then taking this photo, telling me it was great and then laughing for fully ten minutes about it was actually rather hurtful I thought…
This was a fantastic camping spot somewhere south of Clapham station near Settle. The photo doesn’t do it justice but we were so high up and you could see for miles:
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
The fact that we would be passing another railway that I’d never visited was of course purely incidental (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).
Again another fantastic line. It just oozes history and character and despite only being five miles long it’s got a bit of everything.
Obviously all the connections with the original Railway Children film give it an extra layer of interest as well.
I did a wee video of the trip on the line, I’m no Steven Spielberg but if you like the sound of a little BR 2MT working hard then this one is for you.
Many thanks to Mister
@Iskra for his very useful advice on how best to do the line. It was also lovely having a bit of lunch in the ever so beautiful Haworth after a walk up the hill too.
An excellent railway that I’d highly recommend.
Phew nearly there.
York
On our way back home we visited my stepbrother and family for the night in Leeds and then headed over to York for our first ever proper visit to the city. What a place.
It was baking hot but so beautiful with all the medieval streets, York Minster and the old shops. Some great bookshops too and would you believe it? It’s even got a railway museum! I mean who knew?
This is (although not currently) a very fast locomotive that’s apparently named after a duck:
This is a very old locomotive that’s named after a firework:
This a big whistling green old friend (D200):
And this is a beast that didn’t want to put the others to shame by being inside (D1023):
So that was our trip to Yorkshire. As I said it’s really big, and somewhat beautiful as well. Oh and they love a dry stone wall.
Don’t tell anyone but we both said that we’d be happy to live there. I’d obviously have to change my username to
Yorkshirey,
Yorkey oh I don’t know.
Maybe the artist formerly known as Cowley? It’s too complicated, we’ll just have to visit there more often…
By the time we’d been to see more family in Lincolnshire and also picked up one of the boys stuff from university in Cardiff we ended up doing 1100 miles in the van!
Thanks for reading.
I agree, about the 37 being thrashy, I was thinking the same watching your video earlier. You camped in some really stunning locations, I'm very envious particularly of those in the Settle/Ribblehead/Clapham area as I love it up there. That is a lot of driving though, hope you took it in turns!
The viaduct angle, yeah it didn't quite work but it just means you have a good excuse to go and do it again!
