Full-steam ahead for line which survived Beeching

As travellers well know, times change on the railway. Fifty years ago, the Government had no further use for one of the loveliest routes in the country, much of the track was torn up, and few expected to see steam billowing across the North York Moors ever again.

That was to reckon without the mix of enthusiasts and professionals who rebuilt the line and who tomorrow will gather in Whitby on a significant anniversary of the Beeching cuts and toast the future and renewed interest in rail travel.

On March 6 1965, the railway between Grosmont and Rillington, near Malton, was closed by British Railways under the infamous Beeching cuts of the 1960s which saw lines and stations closed. It was reopened by a group of dedicated volunteers in 1973 as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR).

Now fifty years on from the Beeching closure the NYMR is preparing to hold a special event tomorrow to officially mark the completion of a second platform at Whitby Station which has allowed it to increase the number of trains it operates to the coast.

Philip Benham, the railway’s managing director, said: “The British have always had a love affair with the steam engine.

“What we have got here is a combination of glorious scenery but also now that we go out to Whitby you also have the chance to go out to the coast.

“Going back fifty years ago it was all about contraction and pressure and what we are now able to celebrate is development and bringing increased trains,” Mr Benham added.

In 2007 history was made when the Golden Age of Steam returned to Whitby with one of its trains able to steam all the way from Pickering to Whitby. Previously volunteer drivers had not been able to use the national network to go to Whitby and the NYMR used shuttle trains run by other operators to complete the link.

Tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday engines reflecting those seen when the line closed will be running.

Two locos 61994 and 62005 will tomorrow work a special Pullman dining train to commemorate completion of the project to rebuild a second platform at Whitby station.

Mr Benham recalls: “on the last day of services back in 1965 ‘The Whitby Moors Railtour’ was jointly organised by the Stephenson Locomotive Society and Manchester Railway Society to run from Manchester over to North Yorkshire covering many lines also closing at that time.

“This became the last steam train over the route south from Whitby and was worked by the two visiting locomotives, 62005 and 3442 (now 61994) which luckily both survived into preservation and we are excited to bring them together to recreate this again throughout the weekend.”

To mark the anniversary an exhibition is also being held from tomorrow until October 1 at the Learning Centre, Platform 2, Pickering Station, of photographs taken by NYMR member Maurice Burns, when he was aged eighteen, on the day the line closed.