Steaming at Grosmont

I'm back home again now, after five weeks away. You should have seen how my grass had grown!

It was a busy holiday packed with daily visits to see this and that, a lot of it not seen before, for this time I'd chosen some different sites for the caravan, and that put many new places within easy reach. If I say that I covered 2,800 miles in the car, and took 4,000 photographs, you'll appreciate that plenty of things caught my eye.

After visiting Thornton-le-Dale to see Mathewsons, the car auction business that stars in Yesterday Channel's Bangers and Cash series, and coming away with a souvenir apron, I decided to strike north across the North Yorkshire Moors to Whitby. On the way was a small place called Grosmont. A couple I'd chatted with over lunch had urged me to go there if I liked to take shots of steam engines. Well, I'm not a steam engine enthusiast - in the engineering sense, I mean - but I do like steam engines because they usually make a good photo. It's the photography that draws me in. So I said I would make a point of turning off the main road to Whitby, and exploring the set-up at Grosmont. 

I already knew there would be quite a bit to see. Grosmont is where the 'official' branch line from Middlesbrough to Whitby meets the preserved steam railway line coming up from Pickering. Both railways can take you onwards to Whitby station, each using their own platform there. Grosmont itself has two stations adjacent to each other, and you can freely and easily walk between them.

Turning off the road to Whitby, and descending towards Grosmont, I thought I would be lucky to see any trains at all, but a few good pictures of the stations there would still make the detour worthwhile. But as it happens, there was a train at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway station, waiting to depart for Pickering, and not one but two impressive locomotives in steam. How lucky! (But then I often am unbelievably lucky where things like this are concerned, far more often than seems reasonable) And there was a parking space at the side of the road (the only convenient one: more luck) close to the level crossing that the train would have to pass over. I parked, quickly got out, and made my way onto the best platform for getting excellent shots of the departure. I joined a small group of men, and got chatting to one of them, who had arrived only a few minutes before me. He was hiking across the Moors, just happened to be passing through, and had decided to watch the show. Another lucky person.  

A far as I could see, they were changing engines for the run southwards to Pickering. The green engine was being detached and then run through a tunnel to some kind of facility visible beyond. Waiting on the next platform was a black engine, which needed to run forward, switched to the correct line, and then be coupled to the waiting carriages. Then it would be on its way. 

So, much to see and photograph! There was plenty of chuffing and whistling, and plenty of steam. 

As ever, click on these shots to enlarge them.

The coupling was clearly going to take a few minutes, so I had a quick look at the adjacent 'ordinary' station. There was a footbridge which gave a bird's-eye view of both stations.

 

The 'ordinary' station looked decidedly plain and unglamorous in comparison with the NYMR one! And you got only diesels on that line. Hah.

Sensing that all was now ready for a stirring getaway, I returned to the platform, little Leica ready. And shortly afterwards the black engine got going, with all the puffing and chuffing and blasts of steam that a photographer could wish for. 

I've thought before now that although the passengers on that train would have had an experience, they wouldn't have seen the departure in all its steamy glory. Nor would they be able to watch the train puffing its way through the truly scenic moorland to the south. A passenger's view is so limited. You see only what a window can show you; and usually nothing of the engine, unless you get a glimpse on a tight curve.  

Well, show over. The hiker and I exchanged mutual congratulations on turning up at the right time to have all this free entertainment. We shared a farewell joke. We'd both spotted a board advertising job vacancies with the NYMR. 

A vacancy in 'Retail Catering'. But alas, no vacancies for 'Engine Drivers'! Presumably you had to serve a twenty-year apprenticeship, and then it was Dead Man's Shoes. Hey ho...