Every Last NYMR Station

Stuart • Oct 09, 2022

Gallery showing my photos from Every Last Station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is a now heritage railway that runs between Pickering, Grosmont and selected services continuing through to Whitby. The heritage line has always been high on the to do list due to my growing up seeing the line on Heartbeat, The Royal and Goathland station featuring in the Harry Potter movies. 

A little history...
The line first opened in 1836 when it was known as the Whitby & Pickering Railways. It wasn't until 1845 though until the first permanent stations we're built along with other structures along the line. These remain in situ today! This work was carried out by the York and North Midland Railway after they acquired the line. They were also responsible for the opening of the line south of Pickering which directly connected the line to York and beyond!

In March 1965 the line through Pickering to Whitby fell victim to the infamous Beaching Axe. The last passenger train ran on 6th March 1965. Freight however lasted just about over a year until July 1966. Thankfully though, for all of us, this was not the end for the line... In many ways, it was only the beginning! 

In 1973, after the purchase of the line from British Railways and the permissions to operate, the line saw the return of passenger services began. These ran under the name known today, The North Yorkshire Moors Railway. To start with these services only ran between Pickering and Grosmont due to the NYMR not been a licenced company to operate on Network Rail Lines. This changed in 2007 when services we're able to run the full length from Pickering to Whitby. Daily services between Pickering & Whitby increased in 2014 when Platform 2 at Whitby was reopened. 

The Stations...

Pickering:

We start the journey at Pickering which is now the terminus station on the line. The station has been restored to its 1937 state thanks to some help from the Heritage Lottery fund. The station houses a ticket office and a fantastic little tearoom that does some great sandwiches and cakes (confirmed by me!) In early 2011 the NYMR fitted a replacement roof to the station. This replaced the roof that British Rail removed in 1952 due to corrosion.

Levisham:

A small country station that is between Newton-on-Rawcliffe and the village the station is named after, Levisham. A now fully renovated lovely station that serves some lovely walking locations. Infact, I did the walk with Charlie (A NYMR Volunteer) from Levisham to the next station down the line...

Newton Dale Halt:

This is a lovely little rural halt that is in the middle of the woods. Charlie and I had a nice walk along the access track through Cropton Forest to the station. The station has benches and picnic tables to sit back and relax at while awaiting your train. Should it be raining there is also a decent sized shelter. Newton Dale Halt is the only request stop on the line. Returning here is on my list of things to do next year... I mean who doesn't want to request a steam train to stop?!?! Sadly, the day I visited was during a heatwave and there was a steam ban in place across the country.

Goathland:

Or maybe you might know it as Aidensfield or Hogsmeade? Yes, this station is the station where they filmed Heartbeat, Harry Potter, All Creatures Great & Small amongst others. A lovely station that has great looking Tea Room which is located in a recently refurbished goods carriage. The station is in a great location allowing easy access to the lovely village where you could go for a pint at the Aidensfield Arms (actually called The Goathland) or if you would rather there is several walks up on to the moors where you could walk to the next station along the line (on my list of things to do!)

Grosmont:

This is where the North Yorkshire Moors Railway joins to the Esk Valley line which is part of the national rail network with services operated by Northern. The station is a rather lovely station with a deceiving looking manual level crossing (It's actually automatic controlled by the signal box). The village appears to be lovely and is somewhere I will definitely be returning too when I do the walk from Goathland over the moors. I might even look to stay at one of the several B&B's that are in the village.

Whitby:

The end of the Esk Valley Line and also the end of the North Yorkshire Moor Railways. The station to be honest compared to the rest of the stations on the NYMR is not all that impressive. That said, to be honest it might be amazing, every time I visit it is always so busy I have never been able to have a proper look around to take it in! What I do know is Whitby is an amazing place to visit, and I highly recommend you do!

My final thoughts

My final thoughts of the line are that it's quite possibly one of my favourite Heritage Line in Britain, alongside the West Somerset Railway. Every station on the line is a delight and every view in between the stations just leaves you staring out of the window in awe of the scenery.


If you want to visit this wonderful heritage line (WHICH I ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO!) then I recommend you visit www.nymr.co.uk where you can see much more information. Although this season is coming to an end for normal services. There is still some Santa Specials should you want to take the kids and family on a unique Christmas trip! If the Santa specials are not for you, take a look at the page and start planning your own trip for next year!


I will leave you with some more photos from the scenery between the stations on the line.


Thank you for reading and I hope your inspired to visit the NYMR yourself at some point :)

All photos © Every Last Station.

Reuse only by permission.

DAY 3 Look back - Walking the scenic railways of Wales

by Stuart • 21 Sept, 2024
Day three of the walk saw me starting nice and early at Llandudno Junction. With one simple aim, to get as far along the Conwy Valley as possible! Betws-y-Coed was the minimum target for the day. On this day I was joined by KD ( @roadsignreporter over on YouTube ). Walking to Glan Conwy was easy enough for us both, I kicked myself that I hadn't pushed myself the day before! Blooming beer! After Glan Conwy it was time for the first of the many hills that Wales was going to throw at me during this walk. We had to head up the steep hills to avoid walking along the very busy footpathless A470. You can see the scale of the diversion on the Strava map at the bottom. Things improved at Tal-y-Cafn when we arrived at the lovely station. Had a good chat with the Network Rail level crossing staff there who refilled our water bottles for us. After this we headed across the fields and along the B5106 which we would follow mostly until Betws-y-Coed. Only really leaving the road to pop to the required stations to walk too. We had a nice surprise at Dalgarrog when we came across the Dolgarrog Railway Society platform where we chatted with one of the members. They told us about the work they are doing with the site. Was a really nice break from walking. Between Dolgarrog and Llanrwst our pace slowed down a fair bit, I think this was down to the heat, and it became clear Betws-y-Coed was going to be the end point for the day! We reached the village and the road kindly dropped us off at the Spar shop and bakery so was able to stock up on some essential cakes and drinks. Shout out to the TfW guard on the train back to Llandudno Junction who kindly wavered the fare for the journey. Was much appreciated!

DAY 2 Look back - Walking the scenic railways of Wales

by Stuart • 21 Sept, 2024
Day two of the walk saw me walking from Bangor to Llandudno Junction. This day was a lovely walk mostly along the North Wales Coast Path. With getting ahead of schedule the day before I was able to relax a little today. So the target today was Penmaenmawr, anything after that was a bonus. On this day I was joined by friend and boss. Special mention to Ian, honestly without him keeping me on full pay while on these charity walks they simply wouldn't be able to happen! We stopped at the beach café at Penmaenmawr where comically we was counting out pennies to pay for our lunch as the café didn't accept card! While having lunch we looked at how far we would be able to walk. We set our target on Glan Conwy. We was going well following the A55 right until we arrived at Conwy where we went to a pub for a pint... After this we decided that with beer in us we wasn't going to be making it to Glan Conwy. Instead we slowly made our way to Llandudno Junction where we called it a day!

DAY 1 Look back - Walking the scenic railways of Wales

by Stuart • 20 Sept, 2024
Day one of the walk would see me walk from Holyhead to Bangor. This was not the original plan. The original plan was to only walk to Bodorgan. But upon reaching Bodorgan and just missing a train I decided to push on and just see how far I could get! Sadly on day one I was on my own that day. But that was probably a good thing, I don't think many would of approved of walking 32 miles!

Stations to visit: KILDALE

by Stu • 28 Apr, 2024
Kildale station is located on the very scenic Esk Valley Line that runs from Middlesborough to Whitby. From the June 2024 timetable change the station will see 8 trains per day, 4 in each direction! Although this is a limited service it does give you the opportunity to do some exploring of the area.

Afternoon walk with Bailey

by Stuart • 27 Jan, 2024
I set of on a walk with my sisters dog and headed for the disused canal from Kendal. I followed along disused canal to the village of Natland. I then swapped the disused canal for the river. After following the riverside path, I came across a footbridge that I had planned to use, annoyingly it was closed! Annoyingly I was planning to use this footbridge, due to this there was a lenghty diversion. Thankfully the diversion wasn't a total waste of time, I was able to walk through the beautiful Sizergh Castle and then head back up to my original route plan and headed to Helsington church and view point. After spending a little time chatting with my Dad (who's ashs was scattered there) me and Bailey then headed up to Scout Scar before setting of back down towards Kendal. Upon reaching the River Kent I decided that my feet was still feeling good and I headed back along the river to Hawes Bridge. I then headed up into the village of Natland and then up to Oxenholme where my walk came to an end!

The Northumberland Line

by Stuart • 21 Jan, 2024
A blog about the new Northumberland Line that is scheduled to start opening in the Summer of 2024.

Walking the Great Western Railway - Day 4

by Stu • 06 Sept, 2023
This walk was a tail of two halves! The day started with walking through Reading suburbs and then through the city centre. Things mid morning took a positive turn as we headed to the The Kennet and Avon Canal which I then followed for the remaineder of the day. Only hopping away from the canal to go on to station platforms. A very enjoyable walk, even in the scorching heat! Stations visted today was: Reading, Reading West, Theale, Aldermaston & ended the day at Midgham. By walking between Aldermaston and Midgham I actually have managed to get a station ahead on my plan which can only be a good thing as I head down to the more difficult reagions of Somerset & Devon next week. Until tomorrow :)

Walking the Great Western Mainline gallery - Day 3

by Stu • 04 Sept, 2023
Todays walk was a little bit of a tough one, mainly due to the excessive heat which is only going to get worse as the week goes on. Thinking there will be some early starts coming up to try and miss the worst of the heat! Today was a mixture of roads and walks across fields. Discovered there is some beautiful countryside between Maidenhead and Twyford. I strongly encourage you to take this walk! Stations visited today: Burnham, Taplow, Maidenhead and ended at Twyford. Was great to have Nick Badley along with me today. Make sure to check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@NickBadley . After the walk myself and Nick headed to Windsor where we met up with Coastway Will and had a Nandos dinner where the unlimited refils was very much used again and again! Until tomorrow :)

Walking the Great Western Mainline gallery - Day 2

by Stu • 03 Sept, 2023
Todays walk saw me starting at Southall and heading straight to The Grand Union Canal. We followed this for most of the walk today. Stations called at today was: Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Iver, Langley before finishing the walk at Slough. Was great to have pals Jack and Dave with me today. Laughed for the most part, especially when we got the wrong place for the London/Buckinghamshire borders. That video on twitter got filmed twice lol. Massive thank you to everyone supporting the event via donations to either/both: Donate to Samaritans: https://justgiving.com/page/greatwesternwalk Support me with the challenge: https://www.gofundme.com/f/GreatWesternWalk My photos from today are below. Daves photos from today can be found here on his Flickr photostream: https://flic.kr/ps/3ppCTV Until tomorrow :)

Gallery: Weekend Walking around Windermere & Oxenholme

by Stu • 20 Aug, 2023
Walk around Windermere:
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