Every Last NYMR Station

Stuart • 9 October 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.

by S Boyd 20 April 2025
The day started with myself meeting Rob and Jan at Machynlleth station before hoping into Robs car and driving to Tywyn. We decided to arrive in plenty of time as we knew there was a cafe at the station that had a reputation as been very good for a fry up. Given I love a good old fry up I was never going to turn down trying one of these out! I can confirm it was rather brilliant. A nice little surprise was that the fry up was under a tenner! We also got a free drink each as we chose to gift aid our ticket purchase for the trains that day. After we had all devoured our breakfasts we went for a little wander around Tywyn Wharf station before then boarding a train and setting ourselves in for the journey to the other end of the line, Nant Gwernol! Along the way we got to grips with the line, what the other stations looked like from the train, and most importantly, what the footpaths alongside the railway looked like. Footpaths later in the day would turn out to be a bit of a problem.
by S Boyd 11 April 2025
After hearing about the Steam Gala on the Llangollen Railway I simply had to see if I could make it work to visit. The day started at the awful time of 0645 with a train from Liverpool Lime Street to Chester. I hopped off at Frogsham on the way in the hunt of a cap in the Morrisons next to the station. Annoyingly thought he supermarket had zero mens clothing. So hopped on the next train to try my luck in Chester. Result, I got a cap! Hopefully this one lasts longer than this trip. I have a habbit of loosing hats! Aftert he great hat hunt I headed back to the station in order to catch the train down to Gobowen where I was meeting my good friend Rob. After the hellos we headed in car to Llangollen and started the great car parking space hunt which was followed by spending 10 minutes trying to work out how to pay for a car park ticket! After all that we headed down to the station and went straight to the platform. Couple of photos taken followed by boarding the first train of the day which would take us the full length of the line to Corwen station. We spent 20 minutes at Corwen before heading back to Glyndyfrdwy station and went for a short walk and took some photos. It was at this point we realised that every service on the line was running late. We boarded our third train and headed to Carrog where we alighted. Took some more photos and then went in search of a pub! The Grouse Inn to be precise. After a 5 minute walk we came across the pub and plonked ourselves in the beer garden with a drink and promply orders some grub! Was rather tasty! After this we headed back to the station, had a look around, bought some gifts in the shop and then headed over to the next train. On the way we asked a member of staff/volunteer what was happening with the timetable and their words was "the timetable is a work of fiction" so from this point we played it by ear with trains. The next stop was Berwyn which is quite possibly the best station on the line! The setting with the river next to the station was super and you simply couldn't stand on the platform and not be impressed! Given the timetable was completly out of the window we decided to just stay at the station and wait for the next train. This arrived and took us back to where we started: Llangollen. The line is a thing of beauty. The scenery was breathtaking, and every member of staff/volunteer we spoke to was great. After a walk around Llangollen we headed for the car and then drove to Machynlleth where i am based for the next few nights. Enjoy below some photos from today. And until next time... Ta for now
by Stu 28 April 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.
by Stuart 27 January 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!
by Stuart 21 January 2024
A blog about the new Northumberland Line that is scheduled to start opening in the Summer of 2024.
by Stu 6 September 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 :)
by Stu 4 September 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 :)
by Stu 3 September 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 :)
by Stu 2 September 2023
The first day of the walk from London Paddington to Southall saw me call at Acton Mainline, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing & Hanwell. On the way we saw unexpected viaducts, fancy McDonalds, pretty gardens & nice market squares. Today I was joined by a couple of friends who can be found online at the following places, Please do check their accounts out. Jack All Station: twitter.com/JackAllStations Midland London: youtube.com/@MidlandLondon Below is a selection of photos from today.
by Stu 20 August 2023
Walk around Windermere:
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