crich area community news
Thoughts on being volunteers on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
The nights are drawing in now and it’s getting dark at Grosmont, and cold. Cold in the loco sheds too. The shutter doors are often open. Impossible to get a locomotive through a side door!
The workshop is sometimes noisy, and dirt and grease come with the job. Years of coal dust, water, old grease and diesel fuel have laid a wall-to-wall carpet in some areas. Locomotives, steam or diesel, are mucky beasts. Wonderful, but mucky, as my hands and boiler suit declare at the end of a day working in the Motive Power Depot of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR).
The diesel cab doors that I am restoring lie on a bench near an open shutter door. After many hours of preparation they shine, having just had their first coat of protective paint. A chance for a breather and a wander around is arising. The late afternoon train from Grosmont to Pickering is due out. So now is my chance to pop outside, just in time to see a ‘Black 5’ glide noisily out of the tunnel in a cloud of smoke and steam. Just a touch of wheel slip as the loco fights for grip on the incline. Visitors to the railway don’t get to see this wonderful sight. Just a bit of payback for being a volunteer on the NYMR.
I’ll have time to visit the boilermakers. The heart of a steam loco is the boiler, and NYMR carry out boiler repairs and rebuilds. The skills and ability to work to such fine tolerances on steel and iron equipment weighing many tons just amazes me. I don’t stay long today, though, because they are hot riveting and my ear defenders aren’t handy.
Walking back past Sir Nigel (Gresley that is – not too well at the moment) I enter the steam engine rebuild shop. Three loco frames minus their boilers are at various stages. At rail-level some of these have driving wheels taller than me. There is so much to deal with. Pistons, valves, connecting rods, steam pipes, vacuum equipment, brakes ... the list goes on. All these need a huge range of special skills and often working tolerances of 1000th of an inch. Again, the skill of these operatives amazes me, but there are just not enough of them to get a quick turnround of locos. Funds are not bottomless. Like most preserved railways, income has to be raised on a continuous basis and the thirty-nine bridges alone will, in time, take a considerable sum from the moneybox. Bridge No. 30 cost £750k to rebuild last year. (Even with grants it still cost a bob or two!)
It is easy to see how important volunteers are to the NYMR. I’m told the railway would not run without them. Whatever the case, Barbara and I decided that we would give one day per week to help on the railway, and we do this all through the year, barring snow on the Yorkshire Moors.
The few skills I have led me to work on the diesel electric locos. These are not popular with the customers (unless we have a Diesel Day), but they are essential when steam locos fail or if the moorland is very dry in hot weather (sparks!).
The diesel foreman allocates my work, and because my attendance is very regular, I get to start and finish projects. This is very rewarding.
My first job was the rebuild of an electric starter panel for a shunter. Just the job for me. But the next one was cleaning out over fifty years of muck and grime from the engine bay of the same loco!! I’m painting the side of a Diesel shunter in the photo, and yes. I did do the roof! The logo was hand-painted by a lady volunteer. I wish you could see how good this is.
Barbara works in the shop on Pickering station in the summer, and in Customer Services in the off-season. Sometimes when a train arrives at Pickering, Barbara will go on-board and sell guides for the railway. On one occasion the train departed with her still on board. She had to travel to the next station and catch a return train later. Not much fun when you haven’t had lunch, but the rest of the staff enjoyed the laugh. They had an even bigger laugh later in the day, when I had to ring Barbara to tell her that I’d fallen asleep on Grosmont station (well the Sun was shining in my face), missed my train, and would not be able to pick her up for two hours. Barbara got a lift home and dinner – I got the McDonald’s.
Well, time to have a steady stroll to see how my cab doors are drying (it’s a tough life being a diesel fitter). Yes, they have dried nicely – complete with a nice extra coat of grit and soot from the afternoon train that passed earlier. Shouldn’t have painted near the door, but no problem. A quick rub down and another coat won’t do any harm.
That’s all for now, but we hope that you visit the NYMR – it’s a wonderful day out, at one of the finest preserved railways in the country. If you do, look out for us, and say hello. We are there just about every Wednesday, rain or shine.
Bye for now,
Graham and Barbara Swift.