Good News for Steam Loco Buffs

It was a joy to be on Pickering Station the other day and watch a train of restored LNER teak coaches being pulled in by the A4 Pacific locomotive Sir Nigel Gresley. Pickering is at the southern end of the 18 miles of heritage railway between Pickering and Grosmont (linking there with the national network for the old fishing town of Whitby). The line was salvaged back in the late 1960s after the Beeching Report had taken an axe to swathes of branch lines the length and breadth of Britain. Originally purchased, renovated and operated by an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers, the line is now run by a successful heritage railway company licensed to run scheduled passenger services using restored steam locos from as far as back as 1905 up to end of British Rail steam services in the mid-1960s; there are also restored diesels from the period of changeover from steam to diesel and electric.

The North York Moors Railway brings in thousands of enthusiastic tourists to the line, and the Sir Nigel Gresley has always been the pride and joy of the line. It's "identical twin" the Mallard (which broke the world steam loco speed record at 125 mph) can be seen at the National Railway Museum in York. The Gresley has also been no mean performer in the speed stakes, having clocked up an impressive 112 mph in the mid-1950s.

It has made a welcome return to the line after a total strip down and re-build necessary for a renewal of it's 10-year operating licence. The renovation took three years of dedicated hard labour by people with railway mechanical and engineering expertise.

I always get a bit of thrill when I see this loco in full steam, not only because most steam locos have the ability to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but because as a young boy back in the early 1950s I played with a Hornby Dublo electric train set. I had two passenger trains: (1) an LMS train pulled by the Duchess of Hamilton and (2) an LNER train pulled by the Sir Nigel Gresley.

Long may little boys aged between 7 and 70 continue to be captivated by steam trains!