With no fewer than ten different locomotives scheduled to be in steam, there will be plenty to see and do! Our own home fleet for the weekend consists of two “Black Five” class locomotives, 45428 Eric Treacy (acting as 45344) and 44806 (acting as 44776), both locomotives masquerading as engines from Croes Newydd shed. Also running is our “Standard 4” class 76079 (acting as 76038 of Machynlleth) and our resident B1 61264 which has links with Wales in that it was the only LNER design locomotive to be sent to the famous Barry Scrap Yard!
80136 will also be joining the fleet after recently returning back to traffic in August, with one of the railways quickest turnarounds with the boiler being installed and passing her insurance exam just one month later! 80136 spent time in Wales running at Machynlleth! 6046, a 2-8-0 USATC class S160, which has been in service during the summer, will also be running.
There will also be some special guest visitors to the tracks like locomotive 2807, a Great Western Railway heavy freight locomotive dating from 1905, which spent the years 1911 – 1919 hauling coal from South Wales mines. During the Great War, 2807 was involved with the “Jellicoe Specials” to move Welsh Coal to Scapa Flow to fuel the Grand Fleet, working such trains from South Wales as far as Lancashire.
2807 is joined by the “Standard 4” class 76084 – sister to our own - which was bought for £7,500 in 1982 and resided in a private back yard before a 16 year-long restoration, costing £750,000, was completed. She returned to traffic in 2013 and has since had a further £80,000 investment to make her mainline ready, with August of this year being her first main line run.
Also visiting the railway is Great Western “Manor Class” number 7822 Foxcote Manor which is synonymous with Cambrian and Great Western lines in North Wales. During her life in service she hauled trains on the Cambrian Coast, the Shrewsbury to Machynlleth line and the now closed Ruabon to Barmouth line.
Completing the line-up is the narrow-gauge locomotive Britomart from the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway and a "bug box" Ffestiniog Coach. A temporary track will be laid through the famous foot tunnel at Grosmont that connects the village to the Motive Power Depot. This tunnel is part of the original Whitby to Pickering railway and has never seen had a steam locomotive pass through it in its 184-year history. When Britomart pulls its first train through the tunnel this will be the first train to pass through in 171 years.
The NYMR cares for the operation and development of the railway we own from Pickering to Grosmont.