Contents

- Editorial - From the Chairman - Dogfish Developments - Letters to the Editor - Model Review - Tank Engine Club - Researching Photographs - Stately Trains - Shop Report - Website News - YDR Through the Ages - Departmental Reports

Sir Robert Peel or No. 8 as it really is will be unlikely to run for some time due to the repairs needed to its firebox. However here is what the engine looked like when running in the early 1990s at the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway. Photo: Steve Standridge.

I wonder if it is time for the YDR to re-launch that great event of the 1980s, the Harvest of Steam.

The railway as recounted elsewhere in this issue has had to cancel this Summer's Vintage Weekend (** it was later re-scheduled **), but I wonder if a gala out of the main season when passenger figures start to drop would be a good idea to boost revenue at that time.

The bigger railways like the Worth Valley are so short of working engines that they recently had a gala with two engines working the branch and one giving driver experience trips at Keighley.

I think we could do better. What could we offer?

Well here are some ideas:
1. Driver experience trips with either the class 04 or class 14 to Bow Bridge Loop and back with a freight train.
2. Run similar driver experience trips at Bolton Abbey with Annie running £15-a-head trips to run from the headshunt up to the top of the platform. This would give people something to watch between trains at BA.
3. Cross Country train with the Gresley buffet car in the consist. This set to be 6 coaches this would make even the Austerities work on the climbs and could be billed as one of the features of the event. Spectacular sights such as 68005 and Monckton battle with the banks. These locos alternate on trips.
4. Branch line train. To be 4 coaches with a van at each end to represent a typical branch line train as these often had vans in them. This to be worked by Cranford and 140 alternating at Embsay.
5. At the start of the day and in the evening run a vintage train with Annie and Steve Middleton's coaches, the evening run could be a guided tour of the YDR type thing with knowledgeable guides in each coach, perhaps stopping at Stoneacre on the outward trip to see how the signalbox works.
6. Sentinel Ann shunting the top yard at Embsay.
7. Invite local model engineering clubs to have minature railways at each station to entertain young children in between trains.
8. Have a good quality model railway in the waiting room at Bolton Abbey.
9. Sell detailed operations timetables in advance to photographers. (Yes I'm offering to do this.)
10. Run a banked freight train as a special event in the evening with as many wagons as can be mustered.
11. Bank passenger trains out of Bolton Abbey station to Hambleton Cutting as an additional spectacle / attraction.
12. Put presentable non-working engines at BA so people can see and photograph them. Primrose, No. 22 and Wheldale perhaps.
13. Any comments, thoughts or better ideas? I would welcome positive feedback. We don't need anexcuse to run the event, the return of Monckton would be enough, but if 2002 is some special anniversary well and good.
14. One final thing, we could have a visiting engine, as if the event was out of season, other railways could loan us an engine. Let's go for something unusual (the Caley tank from Falkirk?)

The time since my last report in YDR News has been largely overshadowed by the Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic. Whilst no cases in had been reported in Craven, the general concern caused by early reporting of the outbreak, together with the closure of all footpaths in North Yorkshire has had a bad effect on the Railway's trading position.

In the weeks between New Year and Easter the Railway was around 50% down on the similar period of 2000. This is against a background of year on year growth in business of 4-6% for the period. Very sombre statistics.

Along came Easter and we had the best ever! Up on 2000 which itself was a record. Matters then carried on as before with the drop in traffic decreasing all the time as the word got around that the Railway is still operating, that it is OK to visit and that visitors will not see dead animals or burning pyres from the train windows - this has been a very real fear for many.

Finally the news broke: FMD in Craven and getting closer all the time. This had an effect ont eh Spring Bank Holiday Event takings but, thankfully, not too bad. General traffic, however, remains poor and not what we had hoped for in 2001.

So, 2001 doesn't look like being a particularly brilliant year for the Railway. If matters continue as currently forecast then revenue will be down and available funds will inevitably be affected which will impinge on our aspirations for the line. We had a number of projects lined up for 2001 which will be delayed, hopefully only until 2002.

The permanent way dept. tackle some massive jobs; the extension to Bolton Abbey, Stoneacre Loop, the new bridge at Bow Bridge and this, the re-modelling of the top yard at Embsay as part of the new shed project. On Sunday 4th February in cold conditions with a sprinkling of snow about, the team take the new headshunt into the yard and towards the steelwork for the shed. PHOTO: Mike Mason

On to those projects that are going and particularly the primary project for the YDRMT at present: Embsay Shed. Things remain buoyant for the Shed project and a great deal of achievement has been recorded since the last issue of YDR News. The steelwork is now complete and ready to receive cladding, we are currently tendering the cladding phase with three likely contractors and the track is connected up to the first three roads of the building.

The above paragraph sums up quite an amazing amount of work for a volunteer team and is not just restricted to those working 'in the field'. Design work, specifications, tendering, purchasing materials, fund-raising, grant claims, etc. These have all taken up volunteers' time and have contributed to the project so far. Well done everybody for your efforts to get us where we are now and, hopefully, you will keep 'at it' until the job is finished.

A glance at the photographs in this issue of YDR News will give you a clue as to how much work has been accomplished to deliver the structure that now exists.

The deadline for the European Regional Development Fund Objective 5b Grant that gives us 25% of our spend on the shed is the end of June for engineering work - tight time scales to get the cladding completed, but we will give it our best shot and a future YDR News will inform members as to our success.

Following hot-foot behind the current Shed project is our bid for Heritage Lottery Funds to construct a two-track Museum annexe incorporating interpretation and display areas, secure storage for the collection, a meeting room for the use of school visits or similar plus the usual facilities. This will be the flagship for the Museum Trust and will allow us to tell the story of the locomotives, rolling stock and railway infrastructure in our collection. I would hope to submit the bid for funds during Summer 2001.

Looking the other way on the 25th February and the headshunt is laid on top of the new embankment. PHOTO: Mike Mason

Turning to other subjects, the YDRMT is obliged, by the Railways (Safety Case) Regulations 2000, to produce an updated CD-ROM version of the Safety Case originally accepted a few years ago in paper form. I am taking the opportunity to update the Safety Case to reflect the current situation on the Railway. Deadline is the end of June 2001 so that fits nicely with the Shed Grant deadline to give me a challenging time!

In this issue of YDR News you will see the first prize winners from the new Shed Fund 100 Club. You should all have received a form but, if not, there is another in this issue. The 100 Club is an excellent way to boost the Shed Fund coffers whilst giving the contributor the chance of a prize. If you haven't already taken a number or numbers, please do so and help us build a shed that we can all be proud.

As the Summer season stretches ahead of us, the whole organisation faces a challenge with FMD likely to affect passenger levels and the effect of having the disease on our doorstep is still an unknown. 50% of our Summer passengers are on holiday in the region, so the recent Visitor Survey tells us, and how many of these will be around in 2001 remains unclear. Fingers crossed, then, for the daily running and roll on eradicating the disease.

GER Saloon No. 14 in platform 2 with Primrose during the 1999 Gala. (C) Stephen Middleton

Following the recepit of the HRA (Heritage Railway Association) award, the Transport Trust has given me their top 'Peter Allen' Award of £1,000 for the restoration of Great North of Scotland Railway No. 34 of 1894. Peter Adsehead and I are working very hard to complete this coach for Summer services, which arrived on the reailway at the end of May. My two good friends from Bridlington, Marcus Woodcock and Roy Ingham have been a great help and are very skilled. Thanks to them the Scottish coach and the L & Y directors' saloon have dual voltage lights (mains and 24V), a high standard of paintwork and beautifully refurbished door locks, hardware, etc.

During the visit of No.70 last year the engine moves into Hambleton cutting with the Stately Trains GER saloons. (C) Pete Walker

We have rubbed down the ECJS dining car and intend putting sufficient varnish on to give adequate protection when out. This will allow the painting of the directors' saloon under cover. An immense amount of damage occured over Winter to the unprotected and unprimed woodwork. The L & Y and GNoSR carriages will form the vintage train next year, as the GER saloons are gogin to the North Norfolk Railway for full repaints after this season and will see service behind their J15. This means that five of my carriages will have been fully painted within 12 months.

The Stately Trains saloons have certainly has a variety of motive power. At the June 99 Gala, visiting loco Demelza from teh Mangapps Farm railway in Essex shunts one of the saloons into platform 2. (C) Stephen Middleton