Deltic Photographs (And they are brilliant) Courtesy of Ron Chaplin

I tend not to do much recording in the winter as the moisture isn’t so good for the mics.

Anyway here is a recording of a ride along the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston. A really lovely railways with friendly staff – it’s quite an unusual (if not short ride) Ticket prices are cheap and its very children friendly so well worth a visit!

Tan y Bwlch is a great place to record from as the evergreen trees offer year round wind cover for the mics. You also get some great sounds due the the parabolic nature of the mountain side.. so you can hear whistles from the cob with the mics really eerie!

Pardon the sheep… they made a bit of noise on this one!

This is the Mayflower (1306) making a very noisy departure from Shackerstone Station, it then slows (for a speed restriction I guess) and then powers back up again.

It’s a really friendly railway and despite having the smallest Cafe on earth (not enough room to swing a rat never mind a cat!) They were happy to have our pushchair in

A short recording of the absolutely beautiful Gresley N2 Tank (Or GNR Class N2 1744) My girlfriend and I had gone for an evening meal train at the Great Central Railway and when I realised we were to be pulled by the Gresley Tank I whipped out my portable audio recorder and headed off to the shed… Yeah the girlfriend wasn’t exactly too impressed given that we were there for a meal!

There’s a bit of wind noise because the mics were unshielded, this was recorded just after it had taken on water – you here the crew getting ready to roll into the station and some nice sounds of it slowly chugging away.

If you have headphones it will sound better with them!

Photographs courtesy of my girlfriend

Just to let you know I did receive an apology from the NYMR.

Hello Martin,

Having read your posting, I was compelled to respond. The Railway take a great pride in offering an enjoyable day out for everyone, and both our paid staff and volunteers alike are generally delighted to help out in any way they can. I was saddened to read about your experience and would like to offer sincere apologies on behalf of the Railway.

Obviously in this instance we have failed you – and I can assure you that the individuals concerned will be dealt with. With your permission, I would also like to use your posting as a real example of ‘how not to do it’ with the aim of making all staff understand the impact that their behaviour can have.
I do hope that you will have an opportunity to visit the Railway again when hopefully your experience will be much better.

Kind regards,
Helen Webb, Retail and Customer Services Manager

I’m happy to accept fully that apology unconditionally. It’s not been my aim to seek a refund, yes the day cost us in excess of £125 but ultimately the NYMR is a good railway and they deserve our custom and support and I don’t wish to refuse them that in these difficult economic times on the basis of an unpleasant experience with a number of their staff, neither do I wish to blag some free tickets from them (couldn’t afford to get up there again till next year anyway!)

Unfortunately I also received a rather impasdoned comment from one member of the LNER Coach association who accused us of having no respect for his coach. He also went on to say that we refused to cooperate with the Guard. So an apology from the NYMR and accusations of disrespect from the LNER Coach Association?

Needless to say neither is true and we only questioned the rules – we did not purposefully ignore or break them.

You can read all the comments here

Following those comments and Helen Webb’s apology on behalf of the railway I sent her this email:

Dear Helen,

I’m sure we will return in the future. I was a bit rushed earlier so didn’t have the time to respond as best as I could.

However my family and I gratefully and unconditionally accept your kind apology. Please also know that it has never been my intention to seek a refund neither will I accept one if offered – the NYMR is a wonderful railway and deserves our support and custom, especially in these difficult economic times.

Unfortunately Mr Melton of the LNER Coach Association doesn’t seem to be so willing to let the issue die. As well as suggesting that we might have felt the rules did not apply with respect to his coaches (where in fact we simply missed the notices due to the weather and trying to get the girls to warmth and shelter) He’s now also accused me of having no respect for his coaches (Despite one of our family members having donated to his cause in the past)

Additionally he tells me the guard tells a slightly different story in which we refused to cooperate. To this point I must object, yes we may have questioned the rules and even pointed out that it seemed incongruous that wet dogs were permitted where pushchairs were not. However once the guard made his position clear (in a manner that we found rude) we obeyed them, did not proceed into the Gresley Coach and returned to the buffet car.

Mr Melton also tells me the guard is somewhat upset at the whole incident, needless to say so were we, we came to you for a nice day out, not an argument! However I am sorry that he is upset and we do sincerely apologise if we made his job more difficult than it should have been due to our not spotting the notices. I hope that this unfortunate incident can only serve to improve customer relations, not worsen them. Additionally I hope that the guard in question is not reprimanded in any way as I am fully aware he may be a volounteer and hope he continues to support your railway, rather as your earlier comments suggests that some guidance is given on how to deal with similar future incidents.

I really do hope that this will be an end to the matter, if Mr Melton has nothing better to do all day than comment on my blog and accuse your paying customers of having a lack of respect for his coaches i hope I can presume that this is not also the stance of the NYMR.

Yours Faithfully,

Martin Paling,

The irony of all of this is that I very rarely complain, I’m one of those quite British types that will “just let it pass”

Hopefully this will be an end to it now and I can get back to posting sound clips and photos – It was never my intention to hijack this fantastic community to carry out full fledged warfare!

Had some responses on the post I wrote about the unpleasant experience my family and I had at the NYMR. Some very positive response from “Gary” a volounteer/employee of the railway and from Helen Webb the NYMR’s Retail and Customer Services Manager Helen Webb.

Unfortunately this was all tainted somewhat by what I believe to be a rather arrogant reply from Roger Melton of the LNER Coach Association who seemed to miss completely that the issue was not with the rules but the manner in which they were enforced.

You can read all of the comments (including my rather impulsive reply to Roger) and an update to the original post here.

Ugly and noisy, just the way I like them!

1. First of all (and I believe I did make this clear in my original post) we did not so much have an issue with the rules, rather than in the way they were enforced: which we felt to be both unhelpful, aggressive and rude.
2. This unfortunate experience was the fault of two employees/volunteers of the NYMR. My family and I except that the majority of employees are friendly, polite and helpful. Its only fair that in the interest of balance I mark out two such employees from this particular visit. First the guard who allowed my nieces to “Inspect his tickets.” Second the staff at the Grosmont Station Gift shop who were especially helpful in helping my mother find a number of gifts.
3. Over the years my family and I have made many visits to the North Yorkshire Moors and it’s only fair to point out that this was the first and only unpleasant experience we’ve had over a period of over two decades. All in all that’s not a record the NYMR should  be ashamed of. It is a very nice railway, staffed by (a majority) of very nice, friendly and helpful staff.
4. Finally, this is a wonderful Railway doing some wonderful work and I encourage you to visit it (Though please do take care to read the notices about pushchairs even if you are caught in a thunderstorm)

I don’t like to be negative about any heritage railway, especially one with a great track record like the North Yorkshire Moors – but the experience my family and I had their last friday has put me off visiting them for some time.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway

My Brothers John, Stephen, his two daughters (aged 2 and 4) his partner and my parents (Grandma and Grandpa) visited the railway last friday (21st, August 2009) and bought day runabout tickets for us all (£125.00). The trip got away to a good start and the kids we’re entertained looking out of the window and playing “Ticket Inspector” We got off at Pickering for lunch and while there the heavens opened, hail and thunder and lightning – the lot! So we made our way back to the station to get the next train out, being in a rush we dived in the first carriage we could find and we’re heading for the nicely preserved teak Gresley coaches when a figure in an oil stained orange hi-vis clothes came storming through the carriage, put his arm across the passage way to block us and abruptly declared “You can’t go in there”

Obviously we we’re a bit taken aback by this… apparently it turns out you can’t take pushchairs through the Gresley coaches because of the risk of damage… ok we understand that these are priceless heritage coaches but his manner was just downright rude. “you’ll have to take it outside to the guard’s van, these chairs cost £10,000 each I can’t have you damaging them” (Please note there’s still a massive rain storm outside) Had he been nice about it, explained it in a better manner he may not have got our backs up… at that very moment a guy walks two wet dogs into the carriage followed by a photographer carrying a tripod on his back that clattering against the coaches walls.

“We can’t take a pushchair through, but wet dogs are ok?” my brother asked. “I can carry it through for you” he relents. “What if you damage the seats?” I ask, “I won’t” he replies.

Its not the reasoning that annoyed us, we understand that the coaches are priceless (though it’s somewhat annoying that the NYMR and the LNER Coach Association can’t trust us) and need to be treated with care. It was his rudeness that aggravated us… like he was on a one man mission to save the coaches from a gang of vandals. His whole manner was aggressive and as we sat down a number of other customers commented on his behaviour too.

We decided to get off at Grosmont and have a look around the shed, I went to the guards van to pick up the pushchair and met a young woman looking after a young boy sleeping in a push chair. “Are you traveling in here?” I asked, “yes!” she replied. I soon discover that because she was unwilling to wake her child up and dismantle the pushchair the same Jobsworth that had caused us offence had relegated this poor mother and child to the guard’s van… despite the fact that there were a number of mark 1 coaches in the trainset.

It only takes one idiot to spoil a day out. It takes two to completely ruin it!

After walking around the shops and sheds at Grosmont we headed back to the station. It’s started raining again now and Anna, the 2yr old, is fast asleep in the pushchair. The walk has cleared our tempers and we’d almost let the “Pushchair” incident drop. We have 30mins to wait for the next train back to Whitby and so decide to take refuge from the rain in the Grosmont Station Cafe…

“You can’t bring that in here!”

I kid you not!

“Why?”

“Fire regulations, they cause an obstruction”

We look around the empty Cafe, observing the total lack of any other customers

“But there is no-one else in here!”

“Fire regulations. You’ll have to sit outside”

“It’s raining”

Blank look from the Cafe staff

We march out of the Cafe, into the rain and down the road to the Hazelwood House Cafe who are only too happy to welcome us, our dangerous pushchairs and our custom.

There are a great many good and friendly staff at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway… but it only takes two socially inept, rude and discourteous jobs-worths to ruin a day. My brother his partner and his children will not be visiting any time in the future and based upon that particular day I don’t think I could recommend the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to any other parents either.