Railway Sounds

UPDATE: Since I made this post there have been a number of replies from both volunteers and employee’s of the railway both on this site, through email and on other forums. There has also been a very positive and polite comment made by NYMR’s Retail and Customer Services Manager Helen Webb who also apologised on behalf of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and I’m happy to say that I’ve accepted her apology and have assured her that we will visit this wonderful railway again. I also received a less positive comment from Roger Melton of the LNER Coach Association. In the light of all those comments I would like to make clear a number of issues that may not have been made as well as they could have been in my original post (Which remains below for reference)

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.