North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Another visit last month to Yorkshire to see daughter, son-in-law and grandson saw us going to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. If you get the chance, it is one of the best heritage lines in the United Kingdom, which winds its way through the moors for almost 20 miles and has lots of locomotives and rolling stock, with its main station at Pickering, a nice town on the southern edge of the moors.

We had a bit of a treat as the Flying Scotsman was visiting the line for a fortnight and we got to see it at Pickering station. I had seen it many, many years ago, but not running. It was something of a special moment, for the locomotive is rather a national treasure, although there are many other fine steam locomotives about. The people waiting to see it all fell quiet, something of a reverent hush descended, as it came into sight and steamed smoothly into the platform. A special moment.

Anyway, some photographs and captions.

A Black Five sitting in the platform, waiting its path to head north. A workhorse of an engine.

Now this was an extra surprise. This is a replica of Locomotion, the first locomotive to pull regular passenger traffic on the railways in 1825. It is normally at the Beamish Museum, I think, but had come down to Pickering as part of the 200 Anniversary of the railways in the UK.

Imagine travelling in one of those! Open to the elements, hard seats, no facilities! As a former railwayman, I can hear the customer complaints!

The view north - country end as we would have called it in my time - from the station's bridge.

The people gathering to see the Flying Scotsman.

The Flying Scotsman.

In British Railways dark green colour.

A rake of burgundy red coaches behind.

Running round to what will be the front of the train for the return journey back up the line. There is no turntable on the railway, so this means the locomotives run backwards for one direction, forwards for the other.

A lovely moment, seeing this locomotive and the others. And I bet I get way more hits for this post than my usual wargaming stuff!