The North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Early in the New Year Black 5 4-6-0 45337 was at work on the Moors.
With the last train of the day from Grosmont on 2nd January 2003 the Black 5 45337 is heard emerging from Grosmont tunnel and raising the echoes passing the loco shed before starting on the climb to Goathland in the dusk of this winters day.

The North York Moors Railway held a Steam Gala Weekend in early May.
Among the locomotives visiting the line was Ian Riley's Black 5, 45407 (still carrying the number 45157).
In this recording, made during the morning of 11th May 2003, the Black 5 is heard raising the echoes, departing tender first from Levisham for Goathland with the first train of the day from Pickering.

Soon after leaving Goathland and heading south is Ian Riley's other steam loco, BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0 76079, which is heard in this recording going well near Moorgates on a 7 coach train.

Another visitor to the railway for this Steam Gala Weekend was the LNER V2 2-6-2 60800 'Green Arrow', a loco that I particularly wanted to record on the line.
Hoping for plenty of noise I had been a little disappointed with the way that the V2 was being worked when I recorded it departing from Levisham earlier in the day but was far better pleased with this recording made near Green End on the climb to Goathland as 'Green Arrow' climbs the 1 in 49 gradient with the last passenger train of the day from Grosmont.

The last departure from Grosmont was the K1 62005 with the freight train, the wagons normally being stabled at Goathland.
Heard this time at Beck Hole Bridge the K1 is heard accelerating away from a 15 mph speed restriction on the rising gradient as rain begins to fall.

As 'Green Arrow' was visiting the railway for three weeks I was able to return a week later to try for some on-train recordings of the loco.
As it was booked to return to York during the following week the loco had been turned on the turntable at Pickering and was working tender first out of Grosmont.
Earlier in the day this had caused problems as, when working tender first the locomotive's sanders do not provide sand to all the driving wheels. This caused some trouble with slipping when a light shower made the rails greasy while the loco was working the midday dinning train out of Grosmont.
'Green Arrow' also worked the last train of the day from Grosmont, the 16:50, and sounded like this approaching Goathland. Despite running tender first there were no problem with slipping this time.