Class08Shunter
On Moderation
At Black Bull, why were the crossing gates not the same length as the road?
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Black Bull Level Crossing On The Old Pickering To Malton Line.
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njamescouk
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they widened the road?
D6130
Established Member
That picture looks as though it was taken from the cab of a small industrial diesel shunting locomotive. A demolition train perhaps, following closure of the line in 1965?
Rillington Junction-Pickering was worked as a single line under “one engine in steam” operation, after the withdrawal of the passenger service in 1965, until final closure on 1/7/66. A Malton class 03 shunter was deemed quite adequate power for the daily freight to Pickering.
I am a bit surprised at the narrow width of the road. Is it the A169?
Mcr Warrior
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Possible it's Upper Carr Lane, located just to the East of the Public House...
The signal post indicates it is the A169 rather than Upper Carr Lane.
Gloster
Established Member
Comparing the details and the two maps, it looks to me like the A169 looking north. The rodding visible in the cess to the right would probably have been the bolt from the former gate/signal box.
Yep Black Bull Crossing at 2 minutes 50 in the video.
PICK UP TO PICKERING
This is a film, part of the Frank Dean Collection, of the last official goods train to run between Malton and Pickering, on July 1st 1966. It shows a collect...
www.yfanefa.com
D6130
Established Member
A priceless historical record of the old, more leisurely railway. I'm rather surprised that a York-based class 03 was still running without yellow/black warning stripes on the ends as late as July 1966.
Especially with mainline running required between Malton and Rillington Junction on the Pickering freight. Also with being outstationed at Malton, regular mainline runs to York for maintenance would also take place.
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Kingston Dan
Member
Five level crossings in Pickering town centre - would make reopening interesting...
Have you ever been to Dereham?
The gates are being worked manually and I would guess that when they were closed across the railway they were locked by a annetts key. It wouldn't make sense to have longer gates if the traffic didn't demand it at the time and being manually worked there'd be no point in having 4 gates.
Gloster
Established Member
When the line was open to passengers there appears to have been a small crossing keepers hut; this was on the left-hand side of the line and so hidden by the loco. The gates were probably hand-worked, but locked by a bolt in the cabin: there appears to be rodding on the right-hand side. Presumably the gate lever could only be reversed once the gates were closed to the road and bolted; in turn this released the signal levers. (It is possible that the signals were worked from another location and the lever in the cabin only released them.) Once passenger services ended the crossing keeper would have been withdrawn and the gates disconnected from the cabin. They would be locked across the railway with a padlock: once a train needed to cross a member of the traincrew would unlock the padlock, open the gate for the train to pass, close the gates behind it and lock them, before rejoining the train. That was quite sufficient for one slow goods train a day.
Note: I have no specific knowledge of the area, just general principles and what can be seen in the video.
Note: I have no specific knowledge of the area, just general principles and what can be seen in the video.
Class08Shunter
On Moderation
In Pick Up To Pickering, it shows that Marishes Road Level Crossing had hand operated boom gates but in an older picture it shows Marishes Road to have regular level crossing gates. When would the gates be changed and why wouldn't they keep the regular set of gates?
D6130
Established Member
I would imagine that the gates would have been changed when the line closed to passenger traffic in 1965 and was singled. Prior to closure, the big heavy gates would have been operated from Low Marishes signalbox - probably using a hand-operated wheel. After closure, the remaining single freight line became effectively a long siding from Rillington Junction to Pickering and New Bridge quarry and the crossing gates would have to have been light enough for the train guard to open and close.
2392
Member
This the short by the late Frank Dean the screen shot comes from. I posted it to the unoffical NYMR forum a few years ago,
player.bfi.org.uk
Watch Pick up to Pickering - BFI Player
The railway tracks are ready for scrap as the last train and its crew to pass from Pickering to Rillington Junction makes its forlorn journey.
player.bfi.org.uk
In 1978 I visited Marishes Road station and the gentleman who lived there said that when the line closed they wanted to buy the signalbox but before they could finalise it the BR demolition men came round and ripped the lever frame out and threw it on the ground and smashed the windows.
IIRC now preserved Class 03 shunter D2089 (03089), once took over from a failed diesel at Malton and worked the train 20 miles on to Scarborough. I think the train was a day excursion from Lancashire, and it would have been when Malton possessed a few outstationed York shunters.
D6130
Established Member
Good grief! That must have been quite a trundle. Would have taken about an hour....assuming that a 204 bhp shunting locomotive was capable of reaching its 28.5 mph maximum speed hauling a full-length, fully-loaded passenger train. However, when needs must......
Class08Shunter
On Moderation
Does anyone know why the NYMR didn't save the line from Pickering to Malton? Was it because they didn't have enough money?
It would have been very, very expensive and they were concerned that if they were linked to the national network at the southern end it might risk their line being taken back into the national network in some way.
Complete lack of funds. By the time the NYMR Trust had been established in the late sixties most, if not all, of the track south of Pickering to Rillington Junction had been lifted. The Trust’s initial aim was fund raising, to enable purchase of the Pickering-Grosmont section still owned by BR.
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Class08Shunter
On Moderation
I think the track south of Pickering was lifted in 1970.
2392
Member
One of the biggest if not the biggest problems is/was that Rillington Station had closed before WW2 and the platforms demolished/removed. So unlike at Grosmont which when preserved had 3 platforms [now 4]. With platform 1 being on the Esk Valley and Platforms 2+3 being used by the NYMR. So back when the Preservation Society as was would have ended in a field beside the Scarborough line. Would have been perhaps possible if the line had gone straight into the Bay Platform that was at Malton. Whilst the Whitby line is more Titfield Thunderbolt, the York-Scarborough line is a pretty major well used mainline with little in the way of spare capacity for the sort of operations the NYMR run. Which are even on the Esk Valley can be/are problematic, fitting in around the admittedly limited Northern Middlesbrough Whitby service.......
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Class08Shunter
On Moderation
I doubt it would risk the line being taken back into BR ownership as they have a link to the National Network at Grosmont but the line hasn't been taken back.
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