The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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NYMR News No. 4
Beeching may have had his way in devastating the railway network, but thankfully many railway enthusiasts were on hand to save at least some lines, as here on the North York Moors.
From the collection of:
Overview
This is one of a series of annual summaries of the North York Moors Railway made by Ken Clough. They each feature the workings, special events and locomotives on the line during the 1970s. But perhaps of greater interest is that they all identify those volunteers working on the railway, including, in this film, engineer and steam enthusiast Ted Smith, driver John Bellwood and his son Andrew, and Alan Burkin “wrestling with the points”.
This is one of a large collection of films made by Ken Clough, who was a member of the York section of the supporters of the NYMR, and trained with them to drive diesels. Ken was an engineering designer for Rowntree who also filmed many of their manufacturing processes. The North York Moors Railway started life back in 1832 with George Stephenson, opening in 1936, first with horse-drawn wagons, and later with steam engines, which were banned until 1847. The line was closed as part of the Beeching cuts in 1965. The last actual train to run on the line was on 29 November that year, when an emergency service set forth to rescue stranded schoolchildren after their bus was stranded in a heavy snowfall (thanks h2g2).
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