We need your help to raise £1 million to stave off closure of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

The money is urgently needed to allow the railway to renew a vital bridge, between Goathland and Grosmont, and to renew one of its historic locomotives.

Bridge 30

The majority of the £1m is needed to replace Bridge 30.  If the bridge is not replaced in the next twelve months, the moors railway would be faced with scaling back its operations to the point that it is likely the railway would be forced to close.

That would deal a devastating blow to the local economy, which benefits to the tune of £30m per annum thanks to the attraction of the railway.  It would also lead to the decline in an important piece of the country’s railway heritage.

Most of the bridges along the 18 miles of railway are of stone arch design which have not been a problem to maintain.  But ‘Bridge 30’, at Water Arc, is mainly made of cast iron and is over 140 years old.  It has reached the end of its life but its location, below the village of Beck Hole in a remote gorge, makes it difficult to access and to replace.  It has an 80ft span and rests on a girder and needs to be  replaced in one go.

There is no danger to trains at the moment.  But unless Bridge 30, which carries the line over the Eller Beck near Thomason Foss waterfall is replaced, the railway’s days are numbered.

The best time to undertake the works is in the close season, through the Winter of 2009/2010, to minimise the impact on the busy tourist season traffic.  So the railway needs as much help as it can get quickly, so that it can afford to carry out the work in this timescale.

If the work is not carried out, a weight restriction would have to be placed on rolling stock using the track.  This would mean mothballing the bigger locomotives, and using only smaller tank engines, that would struggle to haul the eight coaches and 500 passengers needed to make the line pay.   Put simply, it would not be worth the price of all the coal needed to fuel the smaller engines.

80135

Our Appeal is also aimed at raising sufficient money to allow the restoration of engine 80135 to take place.   The more the railway can use its own engines, the better it will be, as hiring in engines from elsewhere to deliver our busy timetable can be very expensive, year on year.  So the Appeal is also about giving a second wind to an historic engine and in so doing, helping to safeguard the long term future of our wonderful railway.

We hope you will agree that our Appeal is deserving of support.   Year in year out, some 300,000 visitors enjoy their day out on the railway.  Many services now run all the way to Whitby and back.  The Railway also helps to sustain 100 jobs and over 300 volunteering opportunities.

Please give generously and help to keep the NYMR steaming.