NER J27 0-6-0 No. 65894 and Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Collieries 0-6-2T No. 29 double-headed the official opening train for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on May 1, 1973.
As featured on the cover of Heritage Railway’s last issue, the two locomotives reprised the feat this year exactly half a century to the day.
It was driven by the original train crew of Chris Cubitt and Terry Newman, while John Bruce took up duties in the Goathland signalbox, just as he did five decades previously. Back in 1973, 22 years after the worldfirst reopening of the Talyllyn Railway by volunteers, the heritage sector was still in its infancy. Those who did not want to see their local line close and were prepared to fight to save it had Everest-sized mountains to climb without a hint of a guarantee of success. And they were victorious.
It was in February 1964, in the wake of Dr Beeching’s report, The Reshaping of British Railways, which published on March 27 the year before, that proposals to close all three lines leading to Whitby to passenger trains – those from Malton via Rillington Junction and Pickering, from Middlesbrough via Battersby Junction, and from Scarborough – were announced. BR’s figures indicated that the route making the biggest loss was that from Malton, with an annual deficit of £49,200. For every £1 taken in income, £2.45 had to be spent to run the line.
Opposition
Locals appealed against the closures to the regional Transport Users’ Consultative Committee (TUCC) and a record 2260 objections to the closures were lodged in Whitby. Hearings took place in Whitby on July 8/9, 1964, with arguments in favour of retaining the Whitby to Pickering route including bad winter weather on the moors, limiting the use road transport, and the need for children in Goathland to use the train to get to school. Traders in Whitby also feared a negative
