Travel Tips

October 2007 and its time for the North Yorkshire Moor Railways WW2 weekend again. My 2006 pages proved to be of interest so here are some photos from October 13.
We start this time with an American airman and his wife posing in front of one of the NYMRs famous steam locomotives. Of course once again he is as English as I am but I guess he looks the part.

The photo is Pickering's High Street on the Saturday morning of the event. As the photo shows the crowds were unbelievable - you could not move. Its hard to imagine that 62 years after the war ended the nostalgia for it is as strong as ever. Average age of participants - anything from children to about 65 - interestingly not much interest from anyone who was actually there! The park and ride queue in to Pickering was so long it took us 45 minutes to get on a bus and the trains were all standing room only all day. In my opinion the trains need to be pre-booked by the organisers for safety reasons. In 2008 Whitby will also be included in the range of towns included in the event to spread the crowds a little. The NYMR staff web site talks of concern by staff on the over crowded trains - some 450 seat trains had over 550 people on board.

My favourite Heartbeat character of all time - Claude Jeremiah Greengrass spotted in the crowds in Pickering. He has not been in the TV series of Heartbeat for some years but its nice to see he can still get out and about.

Here is a very funny man from the midlands dressed as a spiv. A spiv for those who do not know was the man who always seemed to avoid military service and always could obtain the unobtainable - here in the photo this spiv has a case of goods for sale.

...they just get dressed up once again the uniforms they thought they had put away some years ago until someone invented nostalgia and then the uniforms come out every weekend from April to October.

It seems many male participants too old to dress is military uniform dress up as spivs - here was a very funny man who had underwear for sale.

You saw him on last years photos and here he is again plying his wares as usual at Grosmont. Once again the local constablatory are on his case and he is questioned over his activities in the station.

The unsuspecting citizens of Goathland had better beware! The spivs have travelled by NYMR train to the village to presumably hawk their wares. They may be unlucky - there was a small market and all the shops were open on this busy weekend.

I am not sure if the Italians had moved sides by 1943 - they must have done because this amorous Italian was wooing the ladies on the platform at Pickering.

There were several stalls around the area selling authentic 1940s clothing and here we see two participants buying more clothing to further their interest. This is in a stall at the small market at Goathland station.

Pickering High Street again and here is the MC singing songs from the war to the vast crowds and informing the crowds of the other musical participants - we just managed to see the heads of the Darlington Pipe and Drum band. The entertainer is from ENSA which stood for every night something awful. ENSA was much appreciated by troops from the UK and Commonwealth across the world and many famous artists travelled to some inhospitable places such as the deserts of North Africa to entertain the troops. Perhaps in the 2007 world of downloads gaining UK chart positions we could make The White Cliffs of Dover number one again?