The spectacular North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) can be seen on our TV screens in a brand new four-part series.
The new More4 series Steam Train Diaries is described as a ‘revealing journey through the picturesque North York Moors National Park aboard the heritage steam engines that travel through its hills and valleys’, and was filmed at the NYMR and across the stunning North York Moors.
The first episode will air on More4 tonight, Wednesday 5 November, at 9pm.
The series will follow steam aficionado ‘Piglet’ Paul Middleton on the footplate, and an army of staff and volunteers whose hard graft, traditional skills and passion help keep this iconic line running.
It will explore the unique relationship the railway holds with the spectacular Yorkshire landscape that shaped it.
The first episode, that airs tonight (Wednesday), will see Piglet firing an 88 year-old engine along North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s steepest section of track, between the picturesque villages of Grosmont and Goathland.
Meanwhile watch driver Bungle get up before dawn to put the locomotives into steam; the conservation team helps to manage the threat of lineside fires; the complex workings inside traditional signal boxes are revealed, and a groundbreaking mission to convert a full-size heritage engine from coal to oil gets underway.
Later in the series, disaster strikes when, last year, a giant wildfire broke out across the North York Moors, and threatened the steam train services – it showcases the local fire crews that headed out to fight the fires.
Steam Train Diaries is made by York TV production company Button Down, who are based at St William’s College behind the Minster. They also produced the popular E4 series Will You Marry Me?, which featured on Gogglebox.
