North York Moors Railway - 16th July 2009

The second dayZed and conFUSED took place on 16th July and was to the North Yorks Moors Railway at Grosmont. Meeting at Gate Helmesley there were five cars. We had, in no particular order: Dunnington Dave in his BGT, Brian, Mike and myself with mate John all in B Roadsters and Kev and Tracy in their NG Roadster.
The route we took was the back road to Malton via Buttercrambe managing to keep together through two sets of lights, and then on to Amotherby, Kirby Misperton and Pickering. We continued on to Thornton le Dale and up towards Dalby and then on to the Whitby road at the Fox and Rabbit pub with all still together in line astern. When we got to Grosmont we did a lap of the station car park (full) and went to the car park down the road. After paying the man at the entrance £2.20, (they don't tell you that on the website), we parked in formation.


The MG formation	Grosmont Station

While we were sorting ourselves out, which sunglasses to wear, do I need a hat, hood left down or put up in case it rains etc, a group of German tourists returning to their coach gave us a lot of attention taking pictures of the cars and posing in front of them. Can't be many MGs in Germany. We had a short walk back to the station just in time for the arrival of a train all smoke and steam from Whitby. Diesels aren't what they used to be (feeble attempt at humour). It stopped for a while for passengers to get on and off, everyone to take pictures and for the crew to grab a coffee and then it was off again through the tunnel towards Pickering. We followed through the pedestrian tunnel to the engine shed. This was the original tunnel built by Stephenson when the coaches were horse drawn and is the oldest rail tunnel in the world. After a look around the the engine shed and the shed shop we went outside to look at the coaling facilities passing on the way an American engine that came to England during the war, went to France after the invasion in 1944 and then from 1947 was in Poland before coming back to England 1992. After so much excitement we just had to go to the Station Tavern to calm down a bit, it's very easy to find being just over the level crossing from the station.
Soon it was time to go. Kev and Tracy were going back to the Pickering road and then through Goathland, Brian and Mike were going straight back to York and Dave was over to Sleights to either visit a nice cafe or buy some plants he didn't really need at a garden centre or both. John and I went to Goathland via Egton and Egton Bridge but it looked very busy so we carried on past the station back onto the Pickering road and home to York. We had glorious sunshine all day, the traffic was good to us and no car problems, what better day out could you have?