The North Yorkshire Moors Railway

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway runs 24 miles from the market town of Pickering to the harbour at Whitby, straight across the North York Moors National Park. Most trains are hauled by steam, the rest by heritage diesels.

George Stephenson surveyed the route, and the Whitby & Pickering Railway opened in 1836 with horses pulling the coaches; steam arrived in 1847. Today's trains climb out of Pickering through the deep, wooded gorge of Newtondale, cross open moor at Fen Bog and drop through Goathland, the station that played Hogsmeade in the first Harry Potter film, to the engine sheds at Grosmont. From there they run over the national network down the Esk valley to Whitby.

British Rail closed the line in 1965. Volunteers bought the 18 miles from Pickering to Grosmont and reopened them in 1973, and since 2007 the railway's own trains have run through to the sea. It is run by a charity and staffed largely by volunteers, and a Day Rover ticket lets you get off at any station and catch a later train on.

Trains leave Pickering from a station restored to its look of the 1930s, under an overall roof put back in 2011 to the design G. T. Andrews built for it in 1847. North of the town the line enters Newton Dale, a narrow, steep-sided valley cut by meltwater at the end of the last ice age, and follows Pickering Beck up through the forest.

Through Newton Dale

Levisham station, kept as a North Eastern Railway country station of about 1912, stands in the dale nearly two miles from the village it is named after. Further up, Newtondale Halt is a request stop in Cropton Forest with no road at all: you reach it by train, on foot or by mountain bike. The dale opens out at Fen Bog, a deep moorland bog that the first builders crossed on a bed of timber and sheep fleeces.

Goathland and Grosmont

Goathland has changed little since it was built in 1865 and is restored to about 1922. It was Aidensfield in ITV's Heartbeat and Hogsmeade in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. From there the line descends to Grosmont, where the railway keeps its engine sheds, and where the original tunnel of the 1830s, built for horse-drawn coaches and now a footpath, stands beside the one the trains use today. Bridge 42, carrying every train over the Murk Esk, has stood since about 1846.

Down the Esk to Whitby

At Grosmont the heritage line meets Network Rail's Esk Valley Line. NYMR trains continue over it for the last six miles, following the river past Sleights and under the thirteen brick arches of Larpool Viaduct into Whitby, the old whaling port where James Cook learned his trade.

The trains

The railway's fleet mixes steam and heritage diesel. It includes Southern Railway S15 No. 825, LNER Q6 No. 63395, the Lambton Collieries tank engine No. 29 and a green Class 101 diesel unit called Daisy. Visiting engines come for galas and special weekends. See also the Settle–Carlisle Railway, the other long scenic line across the north of England on this site.

In 2026 the railway runs Saturday to Wednesday from 28 March to 15 July and from 12 September to 1 November, and every day from 18 July to 9 September. Trains run at intervals from 09:20 until after 18:00. Pickering to Whitby takes about 1 hour 50 minutes, and about 1 hour 5 minutes to Grosmont, where some trains end.

Mondays to Wednesdays and Saturdays in October (the Red timetable)

Good to know:

• Sundays (the Pink timetable) run fewer trains to Whitby: one through train leaves Pickering at 10:00 and reaches Whitby at 11:50, and one leaves Whitby at 14:15 for Pickering (16:05). Trains between Pickering and Grosmont leave Pickering at 09:30, 10:00, 12:15, 13:15 and 16:25.
• Grosmont–Whitby only. On the Red timetable an extra train leaves Grosmont at 09:15 for Whitby (09:45).
• Newtondale Halt, between Levisham and Goathland, is a request stop.
• Steam or diesel. Most trains are steam-hauled; some are booked for a heritage diesel for all or part of the trip, and a diesel may stand in for steam at short notice.
• Event days. Gala weekends and visiting-engine days run their own timetables, and on North Yorkshire Pullman dining days the 12:35 from Grosmont and the 14:10 from Pickering run as the dining train, not as ordinary services.
• Getting there. Pickering has no main-line station. Whitby does: Northern's Esk Valley trains run from Middlesbrough in about an hour and a half; there were six on the Tuesday sampled.

Times as of October 2026, from the railway's July–November 2026 timetable and its online calendar; Northern times from the National Rail journey planner for Tuesday 13 October. At Grosmont the times are arrivals towards Whitby and departures towards Pickering. Check your date on nymr.co.uk (opens in a new tab).

The railway sells its own tickets, online, at its booking offices or on the train. The usual choice is the Day Rover, which lets you hop on and off between Pickering and Whitby all day: £48.95 for an adult and £12 for a child aged 4 to 15, or £38.50 and £9.50 during school holidays. Book online more than four days ahead and the fare drops by 10 %; online and phone bookings add a £1.50 fee. In 2026 each paying adult takes one child free.

For a short hop, a return between neighbouring stations costs £14.95, two stations £24.95 and three £34.95. Under-4s travel free on a lap and dogs pay £3. Fares checked October 2026 on nymr.co.uk (opens in a new tab); pounds sterling.

No rail pass is valid on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Interrail's table of railway companies for Great Britain does not list it, and BritRail's conditions exclude privately owned, steam, heritage and tourist railways. You buy the railway's own ticket.

A pass can still get you to Whitby. Both cover Northern, whose Esk Valley trains from Middlesbrough run into Whitby and also call at Grosmont, where they share the station with the heritage line.

For this journey alone, a pass is not worth buying. A Day Rover costs £48.95, and a pass pays only if the moors are one day of a longer trip around Britain.

Checked October 2026 against interrail.com (opens in a new tab) and britrail.com (opens in a new tab).

A Day Rover makes the line easy to break up: get off, walk for an hour or two and catch a later train on. The places below run from south to north, from Pickering to Whitby.

Two inns for a night on the moors. The White Swan stands on the market place in Pickering, at the southern end of the line, and the Mallyan Spout Hotel, with its valley-view rooms, is in Goathland.

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