Please take time to post a message about your memories of the Malton to Driffield railway. No matter how small they are, it is always great to hear stories from the past.
Well thanks to the power of the Internet I have found out what it was.
It was a Matisa "NEPTUNE" track recording vehicle. These were delivered to British Railways between 1957 and 1967 and there were only 13 of them of which just one has survived. Since the M&DR was closed just one year after the first was delivered this was presumably the first one and I would guess it would be based at York. They said it took an hour to do a 20 mile line so my hunch is that the crew had decamped for a liquid lunch at the Middleton Arms ! It's interesting to note that since the outriggers are deployed it was actually being used to record the track condition.
Here's a page of info for the sole survivor http://www.teignrail.co.uk/neptune.php and a short film clip from 1960 https://www.britishpathe.com/video/railway-recorder
Rail Rover wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:45 am
You've quashed the mantra that "the line was only ever operated by steam", Alan!
I'll have to update my patter with the public when we reopen
Ha ! I wonder if there is a big roll of paper buried in an archive somewhere with the M&D track profile on it ? And did they take any more photos of their little jaunt ?
Rail Rover wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:45 am
You've quashed the mantra that "the line was only ever operated by steam", Alan!
I'll have to update my patter with the public when we reopen
There's a big difference between being "operated" and "maintained" though
It amuses me too that the only known proof of an internal combustion vehicle on the line has actually been sitting there unnoticed in Warwick's book all along! I need to find my copy now and have a look. It might be 9 months since we moved but there is still a lot of stuff in boxes...
menticknap wrote: ↑Fri Aug 07, 2020 12:45 pm
It might be interesting to get in touch with "The Rail Trolley Trust" to find out if the trolley they have was the same one used on our railway.
It appears there are actually 3 survivors.
1) The one in the article
2) One at Shildon NRM (DX50002).
3) One at Llangollen, (DX50005).
According to this Flickr page DX50001 was "dumped out of use at York" for a while. https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/46396565225
There's a picture of survivor DX50005 at Scarborough in 1988 on this page
file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Corwen+Newsletter+November2016.pdf
With reference to diesel working on the M&DR- does any body know what hauled the dismantling trains after the line closed it could have been a Malton 03 or 08? (not sure what was allocated at the time) to recover the materials.
Just had another thought-did the platekayers use a Wickham trolley to inspect and work on the line. North Grimston certainly had a pair of parallel "parking lines" at the back of the hut at the Malton end of the goods yard. I know there is a hand propelled version at Sledmere Halt but surely a petrol engined version was provided later on in the line's life. I was lucky enough to ride on one of the Wickham trollies when I was a platelayer and it was an experience never forgotten!
Clickety-clack by Stephen Dowle, on Flickr
