The North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Start at Pickering if you want the whole line, and allow around two hours each way to Whitby. A Day Rover ticket lets you get off at Goathland or Grosmont on the way and catch a later train. Not every train runs through to Whitby or is pulled by a steam engine, so check the destination and the scheduled locomotive for your date on the NYMR timetable and confirm your return train before you leave the station.

The line climbs out of Pickering into Newtondale, a steep-sided glacial channel with no road through it. It is the part of the journey you cannot see any other way.

• Pickering (YO18 7AJ): the southern terminus, a 1930s station with the 1847 roof reinstated, a tea room, a gift shop on platform 1 and toilets, including an accessible toilet.
• Levisham (YO18 7NN): restored to its 1912 appearance, with toilets, a picnic paddock and walks to Skelton Tower and the Hole of Horcum. Levisham village is a stiff mile uphill.
• Newtondale Halt: a request stop in the forest with picnic benches and no toilets, reached only by train, on foot or by mountain bike.
• Goathland (YO22 5NF): the station that played Aidensfield in Heartbeat and Hogsmeade in the first Harry Potter film, with a tea room in the old goods shed and toilets. Our Goathland guide covers the village.
• Grosmont (YO22 5QE): the junction with the Esk Valley line, with a tea room, toilets and the engine sheds, reached through a tunnel of 1835.
• Whitby (YO21 1YN): a national network station run by Northern, with the railway's gift shop in the old booking office and no toilets on the station.

The standard ticket is a Day Rover, valid for getting on and off along the line all day. Shorter trips are sold as One Stop Singles and as One, Two and Three Stop Returns. In 2026 one child aged 4 to 15 travelled free with each fare-paying adult on standard services, online bookings carried a small booking fee, and booking a Day Rover online more than four days ahead took 10% off. Fares are set each year, so check current prices on the railway's own website before you book.

Steam runs from spring to autumn, with more trains in the school holidays and fewer at the start and end of the season. Galas, wartime weekends and Santa trains sit outside the ordinary timetable and sell out early. The 2026 season ran from 28 March into early November, with Santa and dining services from Pickering in late November and December.

The Whitby end was closed until 1 June 2026 while Bridge 42, the stone arch over the Murk Esk at Grosmont, was propped. The permanent repair is planned for the winter of 2026 to 2027, and the railway had not announced its 2027 dates when we checked, so confirm the Whitby end before you book for early 2027.

The railway says well-behaved dogs are welcome on standard services for a small charge per dog per day, kept on a short lead and off the seats. Pickering station has a level, step-free entrance from Park Street to both platforms. At Goathland there is level access from the entrance to the accessible carriage, ticket office, toilets, tea room and shop, though the path up to the village is steep. See the railway's accessibility page for boarding arrangements before you travel.

Pickering Castle is a short walk from the station, which makes the castle and a shorter train ride a good pairing on a day with uncertain weather. Walkers can leave the train at Levisham for the moor above the Hole of Horcum, and families often break the journey at Goathland. If you are here for Bangers & Cash, the Mathewsons gift shop and motor museum is in Thornton-le-Dale itself, so the railway and the museum fit into one weekend. Supper back in the village is on our eating and drinking page.