A heritage railway has suspended its steam trains after a series of fires broke out alongside the line due to sparks from the engines.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) has announced it was pulling all its steam services, just days after the lifting of a temporary ban imposed due to the hot weather.

It comes after North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service attended four fires along the railway line yesterday evening (Thursday, August 12).

At 6.01pm Whitby crews attended a lineside fire in Esk Valley, Grosmont.

The fire had been extinguished by local residents prior to arrival of the fire service and crews dampened down the area.

Over the next 20 minutes fires also broke out in Beck Hole and Moorgates in Goathland.

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The Moorgates fire spread across an area of 35m by 2m and again, locals, including gamekeepers had extinguished the blaze before crews arrived to dampen down the affected area. 

Later the same night, at 8.33pm another fire broke out in Goathland involving an area of lineside scrubland measuring 15m by 5m.

Crews used hose reel jet to tackle the blaze.

The cause of all these fires was down to sparks from a NYMR steam engine hitting incredibly dry grass and scrubland.

The railway had been using diesel locomotives since July due to the fire risks posed in the dry conditions but the company’s CEO said the ban was lifted this week after “recent rain,”

However, the steam train service has now been suspended again after the events of Thursday night.

Chris Price, CEO of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, said: “In these unprecedented times the NYMR is trying to keep its business open to protect livelihoods, and its very existence post-Covid.

“There is no doubt that we are considerably less sustainable running our trains with diesel locomotives.

“A decision was made following the recent rain to try and run a limited steam service to meet the wants of our customers whilst mitigating the risk by employing a third-party fire service company to patrol the most vulnerable areas of our lineside.

“We apologise to those impacted and have today made the decision to totally remove steam from our timetable until further notice.”

Mr Price added: “The heritage railway is doing everything it can to fully cooperate with the emergency services, taking every precaution to ensure the safety of both staff and passengers, which is always our priority.”

A spokesman from Goathland Volunteer Fire Station said the fires in quick succession 'stretches local resources'.

They praised the community effort supporting the fire service as local residents' and gamekeepers' prompt actions helped stop two of the fires getting out of control.

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