North Yorkshire Moors Railway

The line links Pickering, Levisham, Goathland and Grosmont, then continues to Whitby. Each stop is a boarding point on the same railway, so it helps to think of the whole 24 miles as the visit rather than one station. Pickering Station is the main visitor entry, postcode YO18 7AJ, close to the A170 and A169.

• Ride the full line out and back for the longest run through moorland and wooded valleys, using original heritage carriages.
• Break the journey at an intermediate station and rejoin a later train if you would rather walk part of the day. Check the timetable first so you know what options exist.
• Stop at Goathland, which appeared as Hogsmeade in the first Harry Potter film and as Aidensfield in Heartbeat. The village is a short walk up the bank, and the station has a tea room in a converted 1922 goods shed, a gift shop and toilets including wheelchair-accessible facilities.
• Walk the Rail Trail from Goathland to Grosmont, or take the paths that lead toward Mallyan Spout.

The railway operates adapted carriages, and there are accessible toilets, disabled parking bays and accessible facilities at points along the line. Platform wheelchairs are available at Pickering and Whitby subject to availability. Access varies by train and by station, so confirm arrangements for the specific service and stops you plan to use rather than assuming step-free access throughout.

• Tickets feel expensive to many visitors compared with the length of the journey.
• Boarding at Pickering can be crowded and feel disorganised on busy days, and with no allocated seating there is often a scramble for places.
• Steam haulage is not guaranteed. Some visitors are disappointed to find a heritage diesel on their train, so treat the locomotive type as a bonus rather than the reason for the trip.
• The full return trip takes most of a day, which does not suit short stops or tight schedules.

The strongest recurring praise is for the original carriages, the friendly volunteer staff, the stations and the countryside seen from the window on the way to the coast. If you want a slow, scenic crossing of the moors and are relaxed about which locomotive turns up, the railway delivers exactly that.