A heritage railway has suspended its steam trains after a locomotive fire.
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) announced it was withdrawing all its steam services, just days after the temporary ban imposed due to the heat was lifted.
The visitor attraction had been using diesel locomotives since July due to the fire risk posed by sparks from steam trains in dry conditions.
The company’s chief executive said the ban was lifted this week after “recent rain”, but has now suspended service again following a fire on Thursday night.
Chris Price, CEO of 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 by running our trains with diesel locomotives.
“Following the recent rain the decision was made to attempt to run a limited steam service to meet the wishes of our customers while mitigating the risk by engaging a third party fire company to patrol the most vulnerable areas of our line
“We apologize to those affected and have today taken the decision to completely remove steam from our schedule until further notice.”
Price added: “Heritage Railway is doing everything it can to co-operate fully with the emergency services, taking every precaution to ensure the safety of both staff and passengers, which is always our priority.”
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s incident log recorded three incidents of a “line fire caused by sparks from a steam engine” between 6pm and 6.30pm on Thursday.
