Yorkshire boys raise a laugh at NYMR festival with locomotive headboard
STEAM railway enthusiasts can be an eccentric bunch whose passion is lost on the general public, but a group of seven members of the movement raised the bar to a new level during the North Yorkshire Moors Railway annual steam gala and beer festival on September 22-25.
All in their early to mid-20s and very obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves, they were impossible to ignore due to a white rose of Yorkshire flag they were proudly carrying and a locomotive headboard proclaiming ‘Yorkshire boys on tour.’ In fact, they were five boys and two girls, but that’s just being pedantic.
Five of them – Ben Hanson, Lucy Hemingway, Josh Peace, Rob Sowden, and Joe Isaac – live in Yorkshire, while Laura Mae Ferrier lives in Lincolnshire and Ethan Beadle in Co Durham, but those two counties are close enough to Yorkshire to allow them to carry the flag.
Among the hilarity it was difficult to identify the leader of the pack, but 21-year-old Ben put his hand up and offered an explanation. “I have known all of the ‘boys’ since my late school years and have grown up with them as best friends and railway enthusiasts,” he said.
“During one hilarious discussion about three years ago we were talking about upcoming galas we were all attending together and thought up the idea of getting a group headboard. Eventually I came up with the grand name ‘Yorkshire boys on tour’.
“The board was made in July 2020 and arrived at my door in time for my 19th birthday, but sadly it didn’t get used until April last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That was at the Derwent Valley Light Railway, where it was carried by Ruston & Hornsby 4wDM No. 3 Ken Cooke.”
Since then the boys have managed to get it carried by LMS 2-6-2T
No. 41312 in October last year at an East Lancashire Railway gala – and even put on display at the same event on A4 No. 60009 Union of South Africa – and on Standard 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80080 at the Great Central Railway, Standards Nos. 76079 and 80136 at the NYMR, and at the Middleton and Embsay & Bolton Abbey railways.
Ben, a machinist operator for a turbo engineering company in Huddersfield, has plenty of anecdotes about their travels, including one from the Great Central winter steam gala earlier this year when a friend who was lineside heard a photographer nearby exclaim “Not that (expletive) headboard again!” as a train passed with the group displaying the board in a carriage window.
“Some enthusiasts say a bright blue headboard isn’t authentic, but it makes a lot of people smile, laugh, and wave as we go by, with us waving and smiling back,” added Ben. “The railways themselves have always had a good laugh about it, as well as putting it on their locomotives, and some of them have invited us back, which is more fun for us.”
The current headboard is made of wood, but the boys have plans for a replacement based on the same design. “We hope to gather enough money between us to have a real metal board cast for use on running days,” said Ben. “Also, we have recently created a Facebook page in the hope of gaining recognition and also potential sponsors to raise money for charity.”