THE word 'express' these days is generally taken to indicate some degree of haste or urgency. There seems to be little of either, however, in our first photograph in Yesterday Once More this week.

This, according to Robin Lidster in his new book Scarborough To Pickering Railway Through Time, shows the Seamer Express, being driven by a rather large and placid lady named Mrs Horsfield. It was, Robin says wryly in his caption to the photo, an 'alternative, if somewhat slower but more sedate, form of transport between Seamer and Scarborough."

The Scarborough to Pickering railway route was opened in stages between 1845 and 1882. One section - from Scarborough to Seamer Junction - was opened by the York and North Midland Railway in 1845.

But the main part of the route, from Seamer Junction to Mill Lane Junction just south of Pickering, was opened on 1 May 1882, writes Mr Lidster. This part of the route stretched for about 16 miles, stopping at stations including Forge Valley, Wykeham, Sawdon and Thornton Dale, and was popularly known as the Forge Valley Line.

Construction of the Forge Valley route was relatively easy, Mr Lidster writes. "There were only two significant cuttings and one extensive embankment. This, together with the fact that there were only fourteen bridges, meant that the railway cost comparatively little in construction.

"When the route opened there were only four trains a day and most of the passenger traffic was during the summer months when visitors and holidaymakers flocked to the well-known beauty spots of Thornton Dale and Forge Valley, which had become very popular during Victorian times."

Mr Lidster's book tells the story of the line through photographs - almost 100 pages of them. Many are extraordinary. One of our favourites - second only to the Seamer Express perhaps - very much reflects the tourism theme. It shows a charabanc at Scarborough station forecourt sometime after April 1906, when the NER introduced motor tours from the station.

What we love about this photo is the expression of excited anticipation on the faces of the passengers. "The charabancs were very popular and could carry up to thirty-three people," Mr Lidster writes. "Portable ladders were used to access the rear seats... and the maximum permitted speed was 12 mph." From the expression on some of the faces, travelling at 12 mph in an open-topped motor bus promised to be quite an adventure.

Other photographs show railway workers gathered, tools in hand, at Sawdon Station: quite a collection of them, in fact, including one contractor's foreman, one bricklayer, one excavator, one timekeeper, one engine driver, three stonemasons, six labourers and ten navvies, Mr Lidster writes. They are all detailed in the 1881 census for the nearby village of Brompton, where they lodged: many came from as far away as Scotland and Ireland.

This may have been a comparatively easy railway to build, as Mr Lidster says, but it still clearly required a considerable workforce. Other photographs in the book focus on station staff; the stations themselves; and, of course, the steam locomotives that used the route.

Most of the Scarborough To Pickering Railway closed in 1950. But it is brought back to vivid life through the photos in Mr Lidster's book. For anyone interested in the history of the railways, or in the changing face of the North Yorkshire countryside, it will be a treat.

Pictures from Scarborough To Pickering Railway Through Time by Robin Lidster - published by Amberley, priced £14.99.

York Press: A large group of men, many with shovels, at Sawdon station: presumably working on the line. The 1881 census for the nearby village of Brompton nearby records details of railway workers working on the new railway: one contractor's foreman, one bricklay
ON TRACK: A large group of men, many with shovels, at Sawdon station. The 1881 census for the nearby village of Brompton nearby records details of railway workers working on the new railway: one contractor’s foreman, one bricklayer, one excavator, one timekeeper, one engine drver, three stonemasons, six labourers and ten navvies. All lodged in the village. They came from as far away as Scotland and Ireland