Pickering — Local services in Great Britain

A lovely nice & clean Station with a public carpark close by .There's toilets available,a tea room & gift shop on the platform.I found the lady in the booking ticket office to be very pleasant,helpful & informative with regards to purchasing tickets to my intended destination of Whitby,cash or card payments are excepted.i did giftaid the cost of the unlimited train travel pass tickets so 25% can be claimed back from the government by the Station.I also was given Information & advice that i could catch if I wanted to,the steam train which was already on the platform ,then get off @Goathland Station,then catch the next steam train an hour later for the journey to Whitby,I did take the advice on offer & I was very pleased I did .Once aboard I found out it was one of those very old style carriages with a corridor & sliding doors into the seating compartment which brought back childhood memories of day trips by train to Cleethorpes back in the day . I also found out the train ticket inspector was very welcoming & helpful ,and even didn't mind me taking a photo of him in his period uniform,he should really give the chap in the Goathland/ Heartbeat Aidensfield Garage lessons in customer service. I'm not a train enthusiast but i really enjoyed my full day of steam train travel from Pickering to Goathland, then onto Whitby & later returning back to Pickering .I do recommend the trip...

So, I end up at this old train station in Pickering, right? Apparently, it's some historic landmark. And I’m thinkin’ “Alright, this’ll be nice – maybe a quiet afternoon of British charm.” But let me tell ya – this place is like a time machine that nobody asked for.

It’s all cobblestone, creaky benches, and a “stationmaster” who looks like he’s been waitin’ for a train since 1842. The whole place smells like soot, tea, and, ya know, history… which is a fancy word for “a lotta dust.”

Then the train pulls up – I kid you not – this thing looked like the Hogwarts Express, alright? Steam everywhere, like we just hitched a ride with Thomas the Tank Engine. And there’s people dressed up in these Victorian outfits, hats, gloves, the whole thing, like they’re getting ready to hop on and fight in World War I. Part of me’s thinkin’, “Are they paid actors or just really committed locals?”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s kinda charming – you can almost feel your great-grandparents rolling their eyes like, “Oh, so NOW you like trains?”

So yeah, Pickering Station – it’s weird, it’s old, smells funny, but ya know what? Kinda lovable in that “only in Britain” way. Worth a stop if you like your travel with a side of soot...

Pickering is a small market town, we only popped in to buy something while on the way to somewhere else. There are plenty of car parks. The shops are all in a central position so having parked in the long stay car park near the station they were all round the corner. Public toilets are also in that car park which is great. Costa coffee on the corner too. The station is beautiful and is part of the North York Moors Railway route. There's an outdoor shop called trailblazers, loads of charity shops and plenty of small independent ladies clothes shops. Lidl is opposite the long stay...