On location with the world’s most popular heritage railway

It’s the go-to steam train service for period location scouts – the wonderful North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which runs from the market town of Pickering through the sweeping heather moorland at the heart of the North York Moors National Park.

The restored engines and carriages, and yesteryear stations, have appeared in many films and TV programmes – Testament of Youth and Bollywood rom-com Shaandaar are among the most recent, while the trains are also seen in Dad’s Army (2019) and the final Indiana Jones installment in 2023.

Stay the night in a country hotel or B&B in the moorland village of Goathland, halfway along the line, and you’ll experience another piece of silver-screen magic as you disembark at Goathland Station, or ‘Hogsmeade’ as it’s known by fans, the final port of call for the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter movies. The tranquil village also doubled as ‘Aidensfield’ for many years in the nostalgic ITV 1960s-set police drama Heartbeat.

Content provided by North York Moors National Park