The 10.29 pulled out of Middlesbrough railway station and headed for paradise. Passing briefly through a petrified forest of petrochemical installations and then some gracious suburbs, we made for the moors. Like a little fishing boat skirting a school of whales, we bobbed our way between the hills. Kildale, Commondale, Lealholm, Sleights, each of the little stations on the Esk Valley was greeted by a rhyming poem from our conductor. The Esk Valley Line should not exist. The infamous Dr Beeching swung his axe at it back in the 1960s but it was saved by a mass campaign. How else would the children living in these isolated communities be able to reach school in Whitby? The Esk Valley Line is still a lifeline for scholars, and for families heading to the seaside. For 36 slow miles, the train