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Lottery Dreams for investing in Heritage Railways

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by toplight, Aug 29, 2017.

  1. toplight

    toplight Well-Known Member

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    The best answer is really to spend the money on covered space and workshop space. If a railway builds this it encourages loco owners to want to base their Engine on that line because of the facilities on offer so the line indirectly gains from someone elses money and effort. Volunteers are also more likely to want to come and work on stuff if you provide decent conditions to do so. It also means too something that is restored, stays restored and doesn't need doing all again because it has spent 15 years outside in the rain.

    The North Norfolk is an example of a railway that was struggling a bit previously but since more workshop space was provided at Weybourne has really made serious progress in recent times.
     
  2. domeyhead

    domeyhead Member

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    As it is an imaginary £1m why not just imagine the willing and skilled volunteers who would help spend it? If it was a real £1m up for grabs I doubt if anyone would give their previous answers.
     
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  3. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Oh you naughty boy! I'm off to the NRM library to find something suitable... :)

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
     
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  4. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

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    Invest the money, and invite railways to apply for a small grant from the income every year. Then I would have a nice excuse to spend my time pootling around the country visiting the applicants to see if their proposals were sensible.
     
  5. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    As you know full well, there can be no "authentic" buffet car for the IOW. For that matter there are plenty of tourist railways for whom there can be no authentic buffet car.

    With the proviso that it can only function on a fine day, how about this for a refreshment facility that also serves to find a use for a railway relic many places could not be bothered with. "It" is a four ton type "A" container where the original metalwork has been retained but the woodwork renewed. The exterior paintwork, in authentic bauxite brown, was used as an exercise to train staff and volunteers in carriage painting. Its interior was partly finished and completely equipped, by the generosity of local businesses and it serves as a refreshment outlet for "Train Story" at Havenstreet, which is some distance away from the remainder of the site. When not open it serves as an extra exhibit.

    £1 million would provide quite a few of these outlets for tourist railways and enhance the "preservation" aspect.

    PH
     
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  6. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Serving refreshments out of a guy that was once a transport container sounds awfully NAAFI to me... ;)

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
     
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  7. gwalkeriow

    gwalkeriow Well-Known Member

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  8. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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  9. toplight

    toplight Well-Known Member

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    The amount of Finance/Volunteer Labour isn't fixed. People will will regularly spend their own money/time if they see a project they want to do.

    I read in Steam Railway recently about a group restoring wagons at the Nene Valley. They had an old BR brake van that had been acquired in the 1980s but unfortunately shortly before it was delivered it was burnt out by vandals so was basically just a chassis when it arrived. It then spent 25 + years as just a chassis before one member acquired it and decided to restore it. In the article it explained he had build a completely new wooden body in his garage and test assembled it on his driveway before putting it on the chassis. From the photos it looked like new and you would never realize it's history, but if it gets cut up first then that later restoration never is done.
    I am restoring a coach myself that the previous owner just left for 21 years without doing anything with it, but had he not acquired it straight from BR it would have gone for scrap. Often all that is needed is for a change of owner to someone who wants to do something with it.
     
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  10. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    I sometimes wonder if places where objects are stored could not not exert pressure of the "take it away, or do some work on it or sell it" kind.

    PH
     
  11. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    Oh no they don't (IMHO)

    PH
     
  12. 61624

    61624 Part of the furniture

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    Often the problem is that the same people are doing jobs that the railway would prefer them to do, rather than what they would prefer to do. Force them to make a choice and perhaps you lose useful volunteers too - but perhaps you see that as an acceptable price for tidiness?
     
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  13. 21B

    21B Part of the furniture

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    It happens, but you have to accept that the item might leave, and or you may upset some/many people. If the item is untouched, but owned by someone who owns something very useful to the line ....

    I think it is a question of balance. A few wrecks dotted about dont leave a bad impression. Many long lines of mouldering equipment in plain sight do.
     
  14. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    It's a real enough dilemma. Tourist railways are not operated in isolation and, as I have said before, visitors would hardly expect a panoramic view of a farm park's midden heap than they ought to of a linear scrap yard. Unified ownership is not in itself a panacea but when the conclusion that something needs to be done is reached. then it it relatively easy to do it. No worries about someone "taking their ball back home" in a sulk.

    PH
     
  15. toplight

    toplight Well-Known Member

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    It is not quite so simple. Often particular groups or members will own several vehicles. Some of those may be restored, some not.

    My own railway had an individual for example who had a lot of stuff wagons/coach etc which were in poor condition, but then they also had 2 diesel locos which were in regular use and which the railway relied on considerably when steam wasn't running, so if they exert pressure for one thing then it can upset said owner and they take away something else which the railway needs. Sometimes that person may have donated a lot of money to the railway so they don't want to lose that etc. Often another typical scenario is where a groups say owns 2+ locos or carriages etc and one is being worked on by the group in the workshop while the other one is outside waiting its turn. This was especially the case when locos were being acquired from Barry Scrapyard where it was acquire it or it may get scrapped. With manpower + workshop space and money in short supply the group can often only work on one item at a time.
     
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  16. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Many old photos show less-than-pristine freight stock present on grass grown, but theoretically active sidings. One example, Yarmouth (IoW) seemed to be the last but one resting place for a horse box and cattle wagons not finally removed until the demise of the Freshwater line. Machynlleth (low level yard) hosted a line of covered wagons for years, though in this case, t'would appear a deliberate ploy by the stationmaster to conceal the presence of the two Corris locos from unwanted attention!

    As far as functioning workshops alongside passenger lines go, the Blue Pullman stock lay rotting alongside the mainline for some years, becoming increasingly faded each time I saw it.

    At Horsham, a disused departmental ex-LSWR carriage was rotting amidst disused wagonry at the end of a siding for years until rescue finally arrived some time after I last worked there in 1993. The downside sidings at Plumstead were home to the withdrawn 4DD units for many months in the 70s.

    There's a prototypical excuse.... sorry.... example for almost anything!
     
  17. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    Thanks for your thoughts. I just need to refer you to my post No.74. Visiting "normals" notice things which mean less to enthusiasts. I have heard comments about the neatness of the coal heap!

    PH
     
  18. Bill Drewett

    Bill Drewett Member

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    I think the word 'normal' must have a quite different meaning on the Isle of Wight. A bit like 'normal for Cornwall'.
     
    Last edited: Aug 31, 2017
  19. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Fighting talk ...... get the red squirrels on standby to attack!:)
     
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  20. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    It was coined by someone on another thread as opposed to "gricers". In other words the sort of person who likes to be able to see out of the carriage windows and not to get light coloured clothing dirty from the seats.

    PH
     

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