North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

But do they say where the train is travelling to during your meal? Are you taken into one of the sidings beside the mainline and stood there to eat your food? it would save the problem of split soup and drinks!!

 

If the bridge has a weakness then you need to do the propping before you can do invasive investigation works, knock a key stone out and you could have a collapse on your hands. Propping needs EA consent which takes time, listed building work, permission through Planning Dept, also takes time. If they are done concurrently it helps.

 

Indeed. They are not the best communicators. They may be able to generate adverts which are well targeted and generate footfall, but that is only one dimension of communication.

 

A poster on the NYMR Forum is suggesting the word going round is that June is the target for re-opening but this is by no means official. As you suggest, an awful lot of effort could be saved if the website wasn't still advertising happenings from Grosmont. With, as I understand it, seven people being employed in marketing, it shouldn't be a difficult thing to do. However, the NYMR seems to be getting more tight-lipped as a policy with people being told not to post on social media and nothing official being posted on the official staff and volunteers Facebook page. Witness @Lineisclear and @Sidmouth4me no longer posting on here and elsewhere. Wind the clock back twelve months and there was a breath of fresh air as the current PLC chairman (Chris Gee) started posting information and encouraging communication on social media. However, Chris resigned in August, allegedly following a major disagreement with the Trust chairman over what was happening and what should be done to rectify things and the information tap dried up, again.
I also smiled at your comment on getting member buy in. After 47 years on the footplate I hung up my tea can last year. I received an e-mail a few weeks ago asking if I was going to return to the footplate to which I said no (with reasons) but said I was prepared to help where I could, such as with MIC training. The result was I was removed from HOPS and 'Ontrack' and effectively cut off from all formal communications.

Edited to remove typos.

 

How not to build support in one easy lesson

 

It is the “all or nothing” style of thought. I have witnessed several “modern” and “professional” managements be unwilling to accept anything that doesn’t fit the mould they have in mind. The unwillingness to be flexible is one the regrettable traits of heritage railways. It isn’t what got them to where they are today!

 

Well, I think they've seemingly had a stab at one "WAG" , according a post on the NYMR Unofficial forum - they're planning to reopen the bridge to traffic in June (though which June is not specified!) without providing any other details. I hope they are right, but I find it hard to believe that a bridge supposedly unable to be used could be repaired so quickly, even if there were no considerations due to its listing and potential pollution and other environmental

 

The quoted £1.5 MILLION for the GWSR Stanway Viaduct appeal didn't seem to put off people contributing since the appeal has just closed with all work done.


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I prefer a ROM to a WAG - there is some science behind a ROM. What I've seen on the Unofficial Forum is a rumour - it doesn't include which year (Roger Ford's laws refer) and gives no evidence behind it.

 

I think that is sort of in the realms of normality for a big must do HR line project.
If they come up with say £4M, people may decide it will never get reached and donate elsewhere. I do accept it is a balancing act. Silence of course may mean they feel it is at the higher end of "reasonableness"

 

Not necessarily, at all. It could be just the usual NYMR current management cluelessness.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Noel

 

Caught a mention of the Br42 appeal on BBC Look North from Leeds local news at about 06.30
No chance anyone else can extract it from Iplayer?
I'm tied all day.

 

From bbc app

BBC News - Funds needed to repair North Yorkshire Moors Railway bridge - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qpddevw87o?app-referrer=search

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Short item on tonight's Look North from Leeds about 10 minutes into programme.

 

As ever, it is short on info and effectively just says that we need to repair the bridge and need money to do so. No critical information, such as what the problem is, the consequences of not doing so and, above all, how much it is going to cost. They remain closely guarded secrets.

 

In the absence of definitive info, let me see if I can fill in the blanks:

What the problem is

The bridge is f ***ed
​

The consequences of not doing so

The railway is f ***ed
​

How much it is going to cost

F*** knows
​

Does that help

Tom

 

I can understand why the news item didn't actually say that. Perhaps it should have, though. Or something similar.

 

The third answer also applies to when will work start and how long will it take.

I find it absolutely baffling that so little information has come out about it in the seven weeks since the closure was announced. They should be shouting from the rooftops that the line has been halved and they can't run to Whitby. But the latest Facebook post is about the camping coaches! And that post has seen more interactions than the pinned post about the bridge appeal.

Compare the 6 paragraphs on https://www.nymr.co.uk/bridge42 to the wealth of information and updates on https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/fundraising/broom-lane-bridge-appeal/

Which one would you donate to?

A couple of years ago the Solway Aviation Museum launched an appeal to save the last surviving Blackburn Beverley. Over £80,000 raised in a few weeks, due in no small part to a concerted social media campaign. Virtually daily updates on the fundraising and then dismantling and removal of the aircraft. Lots of goodwill from companies helping with the move as well. And the museum is run entirely by volunteers. I can't see the NYMR raising those sort of sums any time soon, and the begging bowl will come out for yet another grant.

 

Interesting to see that bookings for the Pullman dining trains are available on the website, with the first one being 24th March, and saying that it starts from Grosmont. Given the work the BBC news item says needs doing. Do they realistically think the work will be completed by then or are they living in cloud cuckoo land?

Dave B

 

I really think they are inh

abiti

I'm afraid that I think they are occupying said nest somewhere in the sky........... Please, someone convince me that I'm wrong ....... and amaze me!