Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

No - of course there's always conflict - but any purely local or individual interest is trumped by a national agency - such as the Charity Commission, or the EA, or the ORR - because they are national agencies, sanctioned directly by parliament. JH

 

Individual interest, agreed. Local (and I note the experience of the local parish council) is less clear, let alone regional. I do agree that it's an important card to be able to draw, though.

 

A charity might wish to do something as the means to an end, where the end is in the public interest but the means would not be. A charity may also wish to do something which is convenient for it own internal operations but incidental to its objectives and in itself neither beneficial nor detrimental to the public interest.

 

Here's a little story from Yorkshire which might focus a few minds on the long-term objective of the L&BR

https://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news...Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1771158744

 

Of course charities have an impact on the economy, possibly in the area where they are based, and it makes no difference to the 'attractiveness' of a railway what its status is. It could be a charity, a limited company, or whatever else. I was merely saying, that if you want to be regarded as a local business, you have to be a business. So VOR, BMR, and whatever the Torbay line is called now, and thats about it.
Anyway, I was produced on the outskirts of Slough. So what? And what have you got against "Turban Twister" from the Shaggy Calf Brewery?

 

To my way of thinking, it really does not matter what you managerment structure is like, just as long as the bottom line can break even at the end of the year. Many charities are now being run like a business, and the oversight of them is becoming more rigorous by the year. ID cards for trustees and directors have to be in place by the end of this year, just as one example.

If we then take the heritage railway becoming part of the local community, and that community around it suddenly finds itself without the railway because it has gone bust, it is not just the membership that loses out, but all the other SME's around it as well, pubs, B&B's, restaurants. Hotels and guest houses, plus other local attractions and suppliers as well.

For that reason alone, such a railway not only needs to be well managed, but it also needs to have people involved at the Director and Trustee level who can not only make the hard decision but can steer the project in the right direction. This may well lead to upsetting some of the membership. But if you have some really good directors and trustees who can walk the walk and talk the talk to the membership, you shouldn't end up with any major problems

I am still convinced that there is still a place for volunteer Directors / Trustees / Managers in a heritage railway project, since they can provide external experience in how a successful railway/ business can be run.

But the days of the old guard, I am afraid to say, have long gone; expert volunteers leading a project team at a railway should always be encouraged, and volunteers will turn up if they are welcomed and are made to feel part of the team.

Due to several failed planning attempts, the ambition and drive within the L&BR Trust has faded, and to get it back to where it should be is going to be a difficult and uphill struggle, but it is not impossible.

You all know my views on making this railway family-friendly-oriented rather than keeping to the pure 1935 L&BR look that we all know and love from B&W films and postcards of the period.

There is nothing wrong with that in my view; however, there is a fine balance between keeping both your members and the public happy. Members will, by and large, buy into the heritage aspect, while the family will buy into being entertained for a few hours, and if you happen to have a young family, Johnny and Jenny may be into Thomas the Tank Engine and whatever the current Disney film, such as Frozen.

Johnny will ask Dad if they can travel behind all the different coloured locos, while Jenny will ask Mum if she can visit the theme park or whatever it is you have provided to entertain the kids (with Legoland instantly comes to mind).

Dad will be happy that he gets to have a ride behind a steam locomotive and looks out at some great countryside, while Mum will be happy if you have good, clean cafes and toilets on site.

At the end of the day, it is all about getting the right balance between showing off the heritage and the commercial demands of operating a steam railway.

 

I'm glad you think so, because in my experience directors and trustees of heritage railways, across the country, are almost all volunteers. Managers is another matter; if you need someone to run the thing 7 days a week then it stands to reason that you need to pay them for at least 5 of those days.

These tired old cliches don't do you any favours. My wife is not a rail enthusiast by any means, but whenever she has been dragged along to a heritage railway, she will comment on things like whether the station buildings are the genuine historical articles; I feel certain that a railway which is "just a train ride" is not going to be her cup of tea at all, as that's the bit she likes least. The kids... well, they mostly just want to run around. I'm sure they don't care about engine colours. So thinking about all of that... you may as well recreate the past as faithfully as you reasonably can, because doing otherwise risks ending up with a mess which satisfies nobody.

The public are not as stupid as you might think.

 

Quite. A theme park and a steam railway are two very different attractions. Having somewhere for kids to be able to run off steam is an excellent idea, but otherwise the place has to have confidence in what it is.

 

I know my comments sounded very generic, but the point I was trying to make is that the railway will at most be of interest to one or two people in a family group, and we all have to think about our other halves and the kids if we (as the railway enthusiast) wants to be able to enjoy the day at the railway, then any reasonable attraction needs to be able to cater for everyone, as one famous manager once said, we are all in the entertainment industry and it is like putting on a show, but we also need to be aware that by entertaining we also need to open up that appeals to more than just the railway enthusiast in the family.

If you happen to get that appeal just right, and afterwards on, say, Trustpilot, you get regular 5-star reviews, then this might attract more visitors to the railway to check it out.

 

My wife generally would not know the difference between 'genuine historical' and some modern pastiche. Her main concern would be that (a) it would not be too long before we moved on somewhere else 'more interesting' ! and (b) that everything was clean and easily accessible. We once boarded a train on one of the railways of which I am a member, walked through an entire 4-coach set, declared it too dirty/dusty/sticky to sit anywhere and demanded a refund on her ticket! To be fair, she did have a point, it clearly had not seen a cleaner since the start of the day. As for the 'ladies', if they wer a nything like the 'gents' then I'm not suprised she refused even to go inside.

Mind you, she could be very unpredictable on such things ...on one occasion we drove to the MHR for the day as, specifically at her request, I has managed thru' the good offices of one of my contacts there to blag her a footplate ride on 'Bodmin' all the way from Alresford to Alton, then we swopped places and I rode it on the way back. But it seems once was enough....

 

The plural of anecdote is not data.
All these views and more are not exclusive. The important thing is to understand how many of each you get, and if you want to chase after a given demographic.
Everyone is different, I frankly am unbothered by historical rolling stock or perfect stations, I'm here for the traction.

If the L&B is to be rebuilt, it's going to have to make enough money to work. At the moment, everyone seems to saying what they would like. Which is fine, but I'd warrant very few people on here have the ability to subsidise a railway.

What that looks like, I don't know.
My view would be to build as minimally as you can, in such a way as to not preclude future upgrades.

 

As, had they been the right age the time we stopped off en route to Cornwall, would mine - and did just running at Kingscote (pre EG extension).

 

Mine would too. Worth looking at the National Trust's "natural playground" concept

 

Peter, I am not sure if you are aware, but the L&BR was subject to a Business plan put forward by the local council back in the 1990s. For some reason, they had the idea to support the rebuilding of the railway if it was to become (of all things), a linear theme park.

Sadly, I never got to see the report itself, but it was reported in the local newspaper at the time that each station should become some sort of individual heritage hub operation, which just goes to show how times have changed.

The one issue that I think we all share is that we want to see a fully restored L&BR, whatever the set time period is chosen, and if we are all honest about it, we want someone else to pay for that dream to happen, the trick as I see it, is to make the railway attractive enough to the public at large that they all come by the coach or car load and spend loads of cash while they are here. If that means getting away from the core heritage message a bit, but it keeps the railway open for us to enjoy at the Autumn Gala, then so be it. I think we can all live with that.