850 Lord Nelson

Ben, I am rather ashamed to say that Bridges and Wheels is probably the first big Appeal that the NYMR has had for many years, unless you count Share Issues (which are very similar despite the issuing of shares and granting of "benefits" to shareholders). It is certainly the most successful.

It can also be very difficult to judge the enthusiast/general public split of either type of raising funding. One member has singled handedly raised around £25,000 from bucket collections on trains, which other volunteers have done also along with another team selling quizes to passengers. It would be fairest to say the bulk of these has come from ordinary days - sadly, on Galas, there was some resistence in a few cases to being asked for donations.

The membership gave Bridges and Wheels an excellent start but I would also not like to really try and judge the split of "enthusiasts" and "general public" in the membership. Joining the railway suggests a level of enthusiasm but this can often be for the area or a particular line perhaps than railways generally. Even amongst working members, there is probably a general interest in railways but being part of an organisation (a wide "family" if you like) is usually an important part of volunteering. Regularly working on as a volunteer can often limit the opprtunities for visiting other lines or riding on railtours etc.!

Generally, I would say what has been impressive with Bridges and Wheels is the wide range of people who have supported the Appeal - many thanks to all of them.

The general answer may well be that it depends on the subject of an Appeal - we did a small Appeal which paid for the latest overhaul of the Great Western saloon and that was just to members - comparatively few people contributed but still can't really say whether enthusiasts or not!

My comment about photographers not being interested in pre-BR liveries was based in large part on experience with the comparative lack of interest in the Tornado photocharters earlier this year. These were the first charters the loco had ever worked but a regular comment was it was the "wrong colour". More was taken on footplate rides than the photocharters, one of which was cancelled.

Certainly one knock on of charters is that it is increasingly rare for pictures to appear in magazines that are not taken on charters and hence lines that don't run many (or any) do miss out in publicity terms as a result. We do hope to run a few charters on the NYMR in 2010, as I suspect we have a number of locos generally based on the line that would be quite popular as well as an excellent goods train and an enthusiastic team who look after it. As you say, the extra income does not harm!

Steven

 

850 in southern green (and 5690 in LMS red) take me back to my child hood... I remember Rainhill all too well with these two locomotives

Now if Tangmere was Southern Green perhaps ???

Now what would be really thought provoking perhaps would be seeing an S160 in BR black with lion on wheel and a BR number (93xxx perhaps ?):smt079 maybe a BR standard tender even...

 

The tender would have to have the raves put back on but I would certainly like to see that, maybe in the 'in between' livery like 92 Squadron used to sport.

 

Steven,

Thank you very much for your detailed and interesting responce.

Regards,
Ben