Great Central Railway General Matters

My feeling is that although galas have remained fairly stable, and probably other events too, it's the bread and butter day-in-day-out operations that have most notably not recovered since Covid leading to shortfall.

Edit - I should add, general comment, not specific to any particular railway (although one I've observed on my home railway).

 

There’s a lot of talk about coal (indeed the GCR announcement even references it) but the one that really has bitten - and I suspect is a surprise to many - is electricity prices. No price cap for businesses in the way that domestic users had, and with large numbers of buildings, often poorly insulated, and maintenance activities dependent on extensive use of power tools, railways are big consumers. I was pretty taken aback that at one point a year or two ago, our electricity bill on the Bluebell was running at £1000 per day - considerably above the coal bill. Worse, it had gone from something like £200 per day - so it was like having another £1/4million added to the budget almost overnight.

The other factors are all real, but that one is a massive shock - in a time of declining “turn up and go” passengers (as I believe is common across the sector) it was like needing to find another 15,000 passengers each year just to stand still.

Tom

 

Absolutely Pete, to use a football analogy it’s all about being able to do it on a ‘cold, rainy night in Stoke’
Going back to Simon Smiths comments about running 3 locos from early season I do wonder if that’s something that doesn’t exactly help with the coal situation, apart from the 2 standard moguls what else can Loughborough turn out that’s ‘small’?
7714 and 1501 have both seen considerable use since Covid at the SVR I don’t think the GC has anything operational that’s similar at the moment.

 

I'm not levelling any criticism at you but I do wonder if the GCR is underselling itself. How many people does it take to put the event on? It's a non-operating day so, at a guess, a driver, fireman and guard, at least one signalman and a duty controller. They may be volunteers but a cost needs to be put to these five people and I'd suggest £150/person isn't unreasonable. That's £750. Then there's coal. Assuming the loco is lit up from cold then three tons isn't an unreasonable figure at (say) £375/ton which is £1175. The loco is on hire so there is a hire fee. I'm quite out of touch with loco hire fees at the moment but pre-covid, £800+/day wasn't unrealistic for such a loco. Let's say £1200 /day now. Totting that up comes to £3125 and the expected revenue is. £4375. Does all this go to the GCR, I have my doubts? In all this I've ignored water, oil and wear and tear on stock and track and all the support services such as FTR's that are necessary to operate the train. Let's also not forget that electricity bill Tom has just mentioned.
The figures I've used are all subjective but it does show that running a train is not a cheap exercise. We can look at it another way and say that on a normal day a loco and train can do 4 return trips over the line. GCR return fare is £25 so, dividing that £4375 by £25 is the equivalent of 175 passengers for the day. With four trains that is 44 passengers/train, about 2/3rds of the capacity of a Mk.1. I can't see that as being a worthwhile service to operate. Having said all that, as long as the income covers the direct costs it is contributing to the bottom line, even if it is only a small contribution.

 

Scary, realistic figures. You haven't included paid staff, maintenance etc. Not sure what the answer is. At Swanage, in my opinion, we run far too many trains, so the chance for saving is easy. I find it interesting that the up and coming railways are having good years, whilst the 'premier league' are struggling.

 

Can you point out which railways are having "good years" just now?

 

Hmm, not sure about some of those figures. I know we've disagreed about this before and I can see @Steve 's point of view, but I don't think it is necessary to put a cost on volunteers. That is time that they are donating. If you want to account for it fine, but that £750 is still going to the company, not the individuals. Presumably, set-up costs like shunting and FTR-ing will be fairly minimal as it's right after the gala when stuff will be out anyway, so probably little need to include much in the way of paid staff and maintenance costs either.

Photo charters are never going to be money spinners, we all know that. But if they can cover their direct costs and make a contribution towards overheads, on a day that would otherwise be making no money (and no contribution to overheads), especially in the lean months when there's not much else coming in, then it feels worthwhile to me.

 

Please don’t ask that question, we’ll get chapter and verse from how everyone else is wrong and those in charge of every other Railway should follow the lead of those on Vectis…

 

Has the David Clarke Trust now taken full ownership of 48305?

 

Gwilli, Spa

 

Embsay...

 

Those that are showing a profit in their accounts?