North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I take exception to this post, but I do feel that it exposes your true colours. At the time you were elected as NYMR Chairman you went round visiting groups on the railway, and one person told me after those chats that your ambition was for the NYMR to become a fully fledged tourist line like the Torbay Steam Railway. At the time I thought that was perhaps a bit cynical, but as time has gone by that person has been shown to be right - and I have been told today that the NYMR is being run by a triumvirate that includes you but does not include the CEO, who I'm told is little more than a puppet (or muppet, it would seem!). From what I have heard just today an increasing number of people are becoming ever more fed up with the way things are going, and that triumvirate may find themselves having more time to spend with their families following the AGMs. A vote of no confidence seems to the in the offing.

I joined the railway as a supporter of what I believed to be a heritage railway. I might be wrong, of course, but I believe that the general public are still attracted by heritage attractions, of which the NYMR is just one of a variety - Castle Howard and Eden Camp are nearby examples, for instance. That doesn't rule out Peppa Pg, Harry Potter events, or food festivals - indeed I have suggested some of these, but the railway has never tried Peppa Pig, and seems to abandoned Wizard Weekends and light spectaculars - indeed the only successful events they now still do are steam or diesel galas! Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but aren't those essentially heritage events? The bottom line is that heritage is interesting and does sell, but it does have to be worked on, and I'm sorry to say that at the NYMR that just isn't happening

As I have also said before, I believe that the NYMR has a strong heritage attraction potential but it is not fully exploited as things stand. If it was portrayed more as being a lynchpin of life in the area it ran through and its significance displayed and explained it would be a good start. For the last couple of years it has run timetabled goods train services but these do little other than burn fuel and provide photographic opportunities - they don't seem to generate any extra business - but if the opportunity was taken to carry appropriate demonstration loads and show them being unloaded and what the variety of items were carried that would be far more interesting.

Heritage railways will always have to be commercial entities, but they are also heavily dependent on their volunteers and supporters, many of whom are just not interested in providing Whitby with park & ride services, and if that's all the NYMR becomes they, and their time and money, will melt away. Combine that with the inept and flailing pulling of fares structures from seemingly thin air and that's a real recipe for disaster.

 

It's more a case of deciding on spending priorities. The tough part of heritage railway management can be deciding which of a number of competing demands on funds will not have money allocated to them. For instance is it more important to spend scarce resources on track ( the unsatisfactory condtion of some parts of which contributed significantly to the repairs needed on the teak set) or on bridges or other items that are essential for anything to run? As has been identified the opportunities to use the teak set are limited. When there are other pressing demands on funds it's hard to justify a charity spending large sums on third party owned property as well as paying to hire it when operationally it's of only marginal benefit. The set is a heritage jewel in the crown but if the crown doesn't fit the wearer is prioritising on it appropriate when other urgent priorities would suffer as a result?

 

You have frequently mentioned meeting the railway's charitable objectives/obligations - isn't it the case that using the teak carriages is a case of meeting to meet those? Just as the railway pays rather larger sums to hire and use locomotives that have similarly restricted fields operation? Or the goods train, which is funded by the Trust and barely earns any income when it is used on timetable demonstration trains? Can we expect to see all these laid up too?

 

Whoever suggested the triumverate idea I'm happy to confirm they're wrong. I'm still a trustee but only part of a cohesive team that includes the CEO. Perhaps my mistake is to try and explain on here what that team is trying to achieve?

 

I take your point about the difficulty of spending priorities with a limited budget, but whilst I don't dispute worrying about paying for the maintenance and use of the teaks, but it does feel that paying for the hire, whilst not paying for the maintenance and therefore being unable to use them, feels like somewhat of the worst of all worlds for the railway.

You mentioned in a previous post that the business needs to give people what they want, not what we might think that they should have, but is the NYMR sure that it knows what people want? After all, heritage is big business and extremely popular. Why do people go to Beamish or Ironbridge? Why are the pre-nationalisation carriages so popular at the Bluebell or SVR, or the vintage carriages at the Talyllyn or Ffestiniog?

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Fair comment and no one doubts that the teaks are popular. However, so is a ride on the NYMR to Whitby and back. As long as that is a through service the opportunity to use the teaks set between Pickering and Grosmont is operationally constrained. That’s not a restriction that applies to the likes of the SVR or Bluebell. The NYMR could prioritise heritage experiences using the teak set but at the cost of not focussing on the trip,to the seaside the majority of visitors appear to want.

 

I strongly suspect that there is no one thing that needs to be done to attract visitors. A couple of posts ago you suggested that the reason for not using the teaks was because the best hope of attracting people to the 18.5
Miles of railway that isn’t Grosmont to Whitby is things like Peppa pig. Apparently though the teaks are popular. The answer I think isn’t one or the other so much as both.

I don’t think anyone has this worked out yet, but there has to be a range of events and activities that specifically target different demographics and from that cross sales/returning visitors are created. The wider the range of offers the wider the section of the population to whom you can promote. I would place particular emphasis on sections of the community that would be entirely new.

The most difficult task is breaking through the noise and letting people know you even exist. However, with the polarised nature of most people’s understanding of the world (we all see mostly only the things we are interested in) it is very important to have things that “punch through”. Wild example - a theatrical performance in an evening at one of the stations, might be a way of grabbing attention of a new group of people. That sort of creativity is what’s needed, along with doing ALL the other more traditional stuff AND having a real focus on heritage. The

The only way to expand visitors today is to appeal to a much wider section of the world. I do think though that the closer to some form of perceived authenticity that you can get the more positive will be the reaction. I would absolutely be finding a way to use those Teaks because with the best will in the world all but the “K” variety of mk1 fails to deliver a heritage experience, and people really do want that.

 

Will the Gresley visit see the ECS workings at the start and end of the day as with Royal Scot's visit last year and in the post-Christmas services?

I would like to know the rationale behind these workings -is it really cheaper to incur the fuel costs and wear-and-tear on the coaching fleet rather than have, say, Lucy at Pickering to pre-heat the train?

There must be a valid reason for it, but 36 miles of ECS running for 7 coaches every day on a hilly line like the Moors seems excessive?

Jon

 

I believe that 60007 runs through light at the start and end of each day