Poole Park Railway

Actually it seems that Princess Swee Pea was originally on loan, but in May this year was purchased for the railway. According to the Poole Park railway website.

So it remains to be seen what will happen to it.

 

Whilst I am aware that many are uninformed rubbish a few of the comments on the newspaper website imply the FOPP CIC did not have a lease for the railway from when they started until the point they had the contract ripped up. I don't know how these things work but if that is true I can see why they may have been reluctant to replace rail but if they then bought a loco it makes even less sense.

It isn't as if 1) running a miniature railway is hard and 2) there is no one local with experience they could have asked or even the railway they borrowed the loco from for advice 3) jacking and packing the rail it ensure it is straight and level is difficult in 10 1/4 and would have made a difference.

 

Ah! Those of use who have a finger or toe in ay aspect of Railway Working :12 inches to the foot, would have done things differently. We were out voted by those who knew more about O Gauge railways.

I will see if a more realistic idea of running this railway is possible.

 

Relaying the track is not that straight forward for a voluntary group....who are on the most part retired people. There are four foot paths to be crossed. A bridge. A point into the shed. The levels are here and there. There are is no drainage. The curves are sometimes quite severe.
The old track would need to be lifted. The permanent way then graded and levelled, small JCB required. New ballast, new Tarmac, new rai, new sleepers. Then a period of consolidation.
HSE: witnessed a bit of track maintenance; no ear defenders, no gloves...... Could go on.
It was run by those of a smaller gauge mentality .
They did there best.
It will be a mountain to climb to persuade Poole Council otherwise.
Not impossible....lots of hard work.

May be Trust with Trustees, membership and determination might help.

The Railway is a profitable venture.

 

Is there a PW team from a preserved line who could come over and help?

 

I think they relied to much on an inspection of the Track by a PW person from a local Heritage Railway. I guess it was a visual inspection of the tops of the rails, rather than digging the down to the sleepers ,which 95% is buried under an assortment of earth, grass, sand, and more often than not dog do.

 

There is the Alan Keef report which makes rather interesting reading

But for a non PW person, it seems that the track is original..........................

 

Do you have a link to that report from Alan Keef please.

Link to local rag update 1http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ature_railway_unlikely_to_return_this_summer/

This appeared on Faceache:


Thoughts from Chairman Michael this evening, on FaceBook, 2 hours ago:

Friends Of Poole Park
2 hrs
The Threats to Parks and Open Spaces in England
& Why the Train Could Have Helped To Secure the future of Poole Park

The Friends of Poole Park have received notice to quit the railway from the Borough of Poole. The main reason given is the future safety of the operation.
We believe we have more than answered this question by employing the following measures:
Contracting a professional track laying company to replace sections of track immediately and further replacements over the coming winter.
Appointing an ISO 9001 (Quality Control) consultant to create auditable Standard Operating Procedures and training procedures.
The creation of a professional Operation Managers post.
Partnering with an external funding agency tasked with raising over a million pounds. As the company is run by the past External Financing Manager for The Borough of Poole there were high expectations of success.
No other railway that we know of would be working to such an auditable and accreditable high standard.
Regarding the safety of the track, when we completed our original tender we gave a time scale for track works that we've stuck to. I wonder what's changed?
Our esteemed Councillor Rampton makes the suggestion that it will be possible to work with the same people who managed the volunteers and oversaw the safety issues. However these safety issues are deeded by the council to be so unsafe that they need to take the railway under their control?
Our plans also included an extension, and the creation of a driving school with the technological facilities to teach all trainees, and the only place in the world (that we know of) to be able to teach blind people to drive trains. To say the least, these proposals for investment and improvements seem highly unlikely in the current climate.
These additions are important because the railway, as it is, is just not enough to market as a serious attraction. The additions will change that and would have allowed us to market visits to Poole Park to a much wider audience, create an increased footfall and higher spend. That is the money that could have assured the future of the park.
The Borough of Poole seem most likely to swallow up the income from the railway without any particular ring-fencing of those funds. For a whole year they failed to give the Friends a lease, and now it has proved to show a financial success it has taken back in-house. As the local councils merge, and the centre of power moves away from Poole, we have to ask, will any of that money be seen anywhere near Poole Park?
The future of parks and open spaces in this country is now under dire threat because parks are not a statutory obligation for local authorities to pay for. That means should an authority wish to withdraw funding, legally they can do so.
https://www.natfedparks.org.uk//NFPGS-Govt-greenspaces-201
Many authorities in this country, including Sefton and Bristol have either ceased funding or greatly reduced funding for open spaces. At this moment there is a movement in parliament to make parks a statutory obligation for local authorities to fund. It is feared that because of the financial pressures local authorities are currently under, some will cut their responsibilities before any such law is passed by Parliament.
The Friends of Poole Park, together with our external funders, have highly accreditable plans in place that would have invested at least 3 million pounds into the park over the lifetime of the lease we were hoping to get. The Council failed to provide a lease for over one year and it is now quite evident what a financial success the railway has been. The decision therefore, to remove us when weve already put in place plans to provide the highest level of auditable safety and training measures may not totally be a decision made with only safety in mind.
Our plans to add an extension, a driving school, radio-controlled boats and a full-size steam dinghy could have made the park a real heritage tourism destination and something that we could market out to a much wider audience than at present. Those extra numbers would have provided the income to make sure that the future investment into Poole Park would have happened without relying on diminishing local authority resources.
Government policy has tried to promote the transfer of civic assets into the ownership or management of voluntary community groups. It is therefore very sad to see a decision being made to reverse that policy and to quash those inspirational and motivational plans for the future. To diminish Poole Parks ability to finance itself and also to place into real financial difficulty a small local charity that has already invested so much to turn around the railway and fulfil its remit to do its best to protect the future of Poole Park.


Some of the stuff in this is odd and I have to say in my opinion rather far fetched. Also what is a steam dinghy? Steam yacht or launch. Higher standards than any other railway, why? Bonkers. They really didn't have a clue did they?

 

You would have thought that they could have taken a track gauge and a spirit level around the track and addressed areas that needed it. It isn't that hard digging up miniature track. It isn't that hard digging up 2 foot gauge track if you have to do it to stop your trains from derailing.

I am also fairly certain they had not bought or ordered any new rail.

 

Two things today.......
Friends of Poole Park Railway updated their 'photograph' on the FOPPR Facebook Page.
And this was posted on the same page a few days ago:


The Friends of Poole Park have received notice to quit the railway from the Borough of Poole. The main reason given is the future safety of the operation.

We believe we have more than answered this question by employing the following measures:

• Contracting a professional track laying company to replace sections of track immediately and further replacements over the coming winter.

• Appointing an ISO 9001 (Quality Control) consultant to create auditable Standard Operating Procedures and training procedures.

• The creation of a professional Operation Manager’s post.
Partnering with an external funding agency tasked with raising over a million pounds. As the company is run by the past External Financing Manager for The Borough of Poole there were high expectations of success.

No other railway that we know of would be working to such an auditable and accreditable high standard.

Regarding the safety of the track, when we completed our original tender we gave a time scale for track works that we've stuck to. I wonder what's changed?

Our esteemed Councillor Rampton makes the suggestion that it will be possible to work with the same people who managed the volunteers and oversaw the safety issues. However these safety issues are deeded by the council to be so unsafe that they need to take the railway under their control?

Our plans also included an extension, and the creation of a driving school with the technological facilities to teach all trainees, and the only place in the world (that we know of) to be able to teach blind people to drive trains. To say the least, these proposals for investment and improvements seem highly unlikely in the current climate.

These additions are important because the railway, as it is, is just not enough to market as a serious attraction. The additions will change that and would have allowed us to market visits to Poole Park to a much wider audience, create an increased footfall and higher spend. That is the money that could have assured the future of the park.

The Borough of Poole seem most likely to swallow up the income from the railway without any particular ring-fencing of those funds. For a whole year they failed to give the Friends a lease, and now it has proved to show a financial success it has taken back in-house. As the local councils merge, and the centre of power moves away from Poole, we have to ask, will any of that money be seen anywhere near Poole Park?

The future of parks and open spaces in this country is now under dire threat because parks are not a statutory obligation for local authorities to pay for. That means should an authority wish to withdraw funding, legally they can do so.

https://www.natfedparks.org.uk/…/NFPGS-Govt-greenspaces-201…

Many authorities in this country, including Sefton and Bristol have either ceased funding or greatly reduced funding for open spaces. At this moment there is a movement in parliament to make parks a statutory obligation for local authorities to fund. It is feared that because of the financial pressures local authorities are currently under, some will cut their responsibilities before any such law is passed by Parliament.

The Friends of Poole Park, together with our external funders, have highly accreditable plans in place that would have invested at least 3 million pounds into the park over the lifetime of the lease we were hoping to get. The Council failed to provide a lease for over one year and it is now quite evident what a financial success the railway has been. The decision therefore, to remove us when we’ve already put in place plans to provide the highest level of auditable safety and training measures may not totally be a decision made with only safety in mind.

Our plans to add an extension, a driving school, radio-controlled boats and a full-size steam dinghy could have made the park a real heritage tourism destination and something that we could market out to a much wider audience than at present. Those extra numbers would have provided the income to make sure that the future investment into Poole Park would have happened without relying on diminishing local authority resources.
Government policy has tried to promote the transfer of civic assets into the ownership or management of voluntary community groups. It is therefore very sad to see a decision being made to reverse that policy and to quash those inspirational and motivational plans for the future. To diminish Poole Park’s ability to finance itself and also to place into real financial difficulty a small local charity that has already invested so much to turn around the railway and fulfil its remit to do its best to protect the future of Poole Park.













natfedparks.org.uk



www.natfedparks.org.uk



The author was Michael Collins

This posted after the two of the three directors resigned.

 

Another issue is that the CIC owns the locomotive and coaches and the actual track.
Who ever takes over the operation will need to purchase the hardware and replace most if not all the rail and sleepers.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pooleparkrailway.org/

Rolling stock for sale. friends of Poole Park CIC have had the contract terminated.

 

They must be deluded if they think they can get that amount of money. Did they pay this much?

 

Yes, minus a few thousand.
Now we have the added twist that the stock can only be sold to a Charity or another CIC.

 

Interestingly, the Miniature Railway at Clevedon was completely rebuild from 9.5 to 15 inch back in about 2013 so there might be some cost savings in changing the gauge at the same time as the track is relaid

 

relay it at 7.25 and get the ME fraternity to support with their locos at weekends, high days and holidays. It cannot run as a commercial venture without its own staff, loco and rolling stock however so forget expecting it to be volunteer run everyday. Plowmans railway has just packed up (and he has lots and lots of rail).

 

Mmmm,will not happen.

Time to think outside the box. Very few are going to pay the prices asked.


.

 

Why would it not happen? Are there rescue plans afoot or is it all over?

 

That is it for 2018 I think...pity the railway could be taking £1000 a day in this weather.
The Council have no money for this project, it is up to the 'volunteers' to see what can be salvaged for next year.

 

Do you mean the report mentioned here: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ailment_WAS_a_malicious_act__report_confirms/

from 2015, or has there been another AKL report more recently?