'The Golden Age'

Personally I think that we are living in a largely 'plastic' age - High Street shops are the same wherever you go, the music scene is just a rerun of what was going on in the '90's, everything's just recycled corporate paraphernalia in response to which society just acts according to a 'tick-tock' kind of existence.

Ha, ha, but the advantage of steam railways are that its a totally different experience. You can't really build a 'corporate' heritage line, and steam will always be fascinating because its outside most people's experience, and the people who remember it in service are growing fewer in number. I don't think there will ever be any problem with providing interest, so long as we are proactive and get out there to grab public attention. If we just sit out in the styx, 10 miles from the nearest large town, and behave in the manner that gave Beeching an excuse to close down all those lines in the first place, then yes we will have a problem.

 

I suspect the whole of our society is in for a bit of a shock over the next few years. However human society is resilient and adaptable, and railway preservationists more than most. How many established railways went to the wall in the seventies and eighties?

I saw a description of some of the best english heritage railways in a U.S. railfan magazine recently : "clean and bright, prosperous and authentic". Add in friendly and efficient, and I reckon that those qualities will see many schemes through.

My personal belief is that railway preservation introduces youngsters to engineering in general and does something to counteract the anti-industrial bias which I believe exists in many schools. Perhaps I am influenced by my own experience, for I was firmly discouraged from any such ideas myself. I was actually told that the age of engineering was over - "no one builds bridges any more". It has been good to see younger volunteers going on to make careers in engineering and the railway industry over the years; I wonder if the engineering industry would be persuaded to sponsor junior volunteering schemes?

Tim

 

Wake up call. In ten years' time, only some frontline railway operation staff come free; the rest we pay for. That's all engineering, p-way, catering, marketing, administration, building, and let's not forget management.

This can only be a good thing; for those railways that recognise this challenge now and know how they're going to meet it, the 'Golden Age' is yet to come...

 

the thing is, what is wrong with the way railways are run at the moment?

1) individual railways can be cliquey and reluctant to change their old ways. they can be dismissive of ideas not originating from within said clique and reluctant to let the told guard take positions of authority. the solution is to create positions that let the young feel in control and the old see how they handle authority.

2) steam engines are expensive to run and repair. they always have been and there's no gettign away from it. however, with well applied science, long term steps can be takes to reduce overhaul costs. the KE1 group and the kirklees railway have shown what good boiler treatment can do to a boiler overhaul, and DofG shows how old science can be applied to get more power. more time and money needs to be put into R&D, and as the men who bought the engines from scrapyards and lovingly restored them to original condition hand them on, the emotions attachment will go and more experimentation will take place.

3) people don't keep the same job all their life. this mean that their income and location will change regularly. this means that people can't stay at he same railway all their lives, so railways need to look into more interchangeability between volunteers. I for example, went to school in one place, went to uni 300 miles away from home, and now have a summer job 100 miles from uni, and am hoping to get a job where i might not even be in this country most of the time. and with people retiring later, there won't be as many relatively young retired experts capable of giving up large amounts of their time.

 

I'm not convinced that the insurance companies will get to that stage. There are over 1000 steam loco boilers and (I think) over 2000 traction engine/roller boilers out there. They are not all in service but it is a substantial number, nevertheless. Several companies are already in the process of training new inspectors in the vagaries of riveted boilers. Cornhill and Bureau Veritas are just two that I am aware of. What is happening is a tightening of standards. Rightly or wrongly, things that were once acceptable are no longer so.

 

As noted by previous posters there is a lot to think about - but it might be helpful to provide a simple comment as a skeleton to hang these meaty thoughts.

The biggest problem ALL Heritage lines face is the change of perspective from the band of enthusiasts buying restoring and operating trains for fun to the fully professional business with its plans budgets and controls.

In other words the operators of any heritage line must decide what they want to achieve and the best way of achieving it.

If a line wants to stay as a simple operation ( e.g. the Lavender line ) or be a fully professional operation ( e.g. Lakeside & Haverthwaite ) it must ensure it has the resources - both now and preparing for the future - to achieve it.

Admitted the previous pair of examples are extreme ends of a straight line and heritage lines will position themselves at various points along it; irrespective of positionning each needs to identify its long term status and set about securing the appropriate level(s) of resources.

 

Good point - but no matter how professionally a railway is run, it is still totally dependant on families having surplus cash to spend on luxuries. This, as we all know, is starting to become a scarce resource for an awful lot of people.
My job is basically driving all round Hampshire. Over the last few months, whilst out and about, I have become very aware of an awful lot of what were good, successful pubs and restaurants closing down, the victim of the current difficult times. Who's to say that one or more heritage railways won't be next?

 

Perhaps Michael Draper's timeing was wrong but his words were correct.

 

Oh God, don't say that - you will be shot down in flames. Society IS going to change and peoples financial fluidity and prioritys will be similarly modified. Mobility will decrease as fossil fuels become scarcer and environmental legislation tightens its grip on what we can and cannot do. A lot of smaller, remoter, less supported schemes will go to the wall with a lack of visitors and volunteers. With diesel showing the ability to hit 2 quid a litre in the near future, and domestic fuel and food prices rising exponentially people aren't going to travel miles to go for a ride behind a train unless it is a mega day out. The SVR's and NYMR lines can be classed as that but not the 500 yards and ruston diesel outfits. I fear though that even these lines will face economic cuts as families go once every other year and not twice a year... Now is the time the movement should consilidate its key resources and not spread them out further and further and further with more Noddy schemes.

 

Exactly...they'll instead travel the short distance to their local line, which due to its shorter length, smaller and more economical locos, and fewer people needed to run it, will cost a lot less for a quick train ride on their day out.

 

I admire your confidence. . . . . . . . I'm not sure I agree with it - but I admire it.

 

I am personally of the opinion that wwithin 20 years many lines will not still be in exisitence. And I am not sure that this is a bad thing. There are a few railways out there which bring down the reputation of heritage railways as a whole. Families visiting them may be put off going elsewhere when they see the poor facilities, basic service, high price etc. Some lines are really struggling for volunteers now and the situation is only getting worse. Ageing volunteer forces will eventually deem some railways inoperable i fear. However, the stronger railways, especially the top 20, will go from strength to strength I believe and have a future which is secure. Survival of the fittest deems that these lines may even benefit from other lines closing.

But this is all speculation on my part.

One very small issue; IF fuel prices continue to rocket, COULD we see the rebirth of public transport useage and a proper, integrated transport system? IF this were to occur could being near/next to a mainline station have an impact on visitor numbers?

 

Hit the nail on the head there old chap. I would take an educated guess that lines near major arteries of public transport or near population centres will fare best. I would also speculate that the 2nd age of public transport is yet to come as personal car use will decrease. Changes in environmental legislation could yet become a major issue. Looking farther forward maybe 50 years, the lines that survive will be run along the lines of the Torbay and Dartmouth, as tourist attractions with a core fleet and expensive paid staff, and not on the random ad-hoc lets restore our favourite bit of rolling stock with volunteers system of today. That situation will sort the have and have-nots out as dreaming doesn't pay bills.

 

Is it in a tourist hotspot (Swanage, P&D, NYMR), is it near a major conurbation (SVR for the Midlands, ELR for Manchester.) Every year heritage lines become more a leisure business than an enthausiasts hobby. Lines which are based around steam enthausiasts and are financially supported by this group are doomed. Those lines which can break even or make a profit from joe public will survive.

You want your line to go from somewhere of interest with good transport connections, to somewhere of interest with good transport connections, through some nice scenery.

 

Only if you are lucky(?) enough to live in fairly large connurbations. Can't see the twice weekly bus to Chewton Markesbury (I made that up) surviving, so what rural communities will do I don't know. They'll have to bring back horse troughs outside the post office (hang on a minute, they won't survive either will they?)




Must be the cr*p weather today.

 

Don't laugh at the possible future! People will still require mobility but if there if fuel is prohibitively expensive, alternatives will have to be found. You have to speculate that in several hundred years the late 20th and early 21st century will be seen as a golden age of mobility. With the advent of the internet, shopping doesn't require transport, commuting can be negated by working with a lap-top for a lot of people, and the construction industry habit of having Scottish people of working in Cornwall and the Cornish in Scotland (or so it seems) will have to change. All speculation but things will change as where we are is not sustainable

 

Sorry to go ot, but I saw just the other day a gang working on a roadside project in Hampshire (can't quite remember where). The van they were working from was marked 'Northern Ireland Electricity'.

Strange.

 

Change of culture now starting. Don't think it's the end of the world, just things are going to be different. Not all aspects of our ways will survive and bombing up and down the country at the drop of a hat is something that will stop. Lets hope the preserved railway movement consilidates and adapts to the new way of life. Less numbers - more quality

 

Is this the golden age of preservation – who knows? Who could have/did envisaged the preservation scene we had to day, back in say 1968.

However, a number of thoughts occur:

There are a large number of variables in this which will affect different lines in different ways. Each line will need to assess the factors which impact it individually – some of which have been touched on by others and include:

Closeness to centres of population
Closeness to tourists centres
Ease of access
Quality of offering
Alternative attractions


As to the wider economic world, yes we are going through an era of belt tightening – but so far of very mild proportions compared with the economic downturns of the 70s 80s and 90s.

But how this will impact on individual railways is very difficult to forecast. So higher fuel prices may put off some visitors but they also drive up the cost of overseas holidays so maybe more people will holiday in the UK and therefore maybe traffic at preserved lines will go up. Maybe as James has mentioned this will drive support to smaller more local lines. Anyone who states that they know what will happen, is crystal ball gazing like the rest of us.

Turning to volunteers, other posters have mentioned a diminishing/aging pool of volunteers. Is this really the case? Any line could accommodate more helpers – but there seem to be a considerable number of young people on this forum and at lines I visit so clearly young people continue to be attracted in. But there has always been a cycle of some people leaving preservation as other priorities arise in their lives and returning to preservation later on. There is no reason to suppose this will change.

There is clearly no room for complacency and any preserved line should have its own development plan with a set of risks and mitigation strategies but the risks are not identical for all lines. Any line that doesn’t have such a plan is more likely to fail than one that doesn’t – big or small..




and one final thought - the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones, neither will the oil age end because we run out of oil.

What will replace it is hard to say but we will move on from an oil based economy before it runs out.

 

I agree with the sentiment that in decades to come many lines will have closed through being uneconomical with a decrease in volunteer labour - however, my greatest fear, as justified by the report into the crossing incident on the DFR and others, is that railways will have (at least some of the time) less trained volunteers than they can safely run.

By relying on volunteers for safety critical work like PWay, signalling, driving etc, when numbers of sufficiently trained ones go down (and they will, and already have in some cases) then problems will start to happen if they cant afford appropriate permanent staff to take over. The danger then is that a major incident or incidents will happen which could seriously effect the whole heritage railway movement - just imagine if wide of gauge track led to a train going down an embankment, or worse - the knock on effect would potentially be huge.

However, the reason i am especially worried is that i sense on many railways there is a reluctance by both the volunteers on the ground and management to notify outside bodies of problems, because everyone is esentially doing it for fun; time and again i look at the raib reports and the railway hasnt followed its own rules and that the raib havent been informed of incidents because no one was hurt. I cant help but worry this kind of attitude is going to lead to serious problems in the future. The ongoing viability of a line is important, but i'd suggest the safety of visitors and families using it is even greater and im worried this could be compromised as volunteer numbers fall.

Please tell me im being too pessimistic!
Chris