'The Golden Age'

And isn't this the point proved by the SVR "disaster" of last year ??

The SVR has always realised that it is part of a wider community BUT the community didn't realise how much it depended on the SVR until the floods came - literally !

The lesson to be learned from this is that there is an inter-dependence between the heritage line and its local community; each needs the other and therefore the events which are run should reflect this wider public. The SVR DMU tours are one example as these are geared to the local population, providing it with the chance to see the Severn Valley from a different angle whilst offering an interesting evening out at a reasonable price. I reckon a few music concerts in the Engine House might also go down quite well with the opportunity to offer a Jazz Night / Brass Band Bonanza / Heavy Metal / Light Entertainment / Classical Pops / Musical Fireworks as part of its programme.

The ELR was also established with local support with much funding coming from Bury Borough Council whose initial investment has brought both local wealth and regeneration as exemplified by the rebirth of Ramsbottom - once a ghost town in the early 1990s before the coming of the railway in the shape of the ELR. Now the ELR can claim to spend over £1 million per annum on local goods and services whilst attracting visitors who also spend large amounts within the area.

Despite these successes, however, the events mentioned above such as the Wolszytn Waltzes show that we still have much to learn from Continental practice in terms of operating community events in order to confirm that the key factor in the successful line is the local involvement by both railway and community.

A good local example is Steamport in Southport which gained little support from the local council ( Sefton ) which failed to appreciate that for every £1:00 spent in Steamport a further 90p was spent in the town and refused financial support. The railway moved to Preston where, with local support, it now exists as the Ribble Steam Railway operating both a commercial activity providing local employment as well as providing a social activity as part of a larger regeneration of the redundant Docks complex.

Future heritage progress will surely depend on noting this and unless they do they are fated to become the failure that comes from isolation from the community in which they are based.

 

I was dismayed on my most recent visit to buckfastleigh to find the town is in decline these past few years, chatting to the locals it seems a lot of local shops have closed cant be good for business.

 

Maybe so, but why shouldn't people play trains if they want to?[/quote:3an8t71d]
Of course they should, if they can afford it. The problem comes when you want to attract visitors.

The more competant and attractive the long-established lines become, the harder it is to make a pioneering start-up into something that the general public, or event significant numbers of enthusiast, will pay to see. The more schemes there are, the harder it is for each one to be "special" in some way.

Another thought, not necessarily related to the above: some volunteers are attracted to pioneering projects. As the scheme matures, and as more people come to join in, the type of satisfaction changes and some of the "pioneers" will look for other things. Retaining them is important but focussing them onto useful projects that fit in with the general direction might be difficult. If what they really want to do is cut a swathe through the jungle to extend the running line, they won't be happy installing new toilets or repainting a shabby coach, but extending the length of line beyond a certain point won't increase visitor numbers.

As to spreading resources thinly: if a small scheme fails, there's no guarentee that the volunteers and the customers from the failed line will go to the nearest big line instead.

 

Thats the biggest problem nowadays...people playing trains....

 

Really? For whom?

 

Really? For whom?[/quote:3lrnz87z]
I was just going to ask the same.
The day we stop having fun, is the day people will stop giving up their time for free, and game over. So we better keep playing trains!

 

As I see it, there is a major difference between working on the railway and enjoying yourself, and 'playing trains'.

Playing trains could be anything from those in management treating the railway as their own personal train set and pushing forward their own pet projects to the detriment of the railway as a whole, through to operating the railway with a total disregard for timekeeping, professional operation etc; either way, it has the potential to be massively damaging to that railway.

Personally speaking, yes I enjoy my work on railways. But I never let that get in the way and prevent me doing the job as professionally as possible and to the best of my ability.

 

The context in which I used the phrase was to counter the idea that a group of people coupling some modest diesel shunter to some fully depreciated ex-mainline stock and chuntering up and down a short length of line is somehow inherently wrong. It isn't; in fact it sounds a lot more fun than the things many people do on a Sunday afternoon.

Now, whether it's the sort of activity that would, or should, attract leisure visitors is another thing all together. If the organsiers do it well, good luck to them; if they don't, either they fund 'playing trains' themselves or pack up and do something else. Either way, I can't see the harm in giving it a go and having some fun. It's nobody's business to tell anyone that they shouldn't be doing it.

 

Having fun I have no problem with.
If we didnt have fun we wouldnt be here

But "Playing at trains" I do have a problem with....

 

This post doesn't address many of the excellent practical points/problems given above but there are a few positives around too: railways are becoming 'cool' again!

Air travel has lost its glamour somewhat owing to the impact of 9/11 (both on image and on the increased security checks which make plane travel a right royal pain) Similarly, on gridlocked roads with roadrage and soaring petrol costs, driving is no longer pleasant or romantic. The increasing concern with environmental pollution has also hit these means of travel far harder than railways. Moreover, the advent of Eurostar and High Speed One has transformed the image of railways from that of an outmoded and decaying form of transport into an attractive solution to current problems.

That is not to say that I think we will return to the days when kids want to be train drivers rather than pilots/astronauts/racing car drivers but it does offer hope that fast, convenient, modern, clean and green railways will inspire more interest than they did for the generations who grew up after the romance of steam had gone and rail seemed a dull and dying mode of transport.

In my opinion, Beeching not only drastically cut back the system but essentially killed off what was left of the "Railway culture in Britain". The car had already tempted away many users but to many more, the reflex to 'catch the train' disappeared along with the convenient local branch line, the closure of the local station or the reduction of the regular service. Over-simply put, those who felt nostalgia or regret went into preservation, the rest switched off. The current rail revival is reversing this trend and the constituency of people who use rail is growing and railways are becoming a part of people's lives more.

The disappearance of first generation diesels has also created a new niche: Peaks and Rats, Deltics and 50s have joined the hydraulics as attractions alongside steam. The current domination of 'BR Green' (both on the preserved lines and the model railway scenes) is testimony to the fact that the generation who remembers the transitional decade of the 60s has now joined the nostalgia market.

What effect all these factors will have is unclear but I don't think they should be ignored. If the rail industry itself grows, there will be knock-on effects on the preservation side.

 

Theres no problem in playing trains.. however Preservation Groups need to play at being businesses as well as playing trains.

Railway preservation in effect has been badly brought up to feed on hand outs, gifts, donations and just plain begging. It's easy to Compare many preserved railways to 3rd world countries.

 

Play trains when it pays, thats how we do it..! I personally have found at some railways that its quite hard to spend cash and on others(with bars mostly!) its alot easier, offer people somthing they want such as refreshments or souvineirs or even just somthing more than a train ride and there happy to spend a little. :-k

 

Are we seeing the "Golden Age"? Possibly, but the future is as bright as we make it.

We may have seen the zenith in terms of spending on heritage railways. The generation of enthusiasts that pre-dated WWII, and who started the movement off (the LTC Rolt generation) have to a large degree now sadly passed away, and in many cases left behind significant legacies to the railways they helped to found. The 1950s and 60s generation of trainspotters from the days when that was a mainstream activity, are pretty much all "post children". They therefore have disposable income again. Some of them have also left legacies behind too.

The following generations are probably smaller in number (simply demographics - this is an ageing generation) and contain less enthusiasts (trainspotting ceased to be mainstream around about the end of the 60s, perhaps earlier).

We are living through the greatest economic turbulence for at least 70 years. 10 years worth of wealth generation has been wiped out (shares are back to levels not seen since before 2000).

The Olympics is swallowing a vast amount of the nation's "disposable income". (And I for one am looking forward to the event).

All the above suggests that it will be, at least for a time (perhaps as much as 10 years and probably not less than 3 years), be harder for railways to raise very big sums of money. Another natural event like that suffered by the SVR might finish off the railway affected.

I am not writing off the movement though. It has come through hard times before, and it will do so again, providing it is prepared to adapt. Concentrate on smaller projects that require less "bought in" help. The heritage railways also have to continually prove their worth to the wider community. Many railways are already evolving from "pure" tourist lines that carry only people on a day out, into community transport lines. Examples - Swanage park and ride; Ribble steam railway tank trains; "ordinary" passengers on various welsh narrow gauge lines; freight on the Mid-Norfolk; etc. As a whole the heritage movement needs to embrace this and show what a good job it can do. If we can, then we will be in good shape for the future.

 

having bieng a enhusiast for 40 years now i find its growing fast this days and far helthier tha n other visitor attractioerns chart er trains increced 500 pecent over years enthusiasts increced 200 pec =;

 

...what?

 

Could possibly be a proof - reader for 'Steam Railway ' magazine.

Bob.

 

Or dyslexic/partially sighted? [-X

 

Or maybe just struggling with an old keyboard.

 

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