The South Devon Railway Thread

Seeing things like this, really makes me proud to be an English man, so glad your helping those with dementia.
Never would get anything like that down my way.

 

Has anyone had any updates on the winter event that's happening on the 29th - 31st of December?

 

The next best thing to actual ownership which ought to be the general aspiration.

 

How is it Paul? We’ve just a locomotive owned by an another railway sold off to raise funds, which has been done to death on the relevant threads.

A supporting group though isn’t a bad thing though I have to agree, I hope certain other railways and people please take note.

 

Excellent news, and a very good video. The added development of 'new restoration and visitor facilities' sounds very interesting, looking forward to hearing more about that too.

 

Link to the share issue
https://www.southdevonrailway.co.uk/shares/

 

Finally! Some good news! So glad something as rare (versatile and reliable) as 3205 on going to be overhauled.
Perhaps my dream of some DNS events will finally happen.

 

Why? - experience suggests otherwise.

 

What experience is that? Experience has shown the MHR that it can’t continue to rely on private loco owners, which is why it went a buying spree to secure locos of it’s own - 41312, 80150, 34058, 75079, 45379, 35005 and a share in 34007. 20 or so years ago it only owned Thomas.

 

Considerable experience thanks over 50 years in this game.
From the list you quote, and viewing from a distance, only one of the locos you quote above appears to be currently available for use. The others are either stored (and therefore of no use in the foreseeable future) or under overhaul suggesting a ballooning drain on increasingly scarce cash. Yes folk might put their hands in their pockets towards the direct cost of these overhauls but are less likely to go the extra mile when they don't feel some "ownership" through an active focussed support group which is also able to attract charitable funding, bequests, retail profit etc etc.

The MHR policy is perhaps understandable given skirmishes of long ago and more recently with single person owners but not typical elsewhere. Is it actually delivering though?

The GWSR is 100% reliant on supportive loco owning groups. The SVR is increasingly so as too as is the WSR and, I believe, the GCR.

There is no golden answer to this but full fleet ownership by an operating PLC is likely to lead to overhaul funding issues the next time there is an urgent large call on infrastructure work and the result becomes a legthening queue of out of ticket locos. Locos on "run, dump, repair sometime" agreements are also very likely to suffer being dumped in hard financial times.

 

Share issue went live today for anybody wanting to help the railway or see 3205 steam.
https://www.southdevonrailway.co.uk/shares/