Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog Railway

So has that of many preservation projects - even today, vision and determination should never be under-estimated. However, this one has always had a little too much of the air of one man's dream, with rather too little wisdom applied or allowed.

 

Now that`s not a very friendly comment now is it, just look what you`ve typed, oh dear, you obviously don`t know me. I was just speaking from the outside and having met the bloke, and my interest in the line. I presume you know him better that me, yes?

 

Many thanks for your comments Keith, appreciated, its just my slant on things looking in, I`d dearly love to see something done with the line and a start has been made, we should acknowledge that fact and hopefully move forward, I would have loved to attend the AGM, but I`ll be oversea`s at the time, I will however fully support any moves anyone makes to take this project forward.

 

With the greatest respect Felix, they said that about the ELR, no defeatist attitude has ever got a preserved railway off the ground, so are successful and others fail, but at least someone had a go in the first place.

 

A good well-balance post, thank you for sharing.

 

"Ran into problems" is one way to put it; but as another outsider, the problems seem to be entirely of their own making: a combination of the volunteers thinking they knew better than anybody else, their leaders not thinking they need bother complying with the restrictions they were supposed to be working under, and the volunteers not only behaving in a wilfully unsafe way, but posting a video of such to YouTube.

Personally I was suspicious as, for many years, Colin Dale had been saying that the railway would open in a year's time. The fact that five, six years would go past and he would still be putting out press statements or Facebook posts saying exactly the same thing, showed he was not entirely being realistic when it came to the railway. When, a few weeks ago, he was claiming to have had no correspondence from Network Rail, only for others to release a NR letter showing that he had both received and replied to their previous correspondence, it became clear that his words should not be taken at face value.

 

If you have genuine concerns and interests about the line, and I`m sure you do, then maybe we should wait for the AGM and hope something good and positive comes out of it. I was telling it as I saw things, nothing else, just my opinion which I`m entitled to have of course. Volunteers were advertised for at the time, so many had the opportunity to help out and possibly prevent mistakes happening or question events as or before they happend.

 

This thread, like the project itself, is a 'dead duck' - let's just let it go.
Ray.

 

An interesting article has appeared in the Cambrian News:

http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=118957

Colin Dale is in total denial about this situation. He seems utterly unable to grasp the concept that as the sole director of the Company, ensuring that the conditions of the licence were obeyed was his direct responsibility, whether he was there in person or had delegated that responsibility to somebody else. He persists in this stance that Network Rail are problem when actually, the precise opposite is the case. The Company had a golden opportunity to prove to NR that they were trustworthy and capable, which would almost certainly have led to greater access in due course. Instead, the trust that NR put in the Company has been willfully abused and it is not anyway a surprise that NR have responded in the way they have.

 

Not sure what machinery Network Rail own these days as opposed to being owned by their contractors, but the idea that they let a group of well intentioned amateurs borrow it for a few days says a lot for the alternate reality going on on his mind!

 

I don't know about the groundswell of local support, noone seemed willing to answer the question of how many locals were involved.

 

Indeed. Not to mention that he is then trying to portray the situation as a partnership where it’s actually NR allowing him to do some stuff.

As for the excuse for the stonework falling from the bridge, am I the only person to see that quote as exhibit 1 for a prosecution under the Health & Safety at Work Act?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

In the case of anybody I think it's fair to say that, while having enthusiasm is a good start, no matter how contagious that enthusiasm is it doesn't automatically mean that one necessarily has the ability, knowledge, experience, resources or indeed willingness to channel it in the right way to go about reopening a railway - something that nowadays is extremely complex and requires an exceptional level of professionalism.

The Meon Valley guy had enthusiam, dear old Alfred had enthusiasm, the people that periodically come on here saying that the entire S&D and various other stretches of railway 'have almost limitless potential' (when they clearly don't) have enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is a start, but it is only a start. It doesn't get you beyond Square 2 without a whole load of other skills, abilities, knowledge and other personal attributes (the very least significant of which is a Facebook page...)

 

And it seems that, in this case, someone has had a go and they failed. At what point would you say that 'defeatism' ends and 'the acceptance of reality' kicks in?

 

Please re-read in context.

 

Just look around you at the number of successful preserved railways we now have in the UK and the amount at varying sizes, we clearly don`t want to give them up. I`m sure many the stage you suggest at some point, some project have failed but appeared elsewhere thanks to a lack of defeatism, they found new sites, dusted themselves off and started again in some cases, I still believe the line has potential and dearly hope something positive comes out of all this.

 

OK. I think you're being very over-simplistic for 2018, but let's be grown up and agree to disagree on that point. On a practical level, given your evident passion for the project, are you willing to put your head above the parapet and be the one to seize the initiative and drive it forward?

 

Grown up, over-simplistic, head above the parapet, really, but alright we share the same passion and I will agree to disagree with you, and I can only reiterate what I`ve already stated. Lets just watch this space and see what happens.

 

One thing hat needs to be remembered is how the legislative and regulatory oversight has changed over the past 50 years. I have little doubt that in the late 60s 70s or even 1980s, those involved in setting up the likes of the Bluebell, Severn Valley, North Yorks, Mid Hants, East Lancs, etc all did things that would easily get their whole schemes shut down at birth if they went on today.

Given the world we live in (where Heritage Railways are no longer a novelty and must comply fully with ROGS, etc) it is such its no longer acceptable to turn round to the owner of the line and try and palm off the use of plant which was not authorised in the lease etc as a 'simple mistake', let alone try and shift the blame.

The bottom line is NR have no reason to spend money clearing vegetation or dismantling the line when there are far more pressing uses for the money on the operational network. If hand tools are insufficient for the task of vegetation clearance then it is up to Mr Dale and co to enter dialogue to amend the lease - not just assume they can get away with bringing heavy duty machinery regardless. Moreover ot doesn't matter to NR if the vegetation returns - they are not the ones wanting to run trains on the line . Again you would expect that any sensible preservation group would realise this, and the implied commitment to keep on top of things year on year.

As things stand rather than helping the cause by successfully demonstrating the group can be trusted, NR will be very reluctant to trust anyone else who may want to take up the baton, particularly if they are associated with Mr Dale and Co.