Steaming back into Ryde?

Sorry, I should have clarified, about 12 miles for a railway to be run by (almost) exclusively volunteers. Those railways you mentioned aren't.

 

Point taken.

 

Stop being awkward, you know what I mean!

 

Many, many years ago we had a serious debate about what stock we should plan for on the small, but expanding, IWSR. At the time the class 501 North London Line EMUs were coming out of traffic. They were short mark 1 non corridor vehicles with side buffers and air brakes. Eminently suitable, but inappropriate. We decided on the grounded body route and bought ten SR design PMVs straight out of traffic to provide a stock of under frames. Not an easy choice as the 501s would have been virtually ready to run, but the right choice.

Gary needs to take a lot of the credit for the hard work that he does on the doors and their hundred or so locks.

 

How many carriages do the IOWSR have in service though? We have about 14 that run regularly, this number bolstered to about 20 during galas etc. That's a lot of doors even on normal corridor mk 1s, let alone anything without a corridor.

 

Next years two sets will comprise one of 5 bogie coaches and one 6 four-wheelers, the bogie set has approx 84 doors and the 4wheelers 44. So that is 128 doors to maintain, Each coach has a door exam every 28 traffic days, so that is an awful lot of door exams! To us it is just a part of our routine, it does not present its self as problem at all.

 

Is it 12 miles or is it that the extended GWSR will be about that? I seem to remember an article that suggested the ideal length for a heritage railway was five miles.
I suspect that the reality is neither. It needs to be a combination of length, passenger numbers, destination, infrastructure, volunteer input and a host of other variables, the figures being massaged to suit the argument. If the railway pays its way, attracts the punter and has sufficient funding to pay for infrastructure and other renewals, it is ideal. How it is achieved is largely irrelevant.

 

I think it will be about 14 when we get to Broadway. I added later that the 12 mile figure was what could be done with volunteers, without having to venture into paid staff posts.

 

Thanks Gary. So the bogie coaches have about 14 doors per coach compared to 6 on an open mk 1. If all our operational coaches had 14 doors, we'd be looking at about 280 doors to have to keep operational!

 

I did read your later post. It made no difference to mine.

 

I think it does. Sure, a railway can be financially successful whatever the length, but to get enough volunteers to man a larger railway is harder, so you have to bring in paid staff.

 

By the time you get to Broadway it is pretty unlikely that it will be possible to maintain the railway without some paid staff. The sheer amount of infrastructure, tailed off enthusiasm once the goal is reached and the high current age profile of the volunteer workforce will render that necessary as it has done with all or very nearly all other lines.
The important factor will be whether or not the costs of such employment are being factored into future business plans.

 

Of course one advantage of corridor stock over non-corridor is that, as mentioned earlier, if a door is o/s on corridor stock you can just lock it and stick a notice on it for people to walk along to the next one.

On non-corridor stock an o/s door means an entire o/s compartment. Even if the o/s door is on the non-platform side of a railway that happens to have platforms all on one side, using the compartment would be undesirable from the H&S point of view, as it limits potential escape routes.

Given the passenger loadings I've seen on some lines in the high summer season, a locked out compartment for a day is a potential loss of a fair amount of revenue.

 

It isn't a loss of revenue(*) because the passengers have turned up and bought a ticket anyway regardless of whether all compartments are available. What it might cause is undue crowding, which is certainly an issue out new chairman is concerned about.

(*) the one exception where a locked compartment would cause actual loss of revenue is when you have a service in a compartment train where the precise number of seats or compartments are sold, such as our Reindeer specials and Victorian specials at Christmas. In those trains, individual limited seats or compartments are sold, so a locked door means the seats can't be sold: needless to say strenuous efforts are made in the run up to Christmas to ensure full serviceability!

Tom

 

I wonder how many other places had a similar option but took the seemingly easier route?

Perhaps those with more knowledge than myself could suggest a better alternative to Pacers on Ryde to Shanklin. These wouldn't stand a chance against Southern Vectis apart from on journey time.

PH

 

What about the ex-Manchester t68 trams? isn't there a load of them stored at Long Marston?

 

Most of the T68 trams have ended up at Booths and have already been cut, the trams at Long Marsden are the ex Midland Metro ones. Having worked for the Midland Metro from 1997 to 2001 I wouldn't exactly give them a glowing recommendation.

 

One major difference is that our 5 coach bogie set holds in theory approx 350 and only puts 120 ton behind the Loco.