An appeal to help fund vital works at cash-strapped Nene Valley Railway has been launched

NVR was very busy yesterday with the diesel gala, 3 rakes of stock (5 x mk1, 3 x DSB, 4 x WL) in use.

2 x 14, 2 x 31, 1 x 33, 2 x 50, 1 x 56, 1 x 60, 1 x 66, railcar.

Should've of done well in ticket & food/drink sales.

Shame the autumn diesel gala won't happen this year, but I hope the numbers from this weekend keep it at least annually for the future.

 

Is it better to have one very good one against two not so good, with the costs overall should be lower against having two not so well supported ones with a better chance of an overall higher profit for the railway as people will make the effort to come to that one as it will be the only chance for that year.

 

If the same gala was run in two weeks time with 600xx replacing 60001 and 667xx replacing 66757 and 56xxx replacing 56104 then 75% of those there yesterday would be there again as long as the replacements were required. The sticky digits are all important something many steam followers cannot follow.
However if 56,60,66 had worked recently then probably be lucky to get 30% back again.

33109 and 50015 can be had frequently on a line where they have to work ,not flat .

The quality of the line up matters not the event frequency.
What's more at question here is if the organiser would be willing to organise another ,after interference(his word) this time.

 

Ah, thanks.

 

That's all well and good but these events are not cheap to organise so I wonder just how much profit the railway makes after the loco hire fees have been paid. I'll admit to not knowing how much or how little profit the NVR makes but if the profit is less than a normal running day then there's possibly your answer as to why more are not run.

 

Plenty of steam followers chase both "rated" and "required" haulage. They're not quite so "one class orientated" as many diesel fans are though.

 

Anyway, back to serious matters, did the Gala earn enough to pay for the required bridge works?

 

Not a clue although I believe stage one of the work is due to start imminently.

 

There was a good line up of beers, I was tempted to go Diesel for the first time but managed to resist.