A few Mid-Hants Pics.

Afternoon All,

I recently had a steam fix at the Mid-Hants. Well, you know what they say : When it's Spring, an old man's fancy turns to...steam! It was the 'Day Out With Thomas' event, so be warned, there are a few pictures with faces on which some may find disturbing. Not that my grandsons complained! It seemed to be bringing the punters in though, so I hope that they made sufficient profit to make it worthwhile.

Anyway, if anyone would like to see the pictures, this is the first one in the Photostream :

RD10677. 34007 WADEBRIDGE at Ropley. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

See! I've got some pictures without the faces showing.

They can also be found in this album :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/sets/72157651967231556

Hope that they are of interest.

 

[QUOTE="45669, post: 1134439, member: 844"] I hope that they made sufficient profit to make it worthwhile.


.[/QUOTE]
With the rather vampireish approach of the copyright holders this will take some doing. A number of places have found that other sorts of themed events produce a better bottom line.

P.H.

 

I think that a lot depends on how you go at this event and how many people you can attract. Some railways find their catchment area is too small perhaps, and others that their event is too small.

As to profit, we continue to run two week long events every year. Readers may draw their own conclusions.

 

If you can devise your own event that proves attractive to the customers there are two advantages. Firstly (most importantly) the bottom line is better if you are running to capacity on a non-franchised rather than a franchised event. Secondly succour is denied to the avaricious, which is good for both parties!.

Paul H.

 

If you can suggest an event that will attract similar numbers I'd love to run it! Fact is that for us Thomas works. Doesn't for every railway, but it does for the MHR. We run many other events too, both and without franchise, but still nothing brings the numbers in like Thomas. It undoubtedly gets harder to attract the numbers every year, and the halcyon days of Thomas events generally appear to be behind us (no longer on one of the main channels probably), but it is still highly successful.

 

Simon,

Your reply contains the germ of the problem. Keep on doing exactly the same thing each year and eventually people will get fed up with it. I was under the impression that the Thomas franchise holders wanted a share in the general shop takings (i.e. not T the T goods) which, if true, strikes me as iniquitous. Doubtless I will be corrected if wrong.

Paul H.

 

The balance book at the end of the event is what matters ultimately. A secondary effect is the generation of interest in the railway, some passengers will return to use the dining/RAT trains or just to satisfy the kids desires.

As noted on another thread, the seeds of a love for rail enthusiasm are sown at a young age.

 

Actually Paul, from my experience as a dad, you'll get a continuous turnover of children who want to come to Thomas events.
By about 8 / 9 Thomas is probably not going to attract them, but from 3 or 4 to 7 / 8, they are pleased to see the trains off the TV in the flesh. And the great thing about kids is, there is a new set of them each year

From 9/10, if the dad is into heritage railways (some of) the kids will be happy to come along to other events, especially if you let them have a decent camera to take photos with. You can then get them interested in the other aspects (my 10 year old was very taken with the engineering workshops, particularly the lathes).

 

This is absolutely so but it need keeping carefully under review in case it becomes just too expensive for any worthwhile return. Some places have found this to be the case already.

Paul H.

 

Indeed. We packed it in 10 years ago, having run the events successfully for 12 years. When we withdrew, it was still profitable, though there had been a steady decline in profitability for about 5 years. The issue for us was that the decline seemed likely to continue, the franchise holders were making impositions, or threatening to do so, which increased our costs, it was becoming more difficult to persuade volunteers to help and, most important of all, we had a feeling that we were ripping-off our customers and ourselves, in order to satisfy the ever increasing demands of the franchise holders.

It was all very different when we started holding T-T-T events, in 1993. Then, you paid them 5% of ticket sales (actually, it was less, as you got the first £3000 free), used your own locos, made the faces, got one of your own volunteers to dress-up as Fat Controller- and I'm certain that customer satisfaction was much higher than it ever was later, when the franchise holder started to increase their involvement. I can think of only one reason to do it under present circumstances- financial desperation!

 

Small children like familiarity - so even if a railway invented its own cast of characters it would not have the same excitement and enjoyment as something that they had experienced at home or in their playgroups (usually many times over) so to an extent railways are hostages to fortune unless they can adapt other preexisiting favourites to create a railway journey based scenario. Fortunately most of the larger railways do employ marketing professionals and commercial managers who are aware of the issues you raise Paul - in the case of the Mid Hants Peppa Pig is now a popular themed event and if T the T kills its Golden Egg (as it will do one day) a new slightly lower key successor would be ready to take over. I reckon Tellytubbies could be made to work on any railway that has a green space next to one of its stations.

 

Thomas works for us because it is a very large and well established event (two events really). It has the benefit of positive word of mouth amongst a very large group of people who have come often many times over the last years. We have tried, and continue to try, many other events. Some work better than others, but none has ever remotely shown signs of being developable into the kind of event that Thomas is at our line.

Thomas does not bring in the same numbers as it once did. I think that the lack of "terrestrial" tv presence and the massively increased competition from other character events (both those held at railways and those held elsewhere), the creation of permanent attractions such as Peppa Pig world and the changing patterns of interest in children are all factors. Most of these factors are outside of the control of any Heritage line. Still we like the results we get, so we will carry on holding the event. One day we probably wont, but if I had to guess it will still be part of the lineup in 2025

 

Is this the right time to post this??

No Comment by Arle Images, on Flickr

 

Looking to the future, what will the next popular theme be, possibly Frozen? that's become massive. I'm not sure how it would fit in with railways, but then neither does Peppa Pig. (And bacon sandwiches are off the menu while that is on).

 

NO!

Obviously any imbecile will see that this is completely wrong at all levels, that A4 is in completely the wrong livery, Spencer is and has always been silver.

MHR shame on you

 

To be fair to MHR, it was 'a friend of Spencer', not Spencer himself. (Contractual issues and/or identity theft etc.)!

 

I remember a couple of years ago, during a Peppa Pig event at the CVR the Black Lion had a hog roast.
You've seen the show, now eat the cast......

 

I do remember a rather forlorn Silver-painted Bittern tucked away in a shed in Loughborough...

 

why not, i can think of a few people who would love to do Peppa Pig sausages daddy pig burgers and baby pig bacon rolls, they have to learn where our food comes from one day

 

That's like sending Thomas and his friends to the Sodor equivelant of Cashmore's at the end of an event!!