Emergency Appeals during Lockdown

And Gwili have secured £46,583 from the same fund.

regards

Matt

 

The Culture Recovery Fund does not apply to Scottish bodies; there are however schemes being administered by Scottish bodies (Historic Environment Scotland & Museum Galleries Scotland) which are still being processed.

Keith & Dufftown, Strathspey & Caledonian railways all recieved funding from the initial HLF support grants and the HLF more recently awarded a top up of £234,000 to the SRPS (B&KR) towards their Steaming Ahead Project.

Will be interesting to see if any Scottish railways included in the MGS / HES grants still to be announced.

 

Interesting article here, it suggests that Welsh railways have received £715,000 from the Culture Fund. So hopefully there will be a few more announcements soon.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55043446

 

Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway’s ‘Discovering the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’ project has been awarded £7,800 from Cadw/NLHF https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/18893859.powys-projects-share-grants-totalling-just-100-000/

 

More on the grants to the Welsh narrow gauge lines:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55043446

Tom

 

Good evening everyone,

The Swanage Railway is tantalisingly close to achieving its target of 360k as part of the SOS appeal.
Below is the intro video for the next SOS video, please take a look. The main video will be released next week.

If you can help us to raise the final 28k by donating, please visit: www.saveourservice.co.uk
We would vastly appreciate it.

Many thanks.

 

A brilliant and most helpful piece of work that's pleasingly growing in new grants awarded week by week. Helps illustrate just how important heritage railways are seen to the economy and culture of the country within government and the other grant giving bodies. Might I suggest totals of the various grant types at the bottom of those various columns please? Mike.

 

Thanks Mike. Latest version is attached, happy for corrections and further info. It did have totals but I must have not included them. They're a bit vague as some railways did not disclose their Covid funds, but I think overall they show how much the railways have been reliant on Lotto and state grants.

Patrick

 

Bala Lake have received 'almost £150,000' from the Welsh Cultural Recovery Fund. https://www.facebook.com/BalaLakeRailway/posts/4075968345770048

 

Thanks Patrick

Mike Hart

 

Good afternoon everyone,

Our final video from the railways SOS appeal series is now available to view. We are less than £24,000.00 away from achieving our goal of raising 360k to help save and secure the future of this wonderful railway.

Please, please, please give the video a watch and share the video as much as possible to help spread the message.

Thank you so much to everyone that has donated or supported us by donating to our appeal this year, its means everything. If you would consider helping us out one last time to help achieve or go beyond our target, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

Good news north of the border in the recent Historic Environment Scotland Recovery fund announcements! The SRPS were awarded £158,654 and the Strathspey Railway £57,700: https://www.historicenvironment.sco...9x1AdffA7gggwA40QfGWgja_WfQGSmbz7IQEme3Bj2_PU

 

The final grants for the first round from England's Culture Recovery Fund have been awarded. Of interest:

• North Yorkshire Moors Historic Railway Trust £296,000
• Black Country Living Museum £3,740,000
• Beamish Museum £975,500

Full list of grants: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...nts-from-first-round-of-culture-recovery-fund

 

Recent announcement: https://twitter.com/SwanRailway/status/1362810287531954176 - £363,206 raised - so target achieved [and slightly surpassed].
I don't know if appeal is still open as I'm sure the railway could do with all the support it can get (just like most heritage railways I suspect).

 

Hi there,

Just to confirm that the SOS appeal is most definitely still open and as of the 26th February, it has raised £364,993.73.

There is still a long way to go to ensure our future stability, so please do consider donating if possible.

Many thanks.

 

Re Cultural Recovery Grant, it's all received wisdom but I'm aware of one which has received instalment 2. It is preparing documentation for to claim (so it was explained to me) the remaining, 3rd instalment by 31st March. The NAO reported that by 19th February £495m of the £830m has been paid out.

The DCMS promised in December a second phase of £400m (from unallocated and contingency amounts in the original announcement), with decisions scheduled to be made 'in March'. Fingers crossed.

The budget announced that the CRF was to be increased by a further £300m.

Patrick

 

All heritage railways are clearly in a difficult situation at the moments, with some more than others.

What concerns me is the disjuncture between those railways in absolute need of emergency financial support to ensure the continued existence as opposed to those taking advantage of the covid pandemic. The latter are a problem. Whilst we are not in a zero sum game in terms of finances, those milking the situation are likely to have an impact on the former by placing railways in an emergency situation at greater risk.

If you are considering a donation to railway fund at the moment, make sure you ask probing questions first in connection to their financial situation. Are they merely fundraising or seeking emergency support to avoid total collapse?

 

Interesting post. Seems slightly odd to have a go at railways for trying to raise funds, particularly when all have suffered significant losses of income as a result of not being able to operate. Are there any in particular that you feel have been 'taking advantage' of the pandemic? That should have said no to being offered a donation?

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Possibly my post sounded as though I was "having a go" but it was not intended as such. I take your point on all railways loosing income and that probably goes without saying. My central concern is railways giving the impression they are in dire straights when that is not exactly the case. I do have a couple railways in mind though I am going to avoid naming them in order to avoid the opening of can of worms. Let's just say that I was going to donate four figured sum to one of the railways until I found out that their call for funds was not quite as urgent as the impression they gave in their advertising material. Yes they had suffered but were by their own admission, not nearing the point of disaster.

For the donor, I guess it is a question of how high should the hurdle be set?

 

That's a reasonable response. Knowing exactly how much money is going to be necessary during the pandemic though is a question that many railways still won't have an answer to, a year after the initial suspension of activities.

We have seen three operating companies effectively go bust during the pandemic to date, and I will admit that I am not clear on which others are teetering on the edge and those who could comfortably get through the next 12 months.

I would suggest though that, even for many enthusiasts let alone the general public, their willingness to donate is more linked to their connection to an individual line rather than just seeking out railways that are most in peril at that moment. I can think of about five railways that I would be most likely to donate to the rescue funds of, even though I'm fairly sure they are not the railways most likely to go over the edge.

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