What *would* attract you/your family to visit a heritage railway?

I certainly don’t display that info in my chippy. Nobody has ever asked me for that info and I certainly don’t see the point in providing it.

 

Never seen it in a chippy, but where I have seen provenance detailed in an eatery, it’s been a positive.


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That’s nice.

Go start your own thread.

 

Just a laminated sign with the word ‘Kirkella’ on it…



Simon

 

I think the point of the original comment has been missed somewhat but in terms of food, when I worked in catering we could trace the box of meat back to the particular cow. Customers don't need to see that, but it is essential to know if there's some sort of issue for traceability. The customer doesn't need to know the cow, but we have that information now so we can show them where the farm was the meat came from. Not essential, but lots of people are interested in how far their food has travelled. 95% probably not enough to chose a restaurant, but that information is free to use to your advantage (bar the cost of a chalk board) so why not use it?

Likewise, the railway presumably has at least a basic history of the locomotive on the trains on that day. I don't really see any drawback to providing some basic history on the platform on the day? For example, at Mountsorrel the non-enthusiast public always seem quite surprised that Colin is over 100 years old, or that the Ruston spent it's working life just down the road. Maybe the drawback to that is is takes away some engagement?

 

Kids' trails are a winner for our family. Simple sheet of A4 with a few questions/treasure hunt on one side and a few puzzles on the other. Costs next to nothing to produce and keeps the kids interested and engaged. The best ones I've seen are at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which has different trails for different galleries, aimed at getting the kids to think a little.

I'm surprised more railways don't do a ticket where you get a discount for a further visit later in the year. At the SS Great Britain and the aerospace Museum in Bristol you get a year's pass for your entry ticket. That might be a bit extreme, but 50% off for another visit would certainly be welcome.

 

It’s nice to be taken back in time without some of the downsides. So ‘steam’ is essential, but so is ‘clean toilets’. Authentic vintage ‘feel’ to the trains matters to the whole family, but not at the cost of stinky unpleasant toilets or absence of facilities for the disabled.

I always assume the food and drink will be rubbish so we take our own - on a sunny day a nice picnic spot with well managed bins is a bonus.

I like a compartment far more than an open carriage, and would pay a premium to pre-book one in advance, and am happy with an extra supplement for first class if available.

I relish walking around sheds and stores and workshops, getting close to the mucky rusty mechanical bits, but realise that’s a bit tougher than 30 years ago. Other family members like museums.

Simon

 

Now there's a story but I doubt many hungry customers would know or care about that.

 

I have the traceability info on the packs of fish I buy but I don't see the value of that info to the customer. If anyone is worried about the distance their food travels, how does naming the trawler help them? Any salt water fish will have travelled a fair old distance unless the chippy is located in a fishing port and buys from the local market and given that most of our fish is imported, the journey will have been many hundreds of miles from were it was caught.

 

Different people have different interests, and the lack of requests at your chippy speaks volumes in itself. But for me, when I go somewhere and they volunteer the provenance of their food, I find that interesting and value adding.

Going back to the original point made by @80104, there is more that railways could do to share information on the trains that are running. It would cost relatively little, and enhance the experience - even a humble BR MkII has some back history that may be worth note. Not an essay, just "This carriage was built at Derby in 1968 and worked most of it's life in Scotland, before spending it's final years on the Waterloo - Exeter line. It has been based at the Little Snoring Steam Railway since 1995 and has been restored to it's as built condition" type information.

 

It may also be informative to explain some of the acronyms commonly used for example TSO = Tourist Second Class Open. The word "open" of course nicely allowing an explanation of compartment carriages and open carriages.

If the visitor goes away feeling they have had "a grand day out" (or at least a nice day out) and have learned / experienced something new then that must surely encourage not only a repeat visit but also good worth of mouth publicity / recommendation.

Many HRs talk about "education" in their charitable objectives but how many make more than a token effort in that direction? It has to be far more than school visits and a small number of explanatory signs (interpretation) or a collection of railwayana in a small museum. That is not to say that a small museum can not be highly informative.

Finally possibly a controversial point but do some Heritage Railways make a great deal of "how the line was rescued" but fail to set it into the true context of the lines closure simply and simplistically blaming it on "Beeching"? I have seen some that state the line closed due to "falling demand" but do not back this up with some facts and figures. There can be a great deal of value to the visitor in explaining what is often a complex history, simply and concisely but getting the main points across.

 

Rather than post my own interests (and biases), let me tell you about last Friday. One of our daughters and family were making their first visit to see our new house, so the opportunity to drag them along to the Llangollen Railway was taken.
So, that was Mum & Dad, 2 grandparents (me being one of those), a 4.5 year old and 2 year old twins (Our quiet life in the country became very busy for a few days! ).
At this time of year there are few tourist attractions fully open, and small children are not great when it come to walking any real distance. A train ride is therefore a good option. An attractive station with interesting things to look at is always a good start (even for children too young to understand what they are looking at. A bare platform won't hold their interest!). Fortunately Llangollen has plenty of that, and then there's the river next door.
Friendly staff suggested we use a full width compartment coach so that the kids could easily look out of both sides (They didn't add 'without getting in anyone elses way' but I was thinking that even if they weren't ). Steam heating and comfortable seating were appreciated (and commented upon by Dad). Before boarding, the footplate crew invited the 4 year old onto the footplate.
I suspect the novelty of a carriage inside starts to wear off after 5 minutes, so interesting stuff to look at out of the windows soon becomes a must. Fortunately Llangollen has plenty of that.
Obviously we would have liked to do the whole line, but the Berwyn shuttle was still long enough to be worthwhile. And Berwyn as a destination had an interesting station building to look around (although the kids were more interested in the stuffed cats!). I think we had about 15 mins there, which was probably about right for us with such young kids in tow. Despite having no power, the station buffet was open so chocolate was duly purchased (the kids got some too ).
Upon returning to Llangollen, we had a little wander around the town, before returning to the station for lunch in station buffet (Basic fare, but reasonably priced for a large family group (unlike some places in town with fancier menus).
It made for a very nice morning out, and if the whole line had been open we would undoubtedly been there for the whole day.

 

Whilst some may not like term Heritage, Isn't that what our private railways are selling ? For myself i like heritage, , once past the booking office I like to be able to step back in time, and be transported back to a more simple time, station furniture, enamel signs, staff in period uniform, the only thing I would accept is where station staff have radios, but, as long as its low key, not in your face, and for safety reasons, i can accept it, coaches need to be clean, with windows you can see out, and in a good state of repair, as that's where you will spend much of your time,

 

Most people eat cod most of the time, and it tends to come from farther afield and produced on a more industrial scale. Some fancy coastal chippies might pick up more local fish from day boats or the local fleet – I like Rockfish in the South West who will often have things like Gurnard, dover sole, lemon sole on the menu, which will mostly have come from Brixham. But even they wouldn't usually talk about the boat it came from.

I do think it's a slightly different issue, and different from the point@80104 was making, as @35B expanded on – if I'm in a Michelin starred restaurant I have an expectation on food tracing that's very different to a fish and chip shop.

There's probably a 'right level' of information that's useful and interesting to the non-NatPres member heritage railway visitor, that might be more about 'the railway was built to service the wool trade, closing after the industry declined. Ironically the increase in holiday time now makes this a great local attraction' or 'the engine pulling the train spent its life pulling expresses from Waterloo to Exeter, god knows how it found its way to Yorkshire', rather than 'this carriage is a 1968 TSO or Tourist Second Class Open, don't breathe in too deep you're currently cocooned in asbestos' or verbal essays on 'the variations of Terrier boilers and difference between A1 and A1x' kind.

Simon

 

And in my bit of Yorkshire. Cod virtually unknown at Chip Shops.

 

Well Martin, as you might expect, if's more ''do railways live up to the term'' which concerns me rather than the term itself. Rather fewer places have than might have been expected over the decades some have been going.
Regards
Paul

 

deletee

 

And skinless.