Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

I posed this question on here back around Christmas time that members should surly get the same financial information as the OSHI shareholders seeing that the trust owned the A shares and a response from someone close to the railway suggested members might get told something about its performance at AGM's but not the same detail as the shareholders, now that the trust has significant B shares too i don't see why we shouldn't get the same information

 

This sounds very encouraging Dave.

 

I heard a reason at WB for the news blackout about OSHI, and for the same reason I shouldn't say any more except that it isn't related to the trust.
I imagine more will be visible in the annual report, as some of that information is a legal requirement.

It doesn't sound like a plot to deceive us all anyway. Let's be happy that we achieved the purchase.

 

On the subject of OSHI I suspect commercial confidentiality rather than conspiracy.

On the comments of the trustee, well that sounds like someone somewhat worn out by all the effort to extend, and who would blame them?

One of the difficulties things about heritage railway boards is that it can be hard to know when to stop being involved, but it can also be very difficult to step away because of a sense of duty.

Almost no one becomes a HR trustee or director who isn’t very conscientious about the duty (a separate issue to competence please note). Being so means that a very typical concern is who can I get to replace me? One issue I have seen many times where more than one trustee wants to go or understands they should go, is about who will replace them. Sometimes that is a worry about “legacy” being dismantled, but more often a practical question, because replacements are almost never visible before the vacancy is apparent.

The current trustees (some) may want to stop or be willing to stop. Who replaces them? And how does that replacement be made known and available, without it becoming a serious stand off and a hostile takeover type situation. That’s what needs working out.

 

Sage words indeed. Something that exercises me currently.


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This has just been drawn to my attention. I post without further comment :
https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/trust-notices

 

I Find the whole structure very confusing, As I see it, there should be one body that runs the railway, and another that deals with buying the land needed for the long term job of rebuilding the railway, So why all the competing groups? Has the next section from Pilton lane been purchased, or that from Woody bay ? So if not, don't start thinking about extensions, until you can extend one way or the other, as long as the lands protected, its not going to be sold, its more important to make sure the running railway is still going to be there, when the time comes to start clearing the track bed, the RVR/KESR demarcation, shows what IMHO, is the way to do it, one body that deals with land purchases, legal stuff, and another that deals with the operation of the current railway, and if the L&B need someone with a track record, once the Robertsbridge extension is rebuilt, maybe you should ask Mike Hart, for advise .

 

You might well ask. And like other railways that have been discussed on here as having challenging organisational politics, the mixture of companies and charities is both a cause and a result of the political tensions. And, as you'd expect, some of those tensions also have to do with people, and how those individuals do or do not get on with each other.

Get those issues sorted - which won't necessarily be easy - and the issues about corporate structures can then start to be addressed. But the company structure issues can't begin to be sorted until the people issues are addressed.

 

Interesting. I hadn't noticed on the L&B website that the "Members" menu had been populated with "Trust Notices", "Railway Blog" and "Trust Newsletter".

 

It's the sort of things IMHO where you would expect a 'latest updates' link and/or pop-up 'flash' to get people's attention. But then, as many have commented before, it's all a matter of 'communication'....

 

I think the saddest aspect of the current L&B website is this page: https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/future-plans

 

I've just seen this video on Heritage education from Lawrie's Mechanical Marvels pop up on Youtube: Some thought-provoking ideas perhaps?

 

At least it doesn't say 'Option C'....yet...

 

He is absolutely right, and it echoes much that I have learnt when attending the Museums and Heritage Show in Kensington, London and sitting in on various lectures.
Indeed at Woody Bay when I get the chance and chat with visitors they have so many questions about the carriages.
He is also very right about none of us know it all and that we are constantly learning, and the way I see it is that fits in all areas of life.
I have met quite a few over time now who come across that they know it all, they know all the answers, they have done it all.... No, there is always new things to learn and different ways of doing things right.
In rebuilding the carriages we have at Woody Bay we too have learnt a huge amount, the volunteers, and even myself. And then at Woody Bay we have the Paint Shop Boys who also are learning in maintaining the carriages.
Every area of the railway, from the CIC to the Trust, the groups, the volunteers, EA and so on, are always learning as we endeavour to reconstruct this railway.
And so, a quick plug, if anyone is feeling inclined and close enough to get their hands dirty, anyone is welcome to come along to the workshops in Colchester to see how it's done, to get involved and learn.
I do agree a museum can be important for that education, but it needs to be done right.... I think at the moment perhaps with Woody Bay as a whole is a museum, a working or living museum, with the Official Guide and various books available I'm not quite so concerned on that part.
Eventually of course a nice static museum will be great to have.

 

A museum comes in the important but but not urgent category. What is important and urgent is a full audit of anything and everything so that a complete inventory of what, when (both acquisition and origin dates) and where everything is that might be useful for a museum. This will also help strategic planning both for the museum and the extension. (OK, I might be telling my grandmother how to scrub potatoes or whatever here, but just to say it is needed.)

 

I've just had another look at the 'Members' section on the L&BR website. I found the following very interesting:

Newsletter: The L&B Trust Newsletter is only available to Members and is published several times a year.

In addition to the above, access is permitted to the Members Only pages of the staff website where there is more detailed news as well as behind the scenes stories.

Err, what Members Only pages?? I believe these have been consigned to history along with the 'Archives'. Communication?? Ho hum.

 

I quite agree.

Having had a modest involvement as a (Assistant) Museum Curator for a heritage railway site elsewhere, I know the importance of knowing (a) what you have, (b) whence it came and (c) its original purpose. Coupled with that there needs to be an informative display with accurate information and support from knowledgeable (volunteer) staff. IMHO as an 'educational charity' you are there not just to educate the public but to do so as accurately as possible.

Sadly in far too many cases a 'Museum' consists of a motley collection of random items in various states of decay, stuffed into cases that have probably not been cleaned or dusted since Day 1, accompanied by some tatty paper labels done on an ancient typewriter in the 'dark ages' and faded to be barely legible, and 'looked after' (supposedly) by staff who have little or no idea what much of the stuff is anyway.

 

Perhaps we should consider setting up a separate company to build and run a museum.....

 

If (as it seems) there are reasons to get rid of most of the present trustees, he should be taken up on that offer.