North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I' have to disagree with you in turn! The visits will be welcome, BUT I assume that the visits of Bahamas and 60007 will be related to the ASG or perhaps even an earlier gala, where previous experience with gala visitors suggests that 5000 would be a good gate for such an event, and some of those would have come anyway for a normal weekend. In other words they are not going to have much of an effect to the bottom line. I would be more hopeful of an improved and/or better targeted advertising programme, or even selective fare cuts as a way of filling the trains and yielding a better financial response. One of our number suggests that the two Whitby trains each wayare now the core of our business, but if that's the case why do we bother employing booking office, catering and shop staff at Goathland and Grosmont - or even Pickering after noon? The yields can only be marginal at best.

 

Much appreciated John, would be well received.

Best regards

Andrew

 

Neither of the announced visits are associated with a gala. Between 22-30 March we have LNER Class A4 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley visiting (Although yet to be formally confirmed) with Bahamas visiting between 5 -13th April. It seems to have become the norm to have a visiting high profile loco as a precursor to the start of the season as this has happened for the last couple of years. The formal start of the season (with a normal T/T) begins on 31st March. Hopefully, these two will bring in more than the usual number of paying visitors rather than those with 12 month tickets. On that point, is the railway technically open when Gresley visits as it isn't a normal T/T and won't be running to Whitby. That would probably take it out of the 12 month ticket repeat journeys.

 

Where is the announcement of visiting locos Steve? I was only firing there two days last week and I've heard nothing about such visits. It is a bit naff when Nat Pres know about these things ahead of us volunteers (or is it because I'm too much of a dinosaur to be on facebook?).

A grumpy Peter

 

Well, you'd have thought that one of the lrssons learned would be the need to publicise and advertise, and you'd have thought that a ceo who started out their career as advertising manager would have been well aware of that! - but perhaps I'm expecting too much! The further details of these visits, though, does not fill me with a lot of enthusiasm, though - they are not mass-attractions, though, by themselves, imho, I'm afraid.

 

It’s mentioned in Ontrack, that all singing, all dancing new comms system that a lot of people can’t comprehend.

 

Details were put in OnTrack just yesterday, so you and other volunteers, including myself, would not have heard about it two days ago! OnTrack is NYMRs internal communication system for employed and volunteers, and am equally surprised to see the visiting loco detail here on Nat Pres in advance of being published on NYMR.co.uk.

 

The details have not yet been published so hold your horses!

 

Once volunteers and employed staff learn to log on then it makes complete sense. Most organisations have a secure internal communication / intranet system and I see this no differently.

 

Oh Well, that explains why I'm becoming more out of the loop than ever. I understand that this wonderful new communication tool, unique to the NYMR, is shortly to replace among other things the tried and tested rostering system that is used on heritage railways here and abroad called HOPS. Why? The training implications to roll this out across the railway seem totally disproportinate to what ever benefits are likely to be gained and this at a time when there is a shortage of staff and volunteers across the board. I just have the feeling that more effort should be going into trying to sort out the existing problems on the railway without trying to create additional unnecessary problems with a vanity project such as this. The same can be said about the conversion of 2253 to oil firing this winter. It is not as if the MPD do not have enough on their plate trying to keep the steam fleet servicable without this additional distraction.

Memo to self: must stop worrying about the direction that the railway is headed - it is only the NYMR after all.

Peter

 

Peter, I'm surprised by your objection to oil firing conversion. The lesson of recent years has been that in times of high fire risk coal fired steam operation has to be suspended. The NYMR runs through a National Park. Large parts of the railway including the trackbed are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interests (for which there is no de-designation procedure). Isn't conversion to oil firing is a sound strategic move enabling steam hauled services to be maintained? There's also a serious question about future proofing. How long can heritage use of coal continue?

 

Whilst I agree with much of your post, with regard to 2253, I suspect (but don’t know) that the locos owner will be footing the bill and that then makes it more attractive to the railway, especially if that includes the labour costs. I’m also not aware of the terms of the agreement for operating the loco (ie. Is it mileage or daily based or what?) but wouldn’t you prioritise work on one that was going to cost you the least.?

 

I think Peter meant that the MPD already have plenty to do over the next 3 months getting the running fleet ready for the start of the season, without the unique and difficult conversation work on 2253. Including the S160, the railway only have 6 "big" locos at present - losing one of them for a indeterminate amount of time is a concern.

 

Which is fair enough but the conversion was described as a distraction. Surely it's a priority? After all there's little point in having six big coal fired locos if you can't use them because it hasn't rained enough!

 

I can see and respect both points of view. What interests me is the priority being given to second order activities, when the tactical focus on keeping open is key.

Combining the two items mentioned by @torgormaig, both have potential to be a managerial distraction, and to consume resources (time, effort, money) that are needed to keep the show on the road. Both also offer potential to save money/secure revenue/be more efficient - well, I'd hope they do!

The bit that's tricky is to see how those two balance, and why either of them is worth pursuing now given the non-financial costs of making the changes.

This discussion has focused heavily on constraints on how NYMR operates - that puts the focus on people. I'd be more concerned about the impact on labour and production priorities than the financial cost.

 

Dunno where you live but down here we've had nothing but rain for about a year! We've had more than enough

Tom

 

Well you will live in the wet and windy south. It may not be as warm up in Yorkshire (apart from the folk) but we don't tend to get the wet weather anything like the south and west, Lancashire especially.

 

I'm told, and it seems plausible, that the problem in the spring can be not enough snow over the winter. If the snow has not been heavy enough to flatten the bracken its dead standing remains are a tinder dry invitation to a spark. As we've seen lineside fires don't just become a problem in high summer.

 

That's what I have also heard, though the amount of snow doesn't actually need to be particularly heavy.

 

but you'll still have five coal fired locos, so you are no better off are you?