North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

It's all diesels over at Embsay,Steve.

 

Bring on the oil burners. Presumably Omaha was being converted for just this time of the year. Is she ready?

 

No, her tender has been taken to Newbridge today to be taken to Riley’s for conversion

 

Thanks. I’m surprised myEmbsay colleagues haven’t mentioned it in discussion.

 

With the exception of the fire pumps and the burning off the NYMR does all those on your list. It also has a fire patrol in a vehicle following every train through Newtondsle. However it can’t get all the way to summit as the lineside track isn’t continuous.
Burning off used to be practised but has seemingly been abandoned.

 

Is there any scope for an RRV or use of an alternative vehicle that can negotiate the ground?

Regards

Chris

 

It’s been on their SM today.

 

I've spotted pictures of the Strathspey running with a diesel on the inside of the steam locomotive without much fuss being raised. A good chunk of the line runs through moorland which is inevitably a section where the locomotive is working the hardest on the outward trip. There was a fire break cut into the moorland one year, just a giant strip of dirt set back a distance from the boundary line and that helped contain some of the fires worst desires. I don't know if it has been maintained over the years though. A suggestion the local authorities probably won't like.

 

The Ffestiniog went all-diesel for a few days a week or two back.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

 

Burning off is not compatible with the lineside adder monitoring corrugated placings.

 

According to a poster on the NYMR Unofficial forum, the NYMR are now promoting "two for the price of one" 2-day rover tickets for £49.00 via Travelzoo - that's an average of £24.50 per person, and remember that's for two days use, so £12.25 per trip!! (less Travelzoo's commission!). It's very early in the season to be getting desperate. Don't know why the management don't simply give up and give them away free! If this shows any indication of a planned strategy I will be astonished!

 

As far as I can see membership of travelzoo is £30 per year although there maybe some trial memberships for £1 or so for a few weeks.

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The problem with offering regular discounts such as this, is that potential passengers will expect them to be offered every time they purchase a ticket, and may cause them to defer purchasing at the full price in the expectation of another special offer appearing soon. It should also be noted that once you have gone down the reduced fare/special offer route, there will be a certain amount of customer resistance to paying the full fare when you decide to revert to charging the full fare. As you say, this smacks of desperation and sends out all of the wrong messages.

 

Also - how does this model fit with Gift Aid? Wasn’t GA supposed to be the financial saviour? I can’t see how you can essentially outsource tickets to a third party but also reclaim GA on a discounted fare?

Tom

 

Do they really? That is basically saying that most retail models are wrong.
The few may do that but the NYMR is not the sort of place where if you want to visit the area you are likely to only go if there is an offer. But you may decide to visit the railway if you are in the area because of the offer.
I may for example to stockpile something on offer, I would certainly not stop buying it until the next offer arose.
Are these things refundable? I have never heard of this lot, but from what I remember of Groupon it is use it or lose it based on the offer period.

 

IMHO it would have made a lot more sense to have just kept the routine prices (say £38 for a single day rover and £45.00 for 2-day one) lower for the whole year and possibly further 10% concessions at selected times and collected the Gift Aid.

 

In my experience of heritage railways, heavily discounting the standard fare price does not increase the overall annual fare income. Any additional income from new passengers enticed by the offer is offset by those who would normally pay the full price, but are only too happy to avail themselves of the reduced fare. You cannot equate selling tins of baked beans in a supermarket with the financial model required to keep a heritage railway solvent. It is noticeable that the most financially stable heritage railways do not make a regular habit of discounting fares.

 

You are the MD of SWR and I claim my £5. Bearing in mind in the near 8 years they have held the franchise there has never been a single ticket offer (unlike SWT days)