Bluebell Northern Extension - so what's occurring then?

This is on the BB website whats new page.

The ABC of RAILWAYS: I is for IMBERHORNE - YouTube

 

At the moment the total on the Double Donation Just Giving page is £92,958 with one day to go. Incredible,

Also had another thought about the first train to EG. Given Stepney's condition could a top and tail train work and have 55 at the North end of the train and as it was the Bluebell's second engine 323 at the South end.

 

Now at just over £95k. Add in the £50k of matched funding, a fair wodge of gift aid and whatever comes by post tomorrow, and it is conceivable the total for the week could nudge somewhere near £200k. Which is nice...

Tom

 

So not true that donations have dried up due to lack of progress updates... Another myth banished.

 

Indeed not - Blue News also reported that £200k had come in "or been promised" in the first two months of the year; I'd suspect the "promised" element would be the initial £40k match funding element for the double donation dash. But certainly the first three months of the year will have seen a tidy lump knocked off the funding gap for the extension. Effectively, last year £1.3million was raised - just over £100k per month - and it looks like the same momentum has carried on into this year.

Also another interesting factlet was in BN: with all the waste effectively removed, that part of the project ended up costing £2.715million - down from the initial estimate of £4million. The saving basically came from removing by rail (at £24 - 25 per ton) rather than road (about £38 per ton).

Tom

 

No that is not what was said at all. What I said or implied is that goodwill (and hence donations) were and are being lost through a lack of good communication. THe money raised proves nothing on its own. With better publicity and more willingness to engage with an interested public the sums would be yet higher.

 

I'm sorry but i'm with Domeyhead on this one, the BB step up the marketing machine and look what happens!! To me this incredibly impressive result is because the BB have been getting in the news! Precisely the opposite of what they've been criticized for.

Personally I wish the BB had latched onto Mr Philpott's enthusiasm for the project and provided him with up to date information so that people weren't criticizing him for his sometimes provocative or informed narrative. A bit more support and encouragement would of resulted in a news site to rival that of the late Dr Ben Fisher. I don't believe the BB have even gone to the effort of linking Mr Philpott's site and I feel this has been a missed opportunity

I do not wish to point fingers as I have not been involved in what a relatively small group of people have managed to achieve, I've just been an avid follower and occasional financial contributor to this incredible project. I think everyone involved has done the whole preservation community proud and would like to congratulate you all on what you've achieved, not far to go now before completing another major milestone in our wonderful hobby!!

All the very best for this final and enthralling stage.

Paul

 

I think we'll have to agree to disagree, because in the end we can't run the control experiment - i.e. we'll never know whether the project would have been completed sooner had it been run in the way you suggest.

Personally, the fact that the team have been successful in raising money; have skillfully negotiated at least £1.3million off the original cost and have completed much of the actual physical work needed; and the fact that they have done all that while also carrying out a £3+ million lottery project at the other end of the line at the same time to build a new carriage shed, washout pit and (soon) new loco lobby, along with all the associated track and signal work, makes me feel that they have probably managed the project as well as anyone could have hoped. But as I say, you may disagree: I don't think anything I or anyone else writes is likely to change your mind.

Tom

 

Now, come on. £1.3 million skilfully negotiated? That is wrong. Part of the £1.3 million has been saved by not completely clearing the cutting of waste, as was the original plan. Also the £4 million was not just for waste removal, but was for the completion of the job entirely.

 

That really shouldnt come as a surprise - while the photo's are great the same cant be said for the captions, which too often are wide of the mark and fly in the face of what those involved in the project have said on the e-group and elsewhere. When you've read his comments criticising what seems like virtually every aspect of the dig, then looked at the e-group to see people involved try (often in vain) to explain to him the reasoning behind it, its not hard to see why it has its critics.

Once again, comparisons can be made with the WHR - the 'unnofficial' site doesnt have a great reputation either among certain people at the F&WHR due to the incorrect and unhelpful comments that cropped up from time to time, and the trouble they've caused. Personally im not bothered, the occasional mistake or unwise comment is the price you pay for such regular updates, but its also why it should be done outside of the official channels.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris, I appreciate your comments but this I why I made a point that if only the 2 parties talked to each other, you should get good photo's with accurate information. Perhaps I'm just being too idealistic that this would be possible!?

Kind regards

Paul

 

I used to read the WHR blog because it was interesting, and there was visible progress most days. With the Bluebell's tip, I struggle to see the difference between most of the photos! One pile of rubbish looks the same. Updates once a month or so are sufficient to see what progress has been made. So what if the railway haven't posted anything for the last couple of months, they already said nothing would be occuring over the winter.

 

No, that's not true. At the time of the share issue, the remaining cost at that time was put at £5million, of which £4million was for removal of waste. This latter task ended up costing only £2.715million (hence my comment about an approx £1.3million saving), partly as a result of leaving some behind, but mainly because the cost per ton was negotiated down from £38 per ton to £24 per ton.

I'm only going on figures quoted in Bluebell News by the Infrastructure Director. He could be completely wrong of course...

Tom

 

If take a look at the Bluebell e-group you'll see that those involved in the project do talk to Robert, and everyone else. While they dont give out a running commentary they say what they can which i think most people can understand, after all the plans have been subject to constant change depending on a range of things including the weather, ongoing discussion with the appropriate authorities, and most importantly what they found as they dug through the tip.

Unfortunately there was, and always is, a small number of people who either think they know better or dont trust what they are told, and its nigh on impossible to persaude them otherwise. If anything the near daily updates of unimpressive progress actually makes this worse, and probably led to the infamous blog by Robert suggesting people stop donating because he thought the railway's management was misleading people about the amount of waste left. Thankfully they didnt...

Chris

 

Possible, yes, but only if both sides are willing and able.

Unless I am reading Chris's post wrong the two sides were and are talking to each other and the information still isn't accurate.

 

Indeed - I think Chris has it pretty well right.

To be fair to Robert, his more recent comments have been a lot less contentious. But there was a period when he as making claims that were grossly wrong and damaging, based on little evidence. People who were intimately connected with the project and knew exactly what was going on tried hard to persuade him he was wrong, but he persisted in his claims; in particular his view that removal of waste was occurring much more slowly than was being claimed by the team on the ground. So it is little surprise that the Bluebell website wouldn't link to his photos when they were accompanied by commentary that said in effect the Bluebell was misleading everyone who donated, and the project should stop forthwith! If you had a project running in which someone was publishing interesting photos, but accompanying them with factually damaging information; and who refused to change his information even after the real situation was patiently explained, would you link to that website? Thought not...

I'm amazed how, here and elsewhere, given two sources of information - one from someone poking their head over a bridge and making comments along the lines of "I don't think they are removing as much as they think", and the other from the project itself, backed up by professional surveying etc - I'm amazed how there is a diehard core who prefer the information from the uninformed speculator in preference to that that comes from the project itself! There's some interesting psychology at work...

Tom

 

Meanwhile, back at the Double Donation Dash:

Current figure as the week draws to a close stands at £105,067. The amount of matching funds promised has been raised to £55,000 (though of course we are already well past that...) so the total for the week so far is just over £160,000. To this can be added any gift aid. So it is likely the final figure for the week will be not too far short of £200k.

Tom

 

Welcome to the Internet…

;-)

Simon

 

And the National Preservation Forum in particular!

Chris