East Lancashire Autumn Steam gala 20-21 October 2012

Interesting posts
Did the PR and marketing department approve them ?
May find some home truths there too.

Avoiding insults and using facts..

http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/article.php/49/tickets_and_fares
£17, 11 exBR steam locos, including 5 visitors
all the "home" fleet advertised as available

http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/steam-weekends/
£25, 4 exBR steam plus a tank engine, including 2 visitors.
1 of the home fleet not being used, and where's 45337 these days ?

I can see some home truths in the finance department without contacting them.

I hope Bury's gala is a very profitable affair for those running it and many happy hours counting the pennies that roll in, but I suspect the enthusiasm, goodwill, number of visitors, volunteer morale, revenue, future business attraction, new membership, experience, pounds in the pockets may be greater in Somerset on this occasion. ( and yes the non"folding stuff" elements can be assigned as an intangible financial value).

If we flip it and talk diesels though, ELR wins hands down with its diesel galas everytime. Is it the ELR's experience that people prefer diesels to steam locos in Lancashire ? There's always a good supply of diesel visitors too.

Is it really just economics.. ?

 

well, my friend, if I wasn't a pensioner on limited income, or a lottery winner I would willingly dig deep and put the money in, it just seems the past was more dynamic, remember the huge event some years ago?

 

ADB, £17 is standard Day Rover ticket price. Believe Gala Day Rover price is £24 this year, though happy to stand corrected.

Whilst the visit of the B1 and N2 tank will see my custom go towards the Bury coffers this year, in recent times I have found myself staying away as over the last few years there is nothing that I haven't seen before. It often seems to be the same formula, same timetable and so on.

I am often surprised given their excellent track record wth the dining trains they run, that they have never tried to incorporate a part of this into the gala, be it a walk on breakfast or the like. Though I appreciate I am not at the sharp end, and whether this would be viable, but isn't running a gala a gamble in itself?

Noticed on the timetable there is a late train running on the Saturday. Departs Bury at 18.30. Does anyone know what this is? Beer ex? Is booking necessary? Another point, there isn't much information available with 2 weeks to go what is going on. Not every enthusiast accesses Nat Pres, and to anyone looking just at the East Lancs website, they would only find out about 2 engines running. No mention of the photo shoot on a Friday, or Burrs photo run pasts in the mornings.

I hope this post isn't taken as criticism, as I will be there to part with my pennys, these are just merely my own personal observations and I wish the East Lancs well.

 

Steam Weekends | The East Lancashire Railway

Chippy Tea Special

As a special add-on to this years Autumn Steam Gala the East Lancashire Railway is running an evening service as well as a Chippy Tea Special for those who book in advance. The service leaves Bolton Street Station at 6.30pm.

The late train is not included as part of a standard day rover. Tickets for the late train without a Chippy Tea can be purchased online or on the day.

Adult £10.20

Concession £8.30

The Chippy Tea service is pre-booking only, book a standard Chippy Tea ticket which allows all-day travel on the railway, or purchase the Chippy Tea as an add on an existing full line return booking.

 

What times the morning freight? Will try and make it down for that if possible on one of the days.

 

SVR bring in three visitors for a gala,run non stop Friday am to Sunday evening for £20 a day and manage to attract 6000 plus paying passengers by offering a quality product in quality rolling stock to return a profit.
ELR run a train at 1830 and want another £10.20.

Suspect loadings will be way below 6000.

 

Sorry to inject some reality into this, but a multi-visitor line-up can easily cost £35,000 to £50,000. If you take the average yield per head, after taking account of pensioner, child and membership discounts, is probably at best 2/3 the headline adult fare, you need over 2,000 passengers to cover just the hire and haulage costs. Then there is coal, normal running costs and lets not forget many hours of time organising and planning,l as well as the fact that an ordinary service would make profit run on the same days for most lines. Gala events are intend to do a number of things but make a loss (and I was just told this last weekend that a major event other than Railfest had made a loss earlier this year) is not one fo them.

Getting lots of guests can work spectaularly well, but it can also fail - the wrong mix, competing attractions or, of course, bad weather can all spoil the party. I have heard comments from the management of one of the lines best know for mega galas saying they suspected they made nothing extra over and above what a normal service would have done due to the costs. In terms of risk, one or at most two guests but THE RIGHT ONES can give a much better return and rather less sleepless nights. I suspect the B1 will prove this for the ELR - good luck to them!

Steven

 

Bean counter basically said what i was gonna say.

SVR has more on offer, so loadings will be way lower at the ELR, but then so will be the overspend. We'll have to just wait and see if conservative outlay brings conservative profits

 

Bean counter has it spot on. I paid £29 as an old f*rt for two days at the recent SVR Gala. For this I could ride from first train on Friday until midnight on Saturday. The ELR are taking the biscuit in charging extra for this later train.

 

Adult £10.20

Concession £8.30

The Chippy Tea service is pre-booking only, book a standard Chippy Tea ticket which allows all-day travel on the railway, or purchase the Chippy Tea as an add on an existing full line return booking.

Am I reading that right?? If you buy one of the above tickets, then you can have a full day rover for a tenner? Or is there a mistake there!

 

Might be worth an email to clarify the situation?

 

Timetables with rostered locos are now available...

http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Oct-Steam-Event-2012-Public-V1.01.pdf

 

In conjunction with the Autumn steam gala the 3p20 parcels group on behalf of the elr will be running early morning runpasts at Burrs on both saturday and Sunday morning featuring visiting b1 locomotive Mayflower and mixed br brown bauxite freight from approx 0745am.

A donation of £10 per day is what we would like people to give. Please remember that if the 3p20 parcels group did not organise these runpasts then they will not happen in the future unless we raise enough money. I am extrememly gratefull to those who regulary turn up for these events. Dont forget the night shoot on Friday as well with the B1 and N2, £15.00 at baron street from 1900hrs, pay on the night.

 

How long is the Photo shoot on for it seems like a decent price to see the B1 and the N2 together

 

I'll be at the ELR gala on Saturday. Does anyone have any advance information about which direction each locomotive will be facing?

Thanks,

Mick

 

It is intended that all Loco's face North i.e. Rawtenstall.
the photo shoots normally go on for about 2 1/2 hours

 

Thanks for the update.
Now it's fingers crossed for some decent weather...
Mick

 

How long do the morning photocharters last?

Thanks,
Lewis

 

Usually about an hour or so, at least on the ones I've done.

 

All,
Just for clarity the 18:30 departure ex Bury IS open to people who hold Rover tickets and there will be a barrel of beer on the train aswell.
regards