jnc's Recent Activity
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jnc liked Jonnie's post in the thread Spa Valley Railway - Latest News.
Thank you. Under our structure (and as I'm a director of the Wealden Railway Company) I have the same level of responsibility and control as a CEO would, but I (personally) think it is too corporate a term and prefer General Manager. To be...
Oct 21, 2026 at 11:36 PM -
jnc liked ilvaporista's post in the thread North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion.
Would that be the I MechE paper by Roger Waller; Modern Steam: An environmental and economical alternative to Diesel Traction? The figures were interesting, they also used electric powered external boilers, which ran on low tariff energy, to...
Oct 21, 2026 at 12:48 PM -
jnc liked Petra Wilde's post in the thread Bluebell Railway General Discussion.
Yes, had those memories too. But I think properly deep snow in the SE - the kind that a Canadian might register - in the 21st century has only happened on odd occasions. As well as that early-December week or so, I think we had some more...
Oct 21, 2026 at 12:46 PM -
jnc liked H Cloutt's post in the thread Rother Valley Railway.
Update today here. This shows the installation of the Bridge deck of bridge 18
Oct 21, 2026 at 4:16 AM -
jnc liked Jamessquared's post in the thread North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion.
Fag packet calculation. From the NYMR annual accounts, in 2025 they burnt 1,082 tons of coal to run 24,831 steam miles - an average consumption of 97lbs / mile. (That includes everything - all lighting up, steam tests etc - so obviously depends...
Oct 20, 2026 at 11:15 PM -
jnc liked pmh_74's post in the thread North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion.
Diesel is oil. What did you think it was? There's a technical paper somewhere* which compares the costs of modern steam (using light oil) vs. diesel on the Brienz-Rothorn Bahn. I think, from memory, it concluded that there wasn't much in it;...
Oct 20, 2026 at 3:00 PM -
jnc liked 5944's post in the thread Bluebell Railway General Discussion.
20th December 2009 [ATTACH] 24th December 2010 [ATTACH] Nice seeing trains in winter without gazillions of coloured lights on the outside! The first year the roads were too treacherous to drive about, so I parked at Sheffield Park and...
Oct 20, 2026 at 2:27 PM
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jnc liked Petra Wilde's post in the thread Bluebell Railway General Discussion.
While a few falling flakes can never be ruled out, I believe the last time I saw a proper white Christmas (inches of snow lying on the ground) in Sussex was ... wait for it ... 1970.
Oct 20, 2026 at 2:26 PM -
jnc liked 60044's post in the thread North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion.
An earlier Chairman bemoaned the fact that he had no power in that position, but I always believed that although, technically, he was right but in reality he had enormous power of influence, but failed to make any use of it and was content to...
Oct 20, 2026 at 1:15 PM -
jnc liked Musket The Dog's post in the thread Mountsorrel Heritage Centre.
Good morning everyone, we've been very busy at the Heritage Center over the past year with the lift bridge coming into full operation and the lifting demonstations and shunting over it becoming a regular feature of our shunting days. Roger the...
Oct 20, 2026 at 1:12 PM
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jnc liked cksteam's post in the thread North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion.
I suspect its unlikely to be made public but I'd love to see a proper review on this. Omaha's conversion was always going to include a lot of learning but the projections for miles to the gallon wouldn't have been totally unknown as S160's were...
Oct 20, 2026 at 11:35 AM -
jnc replied to the thread North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion.
Reading that, I had an intense urge to bang my head on something very hard. Is the unofficial motto of the NYMR now 'Never use a volunteer when you can hire someone?' (I wonder if the fact that paid employees are probably somewhat less likely to...
Oct 20, 2026 at 11:34 AM -
jnc liked Steve's post in the thread Spa Valley Railway - Latest News.
Spot on there, Peter. With both comments.:)
Oct 20, 2026 at 10:50 AM -
jnc liked torgormaig's post in the thread Spa Valley Railway - Latest News.
So pleased to see that Jonnie still holds the title of General Manager as befits the leader of a Heritage Railway. None of the pomposity surrounding the current trend to call such leaders CEOs. Maybe it is just me but I get the impression that...
Oct 20, 2026 at 10:50 AM -
jnc liked Jonnie's post in the thread Spa Valley Railway - Latest News.
Thank you for your kind words, it means a lot to me. I was driving 828 on Friday, and she was absolutely on point. There is something very special about her Caley bark when she gets into her stride and every day she steams she earns money for her...
Oct 20, 2026 at 10:48 AM
