East Lanc's Railway Autumn Steam Gala 18-20 October 2019

The second shot is superb IMO.

 

I was there Saturday and Sunday and, yes, I enjoyed the gala, but the fact remains that running the diner on the Sunday really did screw up timetable for passengers who had increased fares to ride on the trains....

- No trains from Heywood between 12.45 and 14,25.
- No trains from Rawtenstall between 13.45 and 15.55.
- No trains from Bury to Rammy between 13.10 and 14.50.
- No trains from Rammy to Bury between 14.30 and 16.20.
- 12.30 Rawtenstall to Heywood timed to sit at Bury to 51 minutes!

 

I hope they had a lovely time!

 

Ok.

 

I’m led to believe the diner won’t be forming part of the steam event going forward.

 

When I first read this I thought it was a strange thing to do (although Swanage did it at the Spring gala this year but with far less impact).
However on reflection if they had a run a freight in those paths we would I suspect have all have been happy. The railway would have gained very little from that financially I suspect, whereas I assume they make some money on a dining train. If I was timetabling it I would not have shown the 12.30 Rawtenstall to Heywood as a single service (assuming they did, as I did not attend being at the MHR)

 

Could they not have combined the diner with a service train then everyone would have been happy, and double money? I guess it would be the length of the train and run rounds at each end that could be a problem. Not short of motive power with extra grunt to pull it!!

 

That's good news.

No we would not! Leaving such huge gaps in the passenger timetable to run a freight train would have been far, far worse. At least the diner does bring some revenue in to the railway.

 

We did in March. It didn’t work unfortunately. There were various complaints from here and there. So the decision was made that the Diner would have its own exclusive path...

 

Repton on ELR services Wednesday to Friday per NYMR Shed Facebook page .
Was in steam this afternoon .

 

Wonder whats running on the weekend?

 

80097.

 

I know it's not the gala but couldn't resist another shot of 'Repton' this afternoon.

 

Fair comment, but I imagine that the diner enhances the ELR's figures, and even though the Gala brings more punters in along with more money, I imagine that will only help cover expenses and not really bring in a profit.

Besides most of us are all pretty good at reading timetables and can spot these issues and avoid them, although that probably results in overloading on the most popular pattern of getting around that day.

Perhaps the ELR could look at ways of adding in limited seating for paying passengers on the diner, suggest that you pass this feedback to the ELR direct so that they can consited the issue for future galas.