The Challenges of the 2022 Heritage Season

I did think - briefly, "what was the point of welding and painting lots of 70+ year old steel mineral wagons when there is a war going on in Europe and pulling them will create more CO2"?
Then I thought......I actually enjoy doing it and many other people like to see them running. It reminds them of happy times in their youth possibly, and they can explain to their children and grandchildren "what it was like in the past".......and I picked up my paintbrush again.
Despite all the odds, the railway heritage movement (and many other leisure activities of course), has overcome many issues in the past and I'm sure will continue to do so in the future.
Yes I am an optimist, I want to travel behind Boscastle from Leicester North to Ruddington. See 567 steam. Travel on the L & B for ten miles or more! Plus lots of family stuff....

 

Don't worry, it'll pass! Just as long as it's all JGF.

More seriously, it's worth recalling some of the advances made within the heritage sector. La'al Ratty's automated level crossing controls were picked up upon and usefully developed on the big railway. Shotcreting techniques on the Ffesterbahn blossomed into commercial applications and I seriously doubt Blodge's work on flexible pressurised joints has gone unnoticed.

I'm sure others could cite further examples ....

 

I remember the days of 15% Mortgage rates

BUT I also remember 5-7% pay rises and a more 'Pyramid' structure at work so so long s your earnings kept pace with inflation in real terms your mortgage was being eaten away.

Not only that but with the possibility of promotion to at least the work equivalent of Lance Corporal meant that after a few years my mortgage had gone from astronomical to affordable.

 

Me too. When I took out my first mortgage (a low 11%) I was given some advice; 'Take out the biggest mortgage you're allowed, even if you can't afford it.' I didn't take that advice and always regretted it as inflation made it easily affordable very quickly.

 

I was advised against buying a 'studio' in Bracknell in 1983 .... "You'll never sell that". No estate agents in my family, as became obvious four years later, when the damned things had more than doubled in price!

 

I'd call that a lucky escape ...

[Disclaimer: I was born there, or rather just outside ...]

Tom

 

I always tended to regard the soulless dump as Britain's answer to soviet era Gorky. When a SR Exmouth concrete station bridge is about the most notable edifice with any history in a town, you know there's something drastically wrong. Where I lived was next to the forest, a great place to escape for a few hours, now and then. Fast forward 35 years and Google Earth shows that's a mile of utterly characterless breeding hutches away from my old address. It did have good cycle lanes ... I'll give that.

 

Up here in Yorkshire people are usually born inside, whether it is hospital or home.

 

Yes, but that's because the weather in Yorkshire's always awful.

 

And there was me thinking you lot were made of tougher stuff than that

 

Why is it I’m thinking of this…

 

Thinking about it, and the situation may change rapidly, while you may have a contract to buy coal, if the supplier cant get any, then its not worth the paper its written on.

 

No; just more sensible.

 

I think the coal they have bought is already on the ground in the UK and will simply be called off when required. It's only a whisper I've heard and may not be factual.

 

A very good piece here on coal with the General Managers of the NYMR & the TR.

 

The biggest issue is going to be the availability of Coal, and Diesel and if the price is affordable to the railway, See if you either can't get diesel, or coal, you are not going to be able to go anywhere, then theres the economics, it has to be affordable, if it isn't, your up the creak, because who can afford to pay what ever the railway has to charge to cover the cost ? And where does the fuel come from, Can any of the open cast sites be put back into production, to meet our domestic markets needs, If Gas and Electric become too expensive, and technology can clean coal up, it might become an competitor on the domestic front, if its cheaper to have coal fired heating and cooking again, rather than gas, or electric, with costs going through the roof it might become more economic to go back to coal could liquefied coal be refined to be able to fuel a modern internal combustion engine?

 

If the coal situation doesn’t improve I would forsee steam use declining to preserve stocks as long as possible .
That could be an issue for lines with few working diesels in a reliable condition ,more so if they also require specifics such as classes most drivers already sign or TPWS.

 

The will be no comeback for coal as fuel for domestic heating there needs to be an alternative as climate change is going to get worse over the years rising river levels and floods also are a issue to heritage railways there is only so many times people will fund repairs for flood damage.

 

One effect of the cost of living increases could be that people don't go away on holiday (fuel costs, hotel price hikes, etc), but will spend their money on days out from home. They aren't going to spend all their time in the garden. Heritage railways near big conurbations could do well.