Great Central Railway General Matters

And so the heritage railway pendulum swings again, debating whether a “General Manager” or “Managing Director” is better, and whether they should be on the board or not.

Distractions all, as they remove the focus from what that manager does, and how that manager leads the volunteers and staff of the railway. Either title, and either way of working, can be right; the real challenge is to have the right person with the right style.

My congratulations however to the GCR for recognising something wasn’t right and putting measures in place to deal with it in house, fettling what’s there rather than making radical change.


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Thanks for the explanation.
As a visitor I wasn't aware of the internal tensions but I recall my rather guilty pleasure when the inappropriate Leicester North museum building was rejected.
Hopefully the split between direction and management functions would reduce the scope for the previous issues you mention.

 

Ah, but do they have a "Director of Corporate Services" ? No large heritage railway should be without one.

 

Meow

 

Did you just promote the station cat to "Director of Uninvited Guest Control"?

 

I'm worried about him as "Director of Invited Guest Control" when we look after some friends' gerbils next week

 

They can tend to interpret human intentions in a manner which seems awfully close to not taking a blind bit of notice at times!

 

To be controversial, I actually rather liked the Leicester North museum design... rather less keen though on idea of running the mainline north of Loughborough straight through the loco depot! And I would say that the Mr Gough's continued musings on the theme of the Gap Project being primarily a connection to the MML were the direct cause of my cancelling my direct debit to the project. So with his departure I'll be watching on with interest with a view to restarting the donations, if and when we're talking primarily about an 18-mile mainline rather than a connection to NR at any cost.

 

D5054 is listed as the first of the visiting locos for the September Diesel Gala at the GCR

 

From the GCR Facebook page yesterday afternoon. 6 weeks worth of dining trains cancelled.

"It is with sincere apologies that we have had to cancel all First-Class Dining experiences until the week commencing 5th September. Unfortunately, our kitchen carriage has developed a major problem with its gas supply and, with it being a heritage coach, we are unable to just buy the required parts off the shelf. We are looking as to whether we can fit in extra services in the Autumn to replace the cancelled ones but, with an intensive timetable already planned, this may not be possible.

All customers booked have been contacted by email with options for their booking, if you have not received any information and are booked on any of our dining trains until the 5th September please contact customer.services@gcrailway.co.uk

We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause and hope we can welcome our dining customers back later in the year or next where we can provide our full First Class experience."

 

Single car Derby Lightweight railcar "Iris" now listed as a second visitor to the September diesel gala. Wonder if that will be staying for the "Branchline weekend" the following week? (assuming that is still happening, as it's not on the list of events on the website yet)

 

From GCR Facebook page.

"It's not just good news for Steam Fans this Monday... We are happy to announce that BR Derby Lightweight Railcar 'Iris' will be visiting the railway with the kind thanks to the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway!

Iris is set to star at our Diesel Gala, Steam Gala and our Railcar Weekend which co-insides with our Beer Festival! With full details now on our website for each of these events.

Iris appears subject to contract, Image with thanks to Chris Moxton of http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/"

So it's there for at least a month.

 

The "Railcar Weekend" is what was billed as the "Railcar & Branchline Weekend" on the GCR events card for the year, so we'll have to see if they have got themselves into gear and done the rest of the outstanding work on the catch point on the Mountsorrel branch.......

 

This is a general observation, to do specifically with the current circumstances, and NOT aimed at the GCR more or less than at any line with a significant income stream from dining trains.

No suitable diesel haulage available? Or is steam haulage thought indispensable to the dining trains? Given how much lost revenue we're speaking of here, were it my responsibility, this isn't something to be 'best guessed' or perhaps based upon some random (possibly 2nd or 3rd hand) experience from tears ago.. I'd want to be very certain the steam haulage element trumped all other reasons diners opt to visit.

 

I believe the issue is with the kitchen car, and that of the 2 on the railway, one is having a refit, but it appears some issue has come up with the 2nd RK...

Nothing to do with motive power

 

So much for critical component redundancy. That really is appalling luck.

 

without going into to much detail, the problem is the regs on on compressed gas used for heating and cooking have changed. the grandfather rites that allowed older systems to be certified have been removed, so the whole system in the kitchen cars is being replaced unfortunately this can only be carried out by a specialist contractors who of course have more than enough work upgrading lots of other systems, the work has been booked in its just when the contractor can fit it in.
Not sure how many kitchen cars there are on HR but Other lines will be affected by the new regs so expect other dining trains to be canceled/affected.

Colin

 

Thanks for the more detailed response, Colin. Do you know if the works on the first kitchen car have overrun, or if the an exception has not been granted the railway we're expecting? Presumably cancelling pre-booked services at short notice wouldn't have been the railway's first choice.

 

Last time I was down at the C&W shed working on our bubble car, the kitchen car was 99% complete, except for the new gas supply, once that has been upgraded and pass as fit to use it should be relatively easy to reinstate the kitchen equipment and put the coach back in to service. The big stumbling block is the contractors fitting the new system, as for how long before the works completed, how longs a piece of string?

Colin

 

I believe the griddle car will be back in service very soon now.