SVR General Discussion

Overhauling and maintaining locomotives, rolling stock and infrastructure is incredibly complex requiring a multitude of skills. It’s why it’s essential to have a motivated and happy set of volunteers with those skills or willing to do the mundane jobs, the less paid staff or outsourcing necessary the more likely a railway is to survive the current difficulties.
Farmers haven’t outsourced anything, they produce crops, livestock or milk and sell it at the price the market offers. A fee have gone a stage further processing their own produce and selling direct but that’s a very small minority.

 

A friend of mine who has a passing interest in railways was very interested to see the purple engine and would have quite happily forked out the £200 to buy the Hornby model too - except he left it too late and they had all gone (clearly strong interest there too!). The repaint certainly reached markets that hadn't been found before.
Earlier in the thread is an analysis of the Jubilee weekend, which performed well and brought a number of first time visitors according to the railway's market research.

Incidentally 'social media frenzy' is something every marketing officer wishes to hear! Look at Prince Harry's book...whatever your thoughts it has outsold pretty much everything else several times over.

 

Not particularly for day in day out services though,still very much for one off events

 

I’m all for that one. I doubt those in the operating department would be though…
In all seriousness whatever’s happened to the Jimmy the Jinty club?

 

So farmers don't engage contract labour, or employ farmhands, or have machinery maintained? All of those are costs of doing work that farmers will put out rather than do themselves.

I'm well aware that small farmers will handle many of the tasks that are being described here themselves, but they can do so because at the scale they operate at, the work involved is small scale enough that it is most cost effective to do so themselves rather than engage specialist labour. They are still fulfilling those tasks, just doing so in a particular way.

 

Possibly but depends on how they are marketed.

 

I'd personally like to see the railway going for a grand reopening and firmly with my enthusiast hat on, I'd like to see, if operationally possible, Hagley Hall at one end and Erlestoke Manor at the other. This would surely put bums on seats, granted mostly enthusiasts but surely worth a punt. No doubt it will be the 4MT on the teaks and the 40 on the maroons.

 

Would it though?
Not something I would have spent the petrol money on from West London, let alone Dorset. I am a GWR fan but there is little "unique" in that to me.

 

I’d drive up from South Wales for that. Get a Western on the diesel turn too for the full WR experience.

 

No train heating.

 

But perhaps the Spring Steam Gala will provide what you are looking for?

 

The further away one is from a railway though, the more exciting it has to be to make you go. I do think it's worth a go with something small like that, nothing really out of the ordinary, but on the odd weekend make an effort to have a particular collection of rolling stock out at once in the right combinations, a bit of marketing and even if it only attracts an extra 30-40 local enthusiasts, it didn't actually cost you anything in the first place and it's another £1000 in the bank.

 

More likely to attend a gala than a launch day or a regular day.
But as was mentioned by @Matt37401 on one of the forums today in 2023 you need to think where you spend your money, especially if it involves overnight stays and loads of petrol.
Whilst compared to many I have a very good company pension, but when almost a third of that goes just on energy for the house & our private health insurance then longer distance railway visits will be a long way down the list of expenditures at the moment. I suspect many may be in the same situation.
The SVR gala would have done in the past, but not this year, plus I suspect it will be rammed as the GCR was due to the presence of the Castle.

 

I agree often a small event can be better, the freight weekend was great when they held them.
But I think at the moment railways need to attract somewhat more than 30 or 40 enthusiasts to make an event worthwhile.

 

For a grand reopening it needs something totally audacious and not run-of-the-mill. Perhaps something equivalent to the KESR's idea or running a Bullied Pacific, which that has stirred up an absolute social media storm for audaciousness.

 

How can a freight event make any money?

 

Run it like the GCR are doing in a few weeks - essentially crew training but advertise it properly.