Teifi Valley Railway

Divorcing the ‘railway’ from the ‘business’ to argue a position is not that easy. TVR ltd and the TVR society are very much intertwined and cannot readily be separated. Yes, if one part disappears the other will survive but at what cost? Just look at the difficulties the Llangollen faced when a part of it ceased to exist. Were all it’s members bad? Absolutely not! TVR society may be worse off in this case as it has stated to the Charities Commission that it owns no land - is this with the limited company?

And to pick up on something else; yes the ‘business’ accounts are still outstanding according to Companies House. Equally the societies (railway) accounts, trustees annual report and annual return are late with the Charities Commission by 184 days. Even if the volunteers are working to the best of their abilities and succeeding in bringing passengers to the railway, overall success will depend upon the sum of the parts; from what is in the public domain certain elements are letting the railway down. Sorting these out would probably go along way to stopping the perceived negativity. There are a few other threads on this forum that ably demonstrate that when things do not run smoothly and are combined with limited or zero communication, individuals start asking questions, assumptions get made (rightly and wrongly) and people get riled (and worse). Get the basics right and more often than not we all have a (comparatively) easy life.

 

Actually, most of us are interested in the survival of TVR. Every time your management screws up, it makes me wonder whether they will get away with it this time. The problem is not us on NP, the problem is your own company directors. It really isn't rocket surgery. All they need to do is discharge their legal responsibilities - get the accounts in on time - and none of this would even be here. Stop whinging at us and go and apply pressure to your management to up their game. In my experience, late accounts are very often a sign of bad financial news - would love to be proved wrong, hopefully we will, but the ball is very much in the TVR's court to prevent it's own incompetence being repeatedly flagged up here (several years in row now I believe).

 

In the nicest possible way, this is a forum. A majority of people on here will make all the suggestions but never volounteer a day in their life. As for not being rocket surgery. Treat it like an iceberg , from the outside you only see a small percentage. Of what actually goes on. We get people all the time offering advice and telling us what we should do. Please be thoughtful and remember you don’t know the whole picture or facts.
In my opinion , this is a railway forum , enjoy the railway offerings.
This is exactly the stir that certain individuals enjoy seeing. This is exactly her motivation. Detract from the positive and keep the negatives at forefront.

 

All true, yet this is a railway that is failing to meet its legal obligations. I’ve yet to visit, and don’t expect to be in the area this year, but would seriously consider whether that cavalier approach to some legal obligations applies to other, more safety critical, ones.

These are the basics, which give you a right to operate. Not nice to haves.

One of these days, it won’t be nasty comments on a forum, but “the man from the ministry” or the police. And they won’t cut you that slack.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

This is getting very Sna*****ch like.
No questions allowed, we won't give any information/updates, you must believe because we're telling you to.
Bizarre.

 

You are right. This is a forum, a forum for heritage rail enthusiasts, which means that many of the people on here do know what they are talking about. When you see "No I do not currently volunteer" against a poster's name that doesn't mean that they are ill-informed key-board warriors. Some may be, but the majority are either retired from volunteering due to age or infirmity or they are currently taking a break for family or work reasons. All of the four or five people who commented above are experienced in Heritage Rail operations and are giving serious advice in order to help you. True, we may not be in possession of all the facts but it is hard to think of a good reason for an organisation to regularly fail to lodge essential documents.
We know Elizabeth likes to keep needling about this but it is you guys who give her the opportunity !
Now, how about you tell us the good things you have been achieving on your railway ? You insist there are some but you don't tell us what. Track relaid ? Loco repaired ? New signalling / platforms/sheds ? Even scrub clearance and trackbed maintenance. Give us some reason to get in behind you !

 

But if a heritage railway can't seem to follow the simple requirements of being a business, it does make you wonder what else it can't be bothered to do. Or how it is managing it's money.

It's not just about trains. It's about trust, integrity, safety and people. As a volunteer, it is *your* money, *your* safety and *your* work which is on the line here.

 

Morning all,
Just to clarify I was not talking about specific people offering help/suggestions without ever volunteering. This is just a gripe of mine. Of course there is extensive knowledge within the forum. But, Most ‘solutions’ just simply isn’t as easy as you think.
What I guess I’m saying is, please don’t be naive and think we don’t know the situation already.

As for not being able to ask questions, you can ask as many you like to do with the railway as you like and I have tried many times to engage with this. However , having not being involved in and or not having all the facts, I will not comment on Railway business. I would also add, don’t take my not willing to discuss Railway accounts as having ‘a caviller attitude towards them’ at all. This is totally irrational and a silly conclusion.

As for operational safety. There is no, or has there ever been any compromise on safety or operating of the railway.

 

As for railway updates. We have had a very successful Christmas and stock has had some major overhauls.

SGT Murphy is currently being prepared for all the running gear , connecting rod, expansion link and others to be removed , primed and painted.
Break blocks have been designed and tested with a successful first fit. These are going for casting almost imminently.

Sinembe arrived into road two of our shed for display.
More to follow…. Watch the space…

Alan George is away with contractor, progress is steady.

Track has reached Pontprenshitw and we’re operating from the platform.

Many more updates have been listed on our Facebook page..

 

I will be a bit bold here, but I would be very sceptical that a company that isn’t discharging its’ most basic and frankly straightforward obligation to keep and file accounts would have all other matters in full control.

To put it another way, nothing about running a railway is administratively easy and solutions are not straightforward. Keeping accounts and filling them on time is perhaps one of the easiest of the tasks. I imagine therefore that there may be a number of other areas where improvement is required. This will rapidly and painfully become apparent in the (hopefully remote) situation where there is an accident of some kind.

 

Yo

Do you know this as a fact?
This is my exact point……you don’t.

 

Any railway related questions welcomed …. Until then I won’t continue going over the same situation.

 

We don’t. But we do draw conclusions based on experience - and mine is that organisations that are cavalier about some legal obligations are frequently cavalier about others.

I don’t expect you to reply, and don’t hold you responsible for the inactions of others. But this does affect my perception of the Teifi Valley.

The answer is not to blame opponents of the current management for dragging the railway’s name through the mud, but to get that management to actually do the straightforward basics that would remove that stain.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Agreed in all respects.

I have been a director of a heritage railway. That doesn’t make me a soothsayer, but it gives a level of experience. The lack of accounts is concerning and that’s all we’re really saying. The flaws (if there are any) may not be visible day to day either.

 

So how far is that and what is the future plan? How far can you go?
Ian

 

*Henllan