Llangollen Railway

We had a really enjoyable day on the railway yesterday. We arrived at Llangollen around 11am but there was no sign of the signalling turmoil until staff came down the train just before departure time at 11:30 to say the service was suspended. Perhaps a case being too honest as a lot of passengers got off in search of refunds, whereas our group sat considering our options for 15 minutes only to find the 31 arrive into the station to take us out. Perhaps a "bear with us, this is the issue and we're working on it, meanwhile the tearoom is open" would have served the railway better.

The Dee valley is a delight as always, the extra run into Corwen is a very enjoyable canter along the river and we had excellent performances from the 31 and the Austerity. We will be back later in the year when the Pannier comes into traffic. Congratulations to all involved on the completion of the extension!

 

How long have you got? Lets just say that the station was completed as planned by the Project Team that designed, built and sweated blood and tears over it. It retains the reinforced Blackfriars columns, has a sturdy and smart canopy funded by a Levelling-Up grant and a very nice period-style platform waiting room and toilets. As it should have been, with passengers not left waiting on the station on a bare platform exposed to the wind/rain/sun.

Whilst Corwen station is now open, like a good model railway, it is not finished! We have full signalling to allow two train working and a permanent ticket office on the shopping list, but these are a few years down the line. In the meantime the station is brilliant and more-than ready to welcome passengers.

 

Whilst congratulations are due to all involved with the extension to Corwen, I do wonder how many small businesses were left out-of-pocket by the collapse of the PLC and how they might be feeling... To my knowledge, there has never been any sort of public acknowledgement or apology to those affected.

 

Many of the press statements around the winding up of the PLC recognised the impact on suppliers, customers, staff and volunteers, many of whom lost money as a result of the collapse. The LRT Board expressed it's sincere regret of this situation, drawing the attention to funds allocated to protect customers with pre-bookings were seized by the administrators - although this was done entirely legally. EDIT - our current Chairman also informs me that all local suppliers were paid before the PLC was wound up.

The LRT is doing much to support local business again now, through bringing in more visitors to the area and placing business with local firms. For example, the catering for our opening event at the weekend was provided by a local pub and the draft beers all from North Welsh breweries. The canopy at Corwen was fabricated by a local engineering firm.

I do therefore wonder why some folk feel they must keep requesting such an apology is made when many have been made already. We can't undo what happened, merely try and move on with a more sustainable future for the railway, with the local community and economy at the heart of what we do.

 

Well then that's good news. I followed the events when the PLC folded quite closely and do not recall any such statements (the focus seemed to be on how the railway was going to survive without much consideration being given to anyone else), but if the local suppliers were all paid, then that is good to know, thank you. I hope the extension is a great success and I'm sure it will benefit the businesses in Corwen.

 

Is Austin 1 still expected to go out on loan this summer?

Also, what's the loco's tractive effort? I believe it's got 14" Cylinders, is that right?

 

No connection with Llangollen but this has come up in my feed.

 

From Facebook - 7754 looking good ahead of some testing this weekend:
Photos- Andy Maxwell

 

Looks like the test runs were successful. Apparently due to go into service sometime in August.
From the railway Facebook group

 

So will the railway now be "reversing" it's operations? Instead of advertising for people to turn up at Llangollen and take a ride to Corwen, a destination which appears to have no obvious attractions, is it now better to promote the railway as a park and ride for Llangollen? Arrive at Corwen, use the large and very convenient car park, the travel to Llangollen and enjoy the picturesque town? This then avoids the difficulty parking at Llangollen.

 

The answer has to be both, Attract custom at both ends, push the parking and large car park, and the attractiveness of Llangollen the railway could in their publicity say, that for those planning a day in Llangollen we recommend you park at Corwen, and use the train to travel in, and for those already in Llangollen, push the attractions en route, and the new terminus, a short walk from the village of Cowen.

 

One has been able to do that at Carrog for some years (which remains a pleasant and reasonably convenient starting point) (and before that Glyndyfrdwy and even Berwyn) as driving through, and parking in, Llangollen is not much fun. I have no idea whether that was advertised by the railway but it was an obvious thing to do if coming from the west (which I generally am if visiting the railway). Whether it would appeal to someone coming up the A5 and having to drive through Llangollen to get there is probably a different calculation. A disadvantage, apart from the additional distance if coming from the east, is that Corwen is only open for effectively 2 1/2hours when Timetable A is in operation (the time between the two return departures (11.50 and 14.20).

 

A bit tricky given the facilities are all at the Llangollen end.

 

No obvious attractions? There is an all day food and drinks festival at Corwen this Saturday, to start with.

 

Our experience on the Bluebell is that if you have developed a model over many years in which people predominantly start their day at one end, it is not easy to shift that model. And even if you can convince passengers to do so, you add in additional operational expense; for example, if all your facilities (loco and carriage stabling) are at "A" but you want people to start and finish their day at "B", then to make that worthwhile you end up having to have what are essentially ECS moves at the beginning and end of each day, which has a knock-on effect on loco and carriage mileage, lengths of duties etc. As an example, in our case we can run 3 round trips per day from Sheffield Park with one loco and one crew. But that only gives two round trips from East Grinstead, which is a rather short day if people want to get out and look at intermediate stations. If we wanted to run three round trips from East Grinstead to make it a full day, then you effectively have to run four trips from Sheffield Park, which can't be done by one crew - so you add 25% to your daily mileage (= cost) and double your crew requirement, which puts a strain on volunteers.

That's a worst-case illustration, and of course the situation at each railway will be subtly different. But it is non trivial to swap your main passenger flows round if you have spent the previous decades developing everything to be based at one end of the line and then want to reverse that.

Tom

 

Clearly there can be operational difficulties for the railway in shifting the model (as in the Bluebell's case), and some regular visitors who are accustomed to starting at "A" will continue to do so, but surely some will prefer to start at "B" once that option becomes available and it may attract some new custom as well, from people for whom "A" is inconvenient (again certainly for the Bluebell where one can now arrive by train from London or points in between).

 

Certainly if you,re staying in North Wales Corwen will be attractive, saves the slow journey from Corwen to Llangollen along the A5.

 

I would suggest this is a market to be developed, whilst maintaining the existing Llangollen customers - win, win!

 

Also not having all your eggs in one basket.