East Lancs Railway

Whilst I know what you mean, and how you feel I really wouldn’t advocate the use of violence, that won’t solve anything.
I do wonder if some sort of letter and email campaign from ELR members and supporters (maybe a little word to the councils that are in partnership with the ELR) expressing concerns about what’s happened might result in a better course of action.

 

A walk out or volunteers striking on their rostered duty days would send a strong signal.

 

Would also annoy a lot of people who have decided to travel that day as well, I really wouldn’t suggest something like that with what’s happening on the big railway at the moment.

Ideally if we had an organisation that had ‘unrivalled expertise’ in such matters maybe things wouldn’t have gone as far as they have and they could maybe have stepped in before things unraveled as they have?

 

That would depend on whether the volunteers generally support Joanne Crompton. Do they?

 

I wondered that.

I suspect in practice there will be a band at one end who are strongly motivated to support her, but also another group who are antithetical. That leaves a broad group in the middle who primarily just want to get on with their hobby. To organise a strike, you've got to motivate substantial numbers of those to give up their hobby, and to do so in a way that would have significant reputational, and possibly financial, impacts on an organisation that they are strongly emotionally invested in. That's a hard ask (probably harder in many ways than getting paid employees of a company to strike, even when doing so costs them money).

Reading social media (and NP is part of the railway social media) I think it is sometimes easy to gain an impression that volunteers are more politically engaged in whatever the cause célèbre on the their railway is than is actually the case. The vast majority of volunteers aren't active on a site like this (or at least not overtly so, i.e. posting / liking comments; they may be silently reading). A fag packet calculation suggests to me that perhaps only around 1% of a railway's volunteers are active on the NP thread relating to that railway. Many of those people's primary aim will simply be to enjoy their hobby quietly.

Of course, talk to volunteers and many will have an opinion about their railway and how it is managed, generally by reference to the mysterious "they" department who are, needless to say, ballsing everything up. But even there, "my" they department and "your" they department may well be ballsing things up in entirely opposite ways, but in conversation you and I are strongly united in our view that the "they" department are getting it all wrong! Just don't ask us to agree on how to fix things ...

Tom

 

I also suspect, based on comments I’ve seen in public and in private, that there is enough complexity in this story that support isn’t unalloyed.

My own view is that, regardless of why things happened as they did, the procedural failings combined with the organisational response put ELR in general, and the plc chair in particular, so far out of order as to be beyond the pale.


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Good question - I guess the volunteers who actually worked with the people involved will have a much better understanding of the facts of the situation than those of us outside who are just reading posts on social media.

 

A further question is how much support does the management have ? Do the staff have confidence in the management and - if not - what are they able (or willing) to do to change things ?

 

You are assuming that everyone is forming their opinion simply through the prism of this one case. But railways have hundreds of staff, and each of them may be making their judgement about the efficacy or otherwise of the management on a range of different issues. There may well be people who couldn't give a stuff about how people are selected for footplate training but are absolutely up in arms because the "they" department aren't promoting the Much Snoring & Little Meddling vintage carriages project with sufficient vigour.

I'm not saying that there isn't an important issue here; but simply warning that it is a mistake to think that just because it has been widely discussed on social media, it is the single burning issue for all staff.

Tom

 

The only “real” measure of what volunteers thing comes over the longer term. @Jamessquared has explained the general position of volunteers I think. On the ground you can only generally sense rather than see what is going on.

If things are generally ok then there will be a mood of optimism and volunteering will be increasing both in terms of the number of hours from any given person and in the number of new faces. If things are generally not going well in the eyes of the volunteers then the opposite will be happening, but it takes a while before you can actually see the result ( turns not filled, constant requests at the last minute to fill long known about turns, overhauls slowing down, maintenance not keeping pace etc etc.

I could name an example of each in the south of England right now. In one case the volunteers are happy engaged and know what is happening so are generally content. In the other they’ve not been engaged, aren’t all that happy and as a result are volunteering less than they were. In the latter case it isn’t yet terminal or anything and to the outside world no one would know, but over the long term if not addressed it will be difficult.

Is the ELR in the first camp or the second?

 

I note your comments but be aware that personal differences with the ELR suggest that the Joanne Compton situation is only one of the many management policy decisions which have caused upset for staff and members who have consequently left the railway and gone elsewhere to enjoy their hobby in more welcoming environments.

 

In which case, staff and volunteer opinion is doubly important. And if this isn't acting as a trigger, that possibly says a certain amount.

 

It looks like some services are cancelled today due to the derailment of 34072 yesterday at Rawtenstall

 

Hope nothing serious with the 34072, or the infrastructure for that matter.

 

There may be as 34072 was scheduled to work the steam diagram on Saturday according to the ELR website but 47298 covered it - much to the annoyance of some who had made special efforts to travel to the ELR in the expectation of seeing it at work. According to reports the ELR had denied any incident had occurred despite photographs of the tender derailment being posted on t'internet. There is still no notification of when 34072 will be working any trains.

 

The first I knew of it was in a meme group a day or two before it was mentioned here. Quite close shots if the ELR want to claim the photo was taken elsewhere at another time.

 

From my experience with voluntary organisations, there are lots of reasons - petty and serious - why volunteers choose to leave.

It's far more difficult for those who want to stay to express their dissatisfaction with how things are done, with the risk of losing their position within the organisation.

 

Sounds like some people are getting a little paranoid…

 

Armchair experts .
Perhaps because of staff holidays it’s in the shed awaiting inspection ?
Until inspected then any date of return is unknown .
Some of the volunteers may not be aware of the incident ,and almost certainly won’t know of a likely date back in service unless an expert it tea leaves or crystal balls .

 

Infrastructure back in use for first train Friday morning .