Swanage Railway General Discussion

Selling the family silver, utterly hacked off

 

Swanage does rather have form in selling the family silver over the years. Are they going to recompense the volunteers who did the majority of the original restoration? Pigs might fly I suppose, before that will happen I suspect!

What has happened to the rest of the Dining set ? As an aside is the disable coach still rotting away somewhere on the railway?

 

It obviously can't be good for those who have put the efforts in to see one/two items they worked on being sold off.

But the financial situation the SR reported, I think towards the end of last year, could perhaps be one reason at least for selling assets. If that is the case, and it keeps this superb steam railway (other types of motive power are available) operational then maybe it is something that had to happen. Others with a far better knowledge of SR will I am sure correct me if I am wrong.

Bryan B

 

Such a ridiculous hypothesis. Why would they? Those people volunteered their time and money freely.

 

The Swanage Railway has made it very clear that a big wedge of cash is needed to keep the wheels turning. Perhaps the appeal is not going well. How else do you suggest that money is raised in order to get through the winter months? To some it may be selling an asset , to others it may be ridding the business of a liability. This is the harsh world of heritage railway economics.

 

I understand what you are saying, but. . . how much of a liability is an unused (but potentially usable) item of rolling stock? Other than taking up siding space (which might be very limited) I'd suggest not much of a liability at all, so selling such items is just reducing your options for the future in exchange for short term cash flow (which of course might be vital for survival, but . . .)

 

I dont know if it exists but if there is some sort of strategy document that outlines future plans and the resultant rolling stock requirements - and of course the space avalible to store it and the implications of long term storage of unwanted stock in the open then that would make the dispopsal of unwanted stock easier to understand

 

Could this be the clue?

 

Exactly. They've got an appeal running asking for hundreds of thousands of pounds just to stand still. Previous posts on this forum state the Wessex Belle needs an overhaul running into hundreds of thousands of pounds - probably more now that the stock has been sat outside for a couple of years unused. It wouldn't look good if money was spent on an asset that was at best marginally profitable for the railway while they're seemingly fighting to survive.

As @Jamessquared said previously, the Bluebell have been trying to trade their way out of trouble and increase income, rather than cutting costs. They've got the assets to work with though. With Swanage, although it would be nice to get the Wessex Belle running again and generating income, it would be a massive waste of funds to even get it running when the railway is struggling anyway. Would the market put up with the increased fares to cover the investment and all the extra costs nowadays as well?

The railway can't afford to put out two steam locos on normal services most days, so running a dining train would look like an extravagance. Not too bad for evening services as you can use the daytime loco, but for lunchtime diners, do you steam an extra loco for a couple of hours, or take it off the service train? East Lancs have done the latter in the past, used their only available steam loco for the diner and put diesels on the service trains and it wasn't popular with the travelling public.

 

An unused capital item is an invisible drain on capital resources - unless there is a business case that justifies its retention in a declining condition.

Both the SO and (even more so) the FO are only really suitable for use in a dining train as currently configured - with 64 seat TSOs (of which the railway has plenty) being far more versatile for use in service trains. Even in the good times, so far as I can remember, the dining trains only covered their marginal revenue costs and made no meaningful contribution towards capital costs, which were borne by fundraising/volunteer-led projects for vehicles such as the bar car/kitchen car and re-configuring the SO as a dining vehicle.

I suspect that the harsh reality is that even covering revenue costs would be a challenge in the present climate, and the absence of any business case for covering the capital costs of overhauls means that on-train dining is something that can no longer be justified. Without overhaul the coaches cannot be used, and will just sit in a siding until either the economics of on-train dining change or the coaches get beyond the point of no return.

In terms of the coaches themselves and the raw economics (and, I realise, discounting any emotions attached), I would rather see them in use somewhere else rather than rotting waiting for an undetermined future use where they are.

 

This was my experience when involved in managing a heritage railway. Dining trains had operated for some years with no thought given to the life cycle costs. When these were investigated it became obvious that it wasn't worth steaming an engine just to operate one lunchtime dining train so the steam loco was used for two of the service trains and the dining train with a diesel used for the other service trains. This had the unfortunate affect of reducing the income from these to a point where it was marginal to run at all!

Evening dining services worked as long as there was a steam passenger service during the day because the hire cost of the loco had already been earned. There was no scope for expanding the market so, unfortunately, in nearly twenty years of use not enough surplus income could be raised to meet the overhaul costs when the dining set was worn out, hence it was sold. It was very satisfying to hear customers comments as they left a dining service and complaints were few but it took a great deal of organising and worry to pull it together. OK, the dining set could have been coupled to the service train but this then exceeded the haulage capacity of the steam loco and platform and loop lengths so opening another can of worms.

 

With a very few exceptions - where the offer is generally high premium and the potential market significant - I suspect that this is the economic reality faced by most of us who have tried to run a railway!!

 

On the penultimate day of the yellow timetable SR U Class No 31806 lays down an impressive exhaust as it passes Herston Halt with the 09:50 from Swanage. This being the only train of the day guaranteed not to stop at the halt.

 

My experience was that the market was ripe for expansion, unlike for example the enthusiast market. But then the railway was within 40mins or so of several million people.
Swanage has the advantage that it has a ready supply of visitors. However it has the disadvantage of being in a relatively low permanent residence area. The offers (products if you like) it can make are different to say the MHR which is closer to more permanent residents but fewer visitors go to NE Hants. The opportunity to earn money is different.
The challenges are the same though. Costs have risen very significantly in the last 4 years. That affects potential customers too, who cannot accept the price rises needed to cover costs.
Unfortunately increasing numbers carried may not cover the costs either as the extra capacity might not be sufficient, and it would be a risky strategy because it demands probably lower prices to encourage more people, and significant investment in advertising to attract new audiences, just as costs are already too high, and usually there is no retained surplus to fall back on.
Cost cutting is probably the only option, but it must be used to fund commercial expansion and/or fundraising or this railway and others are done.

 

I think you've got a valid point there, if you're within a large catchment area of those that are likely to look for an occasional treat then premium works, especially if you have the advertising, reputation, and a good support team then it will work, but if you look at recent Pullman overhauls it shows the cost to set up and you will need coaches of that standard or equivalent to give the ambience required, you can't go into it half heartedly and on a wish. Generally lesser plush coach sets seem to work only on day time outings with the occasional evening supper thrown in, but again you need to be on a suitable catchment area.

Sent from my SM-A556B using Tapatalk

 

Hopefully with the last two days of summer holidays now here, this summer has been a success at the railway!

 

A rather nice photo with a lot of interest in it.

Bryan B

 

Don't disagree with any of that, I would add that whilst the visitor numbers help with the day visitor, or even those here for a week or so, I am unsure even pre Covid it helps much with a premium service.
The dining train to the untrained observer seemed amazingly price sensitive. It had always looked full but then one year, I guess 2018, the price went up over £50, from memory around £53/54 and suddenly I often saw it running with a fair few empty seats. The following year it went back down to a figure starting with a 4 (I think it may have been £49) and the trains were full again.
There are of course other issues trains longer than 5 coaches can not easily operate and a 5 coach diner only gave 2 coaches to seat the passengers. Unlike what I have seen on the MHR for example that means you could not add a couple of dining coaches to a regular service train. The short line whilst offering two trips does also mean you end up spending time sitting eating in a platform, which again may put people off, especially for a return visit, if you do not want to feel you are a spectacle for the public to observe.
The lunch train of course did not run in the summer peak due to the 2 train regular service.
Post Covid of course prices to stay in this area have rocketed like everywhere else and this year even the campsites look quieter.
It probably is the right decision to abandon it, even if it did not need capital investment on the stock.

 

And usually preceded, as it was yesterday morning, by at least one member of the crew turning to the other and saying 'we're not booked to stop here, are we...?!'.

 

Still with the start of Meteorological Autumn and Swanage Railway Autumn tomorrow a question to be saved for 2025 (depending on the gala timetable).