Great Central Railway General Matters

Next Weekend will be the Spring Steam Weekend (March 1/2nd) with a busy timetable and freight trains running. There will be the Boscastle Guided shed tours of the Loughborough engine shed on both days - 10.30am to 3.30pm, with regular 30 min tours every 10 mins. Just walk up to the shed.
They are free, but a donation towards the overhaul of Boscastle is appreciated.

 

At Rothley yesterday there was some C & W shunting going on and this carriage came out into the station - looking very smart and nearly finished.

 

This looks like buffet 24278 which I understand has been having a refresh, so sorry to disappoint you but it isn't a 'new' one!

 

The GCR is now offering a "Goods Experience" and part of it is a brake van ride - this is the view....

 

Looking and sounding very good yesterday at the Reunification Weekend on the GCR.

 

https://www.chimewhistle.co.uk/blog...brings-in-new-strict-policy-for-photographers

Well that's an interesting and worrying development.

 

A bit late for an April fools joke.

 

I can see most photographers deciding that the required presence of an authorised second person renders the exercise unviable. However the term "lineside" in this context presumably means on the railway's side of the fence. The railway surely cannot restrict photography from outside the fence at locations that are accessible by the public or with a landowner's permission.

 

No they can’t. I can’t see how it can work, say 20 photographers turn up, does that mean 20 lineside observers? If I go out to a heritage railway photographing from the correct side of the fence I normally make a donation equivalent to the price of a full line ticket, no longer for the GCR it seems

 

Possibly as a result of the insurers reviewing the risk of this type of activity during policy renewal? Spelling and grammar are a bit dodgy for a policy document!

 

The one good thing is that it'll mean there's less chance of someone in orange wandering into your shot while you're standing in a field. However, if they do, there'll now be two of them, wearing top to toe orange!

Anyway, I thought they'd banned the great unwashed buying lineside permits a few years ago unless you were one of the select few. Or pay over the odds and join a Slimeline charter and try and avoid all the reenactors posing unnaturally everywhere.

 

I can’t see many taking it up. Presumably they will charge a three figure sum for the privilege of having a permit and then there’s the mention of a medical exam, the one I had to satisfy NR last year cost £85 and that’s probably gone up by now.

 

Not very likely.

 

I'm not sure why you would stop making a donation - the photos are going to be the same and the railway still has to meet the expense of running the train. If you're on the public side of the fence then the rule change won't have affected you so why would you stop making a donation?

 

For the same reason that I ditched my Severn Valley membership after 52 years when that awful woman took over. The GC will still get money out of me if there are any worthwhile photo charters on offer but I suspect that their OTT H&S approach will kill those off too.

 

But again, if you are outside the GCR property line then the rule change will not affect you in any way.

 

Call it a protest if you like, if they act like that then there are many more deserving causes to support

 

Worth bearing in mind many railways have scrapped lineside passes altogether. This is clearly the only way GCR feel they can satisfy the regulator, other railways presumably decided it wasn't worth the bother. Trying their hardest to keep some form of lineside pass when many others have given them up as too difficult seems a strange thing to punish them over.

 

The Bluebell has reintroduced them, I think the Worth Valley are going to do so and don’t require a completely impractical observer or a medical exam. How many lineside photographers have been killed or injured?