North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

To quote this charming man ‘It doesn’t take a degree in applied bollock$ to know what’s going on does it?’

When you look at what’s happened across the sector at various other railways and recent developments I do wonder how much has been spent to come to this conclusion (I’m very much thinking of a certain ex GM who’s now a ‘consultant’ and very much managed to pee off volunteers and staff at 2 different sites)

 

Really? I wonder why?

 

And that’s the accounts for last year. One wonders what this year’s may look like given the combination price rises and value reductions.

 

Well, one would hope that cutting prices has driven additional traffic that more than compensates for the price cut ...

The real difficulty with heritage railway accounts, though, is understanding the deferred maintenance backlog. On the surface, a reduction in the Plc loss from £633,118 to £278,869 looks promising, but it depends whether it has come about from genuinely taking year-on-year costs out of the business, or whether it has been achieved by deferring maintenance that will, sooner or later, come back to bite. Things like sets being reduced in length due to a lack of available carriages, or growing length of track affected by TSRs, can be canaries in the coal mine. (And for the avoidance of doubt, that applies to any line, not specifically the NYMR).

Tom

 

Alas, it does apply to the NYMR; very much so.

 

I'm not an accountant either but I do understand that figures can be manipulated and that the vagaries of charity accounting rules can produce results that are confusing to us mere mortals. In reality it's not about precise figures but whether the organisation is financially sustainable in the longer term. The auditors are satisfied that the business is a going concern for the tweleve months following their recent audit, debt has been reduced substantially and the cash position is strong. However Tom is absolutely right about the problem of deferred capital expenditure, The fundamental challenge is how can fixed costs be further reduced without impairing the capacity to generate additional income and cutting back the scope and scale of the charity's activities (which inevitably affects opportunities to volunteer)? No one, as far as I am aware, has closed their minds to that challenge but there may be no easy, painless solutions. At the moment the emphasis is on maintaining the current length of the line, number of operating days and the level of timetabled services by developing new sources of income and maximising the contribution of volunteers.

 

Based on comments on here, a reduction in staffing in the marketing/publicity/communications area would seem possible, since they do not appear to be communicating with customers.

 

Unfortunately, the management do not appear to read anything on the internet - there have been plenty of people telling them precisely what you have said, but without it sinking in. More telling, really, is that over the last couple of years more job adverts have appeared for such staff. Although there have been some cutbacks in staff numbers, it would be interesting to learn where the cuts have been made, and how the ratio of "operating" (i.e. including workshop PWay etc.) staff to office workers has changed.

 

The belief that Marketing Professionals are miracle workers who can bring in visitors simply by being there is a fallacy.

Qualifications in Marketing are generic and may not apply to all attractions. Heritage railways are a strange beast in this respect and 'more than a train ride' is a good, simple maxim to start with.

Marketing Professionals also need to know how to work with volunteers and not simply disregard them as people to spoil their strategies.

I particularly despise the maxim that you need to pay big money to get the best people. Those chasing the best salaries tend to have half an eye on where they may be able to get a better one.

How does this relate to the NYMR? Heritage railways need people in the right departments. The PW and operating staff are of equal importance to the salaried people in the offices. There's no point in having wonderful Marketing strategies and events if the railway they are planned for is falling apart or has no one to operate it..

 

Just seen 2 x EE type 3 locos on Goathland webcam going south!

 

But it's equally true that in the situation the NYMR finds itself in there's no point in having plenty of people to operate the railway if if the marketing resource to develop and promote new sources of income isn't there. No one works in the heritage railway sector because it offers generous salaries. Most could earn far more outside it but they stay because of the satisfaction of being part 0f a community that does something worthwhile. Suggesting repeatedly that they should be culled, or that marketing roles are somehow less worthy than operational ones, is corrosive of morale and risks damaging a vital resource. Unless the NYMR is going to contract substantially to reduce cost, requiring less operational resource and fewer opportunities to volunteer, it may well need more marketing resource not less.

 

Marketing professionals working in any industry think that are miracle workers by their role for whatever industry they happen to be working in, be that pet food, airlines or any heritage sector where you are relying heavily on optional spend.
Now it is debatable if Heritage Railways are marketable in the same way as a normal retail product, or how much leadership teams at lines rely on them. In the context of the NYMR, I have no idea or what they were tasked to do in their role for example just throughput of bodies or to consider profitability. But it will be dependent on the leadership team to accept or eject marketing proposals, and in my experience they do not like having their ideas turned down and are apt to head off elsewhere. You then tend to end up with a suboptimal department.

Having said all that I do see throughput these threads, and magazines etc associated with the sector a general feeling from folks that their leadership teams are totally divorced from reality and all the warnings about financial issues need for constraint etc are just management BS. I often feel like I am reliving late 2001 and 2002 when many of my colleagues at work felt that the (in their opinion management supposed) impact of 9/11 on the aviation sector was just management trying to crush the staff.

Maybe the wake up call will only come after a couple of lines fold.

 

I think anyone who defends a team of 7? marketing/communications/publicity employees who can’t put out simple comms about operational changes, really needs to have a word with themselves.

 

Maybe true but where do you expect these "operational changes" to be displayed?
If you are talking about the likes of Facebook or X absolutely no use to me and to many I suspect. Quite why things like Facebook even think that kicking you out after about 15 seconds if you do not have an account works for a business I have no idea. Even if I was away on holiday a website update would only be of use at an hotel in the evening, then if I bothered to take a laptop on holiday.

 

Then there needs to be a very close look at the value they’ve delivered relative to the expenditure - and that needs to be communicated. Because ultimately there can be a railway with no marketing professionals, but if there is no railway, there’s no marketing.

 

https://www.nymr.co.uk/Event/class37

Not that it was advertised clearly on the website today - loco roster is still showing yesterday's. Only steam hauled services were 09.30 Pickering - Grosmont and 17.05 return with 60163, which also worked the lunchtime diner. 31128 was on the other diagram. Autocar looks impressive but capacity is poor for a summer weekend, especially when one compartment is locked out in the trailer.

 

A prime example might be the current visit of 60163, and there questions might be asked across the whole of the management.

1. Was there any long term planning for this visit or did it suddenly become available because the spat with WCR rendered it devoid of work in August?

2. How much more does it cost to hire, compared with, for example home-based 63395? (Specific figures not sought or expected, but a % figure or simple multiple would be interesting)

3. How much advertising has been carried out to generate extra business, given that it's visit has come in the annual peak season, and it seems to have been working normally scheduled trains - and from eyewitness accounts posted elsewhere on the internet even these have not been packed.

4. Is it known whether the extra business it has generated has covered the additional costs of moving it to the NYMR and hiring it?

I fully expect a reply consisting of the usual meaningless flannel ("the NYMR is not a rail enthusiasts members club", "commercial in confidence" etc., etc.) but before anyone puts out a response please consider that the people you attempt to baffle with b******t are the same ones who you are probably going to asking for money later in the year - indeed, already are with the 75029 appeal, when seemingly no funds had been accumulated from 10 years or so of "free" service running; presumably all that it should have earned has gone on paying an increasing office staff.

The NYMR has been there for years. What it needs is to exchange some of those office staff for maintenance staff, and run a reliable service without having to substitute diesel for steam on other than emergencies. That's what its customers want and if it happens they'll go away happy. If it can't supply that (as happens too often) then the negative word-of-mouth advertising seems to be far more effective than anything emerging from the railway. I happen to think that the management is living on the former glory of previous managements, when it was possible to run various types of special event that apparently it no longer can. I happen to think that inability shows up a far wider malaise.

 

Re Question 1, I do know that there was no long term planning re Tornado, and that negotiations for its visit took just 7 days AFTER the spat with WCRC. Re answers to questions 2, 3 and 4 I’m not party to those answers but I can see the quick almost instantaneous response by Marketing to its visit both on FB and the NYMR website, and from personal experience there has been an uptick in visitors to the railway particularly on the 10.55 ex Pickering departure.

I do think the “management” ought to be applauded for seizing the opportunity rather than being continually lambasted.

ps recent diesel substitutions that have occurred (Friday when 806 failed, today when Eric failed its FTR) have occurred at the last minute rather than cancelling the service.

Pps there have apparent eye witness accounts on here of the 16.40 ex Grosmont but this has in the past been an almost ECS service…

 

Facebook, website, X, posters for the booking halls etc etc - anywhere at all that will get people’s attention.