North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I think the model you have described is very commercial. They have found a niche and they are working it. OK chucking in the odd gala may keep the enthusiast happy and hopefully make a profit, that one weekend, but what you have described is actually the sort of thing people about the NYMR doing. Whitby is the commercial benefit and I suspect as a Heritage Line they would need more paid staff than most (all?) to deliver that properly. They may have too many paid staff?, no idea.
But I fully agree with @Pete Thornhill , @60044 thinking is from an age gone by never to return.

 

Equally I think there are a few heritage railways that had to take a harder commercial approach to survive and reset the cash flow which have now relaxed that approach when things have got better controlled and now putting more emphasis on the heritage appeal with both operations and restorations. Not uncommon commercial practice to really tighten the belt and then gradually relax it. The key is explaining why you are doing it, keeping people motivated whilst it is going on. It can be done !

 

I think that a commercially well run line is more likely to attract the confidence of donors and grant funders to help with the nice to haves:/heritage stuff. So one feeds the other. I will cite the example of my home railway being able to acquire a GWR engine for example after 40 years following a period of good trading.

 

I probably haven't explained myself very well, but I really don't think you have a clue about what I'm really thinking, and I suspect you are in turn basing your opinions on your own prejudices, which seem to be misguided. The NYMR has been losing money hand over fist in recent years despite the Whitby trains selling well. The problem is that there isn't enough capacity on those that these services and that prices have been increased rather faster than the rate of inflation, making them less attractive, and prices on internal services have gone up similarly. At the same time, in an attempt to reduce the losses, maintenance budgets have been slashed, both for last year and the coming one, so that this winter there is no planned significant relaying work, despite the track being reportedly very poor in places, with more and more temporary speed restrictions creeping in and major work on bridge 42 looming. In suspect that the problems with steam loco availability stem in part at least from those cuts, if a figure of £4000 per loco for materials is true - and I suspect, too that it would not have been increased this year or next. There is increasing dissatisfaction being voiced among the volunteers, that hasn't been helped by the rather disastrous appointments (and then "departures") of two senior managers who really had no experience in the type of role they were appointed to (e.g. one of them was appointed as "Footplate standards manager" with no footplate experience whatsoever, and summarily dismissed many - if not all- of the existing inspectorate from that role.....

I then look at lines like the Bluebell, KWVR, SVR and GWSR, even the SR, for example, that may have gone through hard times but have weathered them and remain strong and unbroken. They seem to be trading still primarily as heritage railways. Why is it that the NYMR cannot do the same? To my mind it's a combination of factors, but for the most part it come down to poor management decisions. We've heard of ambitions for the NYMR to become more of a living museum, which Beamish, for example does very well - but why is it thought that the NYMR can develop along those lines when it cannot maintain, use and exploit its existing heritage assets like its teak carriages - and even if it could, where is even just its plan for developing its "living museum" ethos?

 

Took a day out to the Moors today. I travelled on the 09.20 through to Whitby and the 6 coach train was full with only the odd seat empty and plenty of people standing in the vestibules; this despite being diesel hauled throughout. The first train out of Whitby was also pretty full from what I could see as it passed us. The 12.35 ex Whitby had a reasonable number of passengers on what can sometimes be more of an ECS. I got off at Grosmont for a wander around there and watch 60163 depart before catching the 14.40 back to Pickering. I don't know how well loaded it was as I found a seat in the first coach and settled for that. However, judging by the number of people on the platform at Pickering when it arrived and I got off, it must have had a good number on board.
Motive power wise, steam was a bit thin on the ground with only the two Black 5's available and in use. 63395 was at New Bridge and being loaded onto a low loader that had just brought 78019 to go Darlington. At Grosmont, 80136 was on washout and 29 was dead on shed. 92134 was in the back field, apparently with failed elements and a cracked chimney.
I'm told by a good source that 60163's visit has gone down well and the special days of the last couple of weeks have turned a reasonable profit. Again, I was told 60103's bookings are looking very healthy and stand to return a good profit despite the rumoured cost.