North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

If it had appeared in Moorswhine it probably would have been taken as an amusing cartoon, just as a similar cartoon of a politician appearing in today’s paper would be seen as amusing. However, Moorswhine was the best part of forty years ago and peoples attitudes to such things have changed. Even I’ve changed in that respect.

 

Totally agree. As David Lammy would say “let us play the ball not the man”

 

Fair enough, but surely the "ball" here is the underlying sentiment being expressed, and not the lampooning of the person? If the suggestion is that the management of the NYMR is becoming a non-benevolent dictatorship that's not a very healthy position for a charity to be in, and the "allegation" or "suggestion", whichever it may be, needs to be investigated just as vigorously as the original "crime".

 

The “0ld days” have gone. Present day safeguarding obligations mean that what may once have been shrugged off as mere banter is no longer acceptable. The intentional personal villification in the poster crosses a line and cannot possibly be justified. Any organisation has a duty to protect those on the receiving end of such material whatever their role.

 

I'm glad I didn't have a mouth full of tea when I read that.

Sawdust.

 

I still think there's a deal of hypocrisy going on here - if a similar poster had appeared in the reign of Chris Price, but depicting him as a King, would there have been the same outcry. I have looked again at the artwork and it doesn't accuse her of favouring anyone or not because she is female. The expression "my way or the highway" which is not used but seems to be being alluded to, is not sex-specific.

And, of course, there are two sides to every story! For those with longer memories (or who have conveniently forgotten) , the now-CEO does not have a great track record, as I have been reminded in an e-mail: "while there might be an element of misogyny behind it, I think Lineisclear's total dismissal of any other motive is wrong and I think the accusations may have merit. This after all the person who insisted it was her job and not volunteers to organise the 60s weekend, hiring expensive acts and causing the loss of much goodwill" Not the action of someone who values the input of volunteers, I suggest, and she managed to kill that event off in a single year. Does that have a familiar sound to it?

 

I'm just reminded, not for the first time, of the naval tradition whereby mutineers tended to be hanged, but the captains provoking mutiny tended to be removed from their commands.

 

Which is why people like you and me are dinosaurs. The writing for things like this being clearly unacceptable was on the wall a couple of years before I retired in 2012 (that is 13 years ago so in that time things have moved on at a pace). One of the reasons I retired, although a long way down the list was that I knew I would not be able to adapt to what was seen as the new norm. Not that said phrase existed then of course.

 

There's a point here about circulation. An internal newsletter is one thing; a laminated poster in a public place is quite another.

 

But for that tradition to apply the mutinous act would need to be committed by a member of the crew!

 

Possibly

 

Sounds like politics today - and yesterday too, for that matter.

Noel

 

Well I'm clearly not as woke as the rest of you. I despise sexist or racist comments, but I didn't see this as either

 

The railway preservation movement (for that's what it is, I've never liked the heritage railway name) runs entirely on good will and respect both of which need to be reciprocated on all levels.
Management <> customers
Management <> volunteers
Management <> membership
Employees <> volunteers
Staff <> customers
Management <> associated groups

If any of these pathways fail there will be knock on and unforeseen and undesirable effects felt in other areas.
For example, A host railway may no longer feel a group preserving pre grouping carriages or wagons no longer fills any need or purpose to them, without stopping to consider how many members and volunteers are involved in both bodies. Volunteers may split their free time between both activities, members may make donations to both societies. The host railway either evicts or encourages the smaller to move away. All without considering the possible knock on effects. If the group relocates to an embryonic preservation scheme, the former host could well lose, members, volunteers, donations and significantly legacies.
It is understanding these pathways which amounts to the "ethos" referred to earlier in this thread I believe.
Sadly with what I've seen and heard first hand while I've been working on or near the railway over the last decade or so and second hand while being elsewhere tells me that some of these pathways are blocked or only working one way.
Nobody in all that time that I have spoken to either connected with the NYMR or people in the industry not connected with the railway have said one good thing with how the NYMR is managed. That includes company directors and trustees of other bodies some of which are far larger.

Sawdust.

 

That is a strong indication that the poster should be seen not so much as a personal attack (and certainly not as sexist) but as an apparently justified criticism of management style. Nevertheless the means of expressing that criticism was badly chosen.

 

My post does not relate to the poster at Beckhole in anyway and is not connected to it.

Sawdust.

 

Sorry if I gave the impression of a direct connection. Your post describes how the NYMR management is perceived, and the poster implies a similar perception.

 

..... but of course some on here will always stick up for the management who are gradually, but at an accelerating pace, destroying what the NYMR had become, just at the time when it was really beginning to blossom, on the grounds that "The “0ld days” have gone" using this as a catch-all term for everything they seem to wish to eradicate.

 

Or ends up leaving like the previous GM at the Severn Valley.

I have no dog in this fight aside from wishing the NYMR to survive and thrive so I may continue to visit in the future. The poster is not in great taste, not the sort of thing I would do, and may well attribute quotes to someone that they never said.

However, it concerns me that safeguarding can easily be used as a shield to hide and deflect from criticism. People become afraid to say anything at all, for fear of being branded a terrible hateful bigot or whatever.