Jacobite 2026

The point of running a business is surely to make a profit for the shareholders...not what price it can charge ?

 

You've said this before and been asked to explain how you see WC in terms of business orthodoxy? Still waiting.
I challenge you to explain your assertion in terms of WC specifically, not "general business principles" or some obtuse deflection.
For clarity my interpretation is that the business is run to generate income to offset the colossal costs of collecting, restoring and operating steam locomotives which is the hobby of the sole owner. So the Jacobite may be profitable but it isn't used to pay a dividend to "the shareholders".

 

Your views of running a business is somewhat strange. The business in question is a private company how do you know about it's dividend distribution ? Are you a member of the board..it seems like it. Presumably you have a pension invested in funds...they don't pay dividends ?

 

Bingo, obtuse deflection alert!! You will never answer a direct question about something you've posted. It's always, what about, this that and the other, anything to avoid backing up what you've initially asserted.
I'm not discussing the generality of "a business", so my views of "running a business" are not in question.
I don't know anything except what is in the public domain, see Companies House for info about shareholders etc. There is one majority shareholder of that privately owned company. He collects and restores steam engines, which is very, very, very, expensive, not something one would do for "shareholder"benefit.
WC does have many other lines of business, which probably are run at a profit, but not for the "shareholders" as such but to offset the colossal costs of being a steam loco owner. That's my theory, what's yours?

 

What a load of tosh... you've obviously never run a business...your claims about the Jacobite says it all ..BINGO.....my theory... I haven't one, what Mr Smith does with his money, his business, it's his perogative.... obviously you disagree..? I'll ask again what businesses have you started and run ....you seem to have great experience in this sphere ? Shareholding is not about dividends as you seem to assume, but about building shareholder value...ask @Spamcan81 that

 

For goodness sake, you were the person who declared what the motives are for the Jacobite - "profit for shareholders".
I simply put to you WC doesn't necessarily follow the business orthodoxy you are wedded to. I make no claim to knowledge other than what Companies House reveals and whatever else is in the public domain.
Nor have I said I disagree with how the business is run. An assumption of which oddly seems to have sent you into a paroxysm of outrage about my lack of business acumen.
As has been said many times, if you aim to make a small fortune from owning steam locos ...... start with a large one.

 

Where did I throw a fit (paroxysm) ? So what does WCR run the Jacobite for ? a hobby ?

 

Why are you interested to know what I think when you've clearly decided that I haven't a clue about anything?
WC took over running on the Mallaig extension mid 90s and built it up into the Jacobite from the service established in 1984 under Scotrail.
As I've said before, my theory is that broadly the purpose of WC activities is to offset the colossal cost of collecting, restoring, maintaining and operating steam locos which IS the hobby of the owner. In other words the bloke likes to get some return on his expenditure. Historically WC was set up because Mr Smith was hacked off with SLOA not giving his 8f work so he acquired the means to be self sufficient. Privatisation happened and WC gained a monopoly, there was lots of rolling stock available at scrap prices, right place, right time.
You might be right though, it could all be about increasing "shareholder value"..........

 

Well said Martin, agree wholeheartedly !

 

Precisely so. Which was the point I was trying to get across, owning/operating steam locos would not, in and of itself be a profit making venture. The other avenues offset and subsidise the bit which is akin to 'hobby'.
Which is why I also made clear at the outset that viewing WC in context of business orthodoxy is to misunderstand.

 

You are both right really it is about shareholder value and the main shareholder almost certainly uses it to help maintain a collection. A collection that is really only part of the overall business though.

 

Can I suggest going and googling (or possibly purchasing) Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall and possibly coming back to us after you have read that?

 

Indeed, albeit the theory can also be expanded to those who try to compare the operations of LSL and WCR on a level footing, they are both businesses that use rolling stock and train operation as part of a much wider group to achieve their owners objectives albeit in very different ways.

 

I would suggest "the overall business" is in effect a support system for the steam loco collecting, restoring, operating etc.
If one cares to go wider, it could be seen that coal merchanting and farming is the primary business which yielded the start up capital for the railway business. How much that has inverted over the years is anyone's guess but the ancillary railway activity is what yields the profit to subsidise the hobby of collecting and operating steam locos on the mainline.

 

Have we reached the "I was talking to an acquaintance of mine in Dagestan recently - lovely person, profoundly wise for an inhabitant of that part of the world - about one of my patents and ... [continues]" stage of this argument yet?

Tom

 

Phew, when I saw you had responded I worried that you were going to pick me up on a misremembering of my economic theories and writings from my economics A level cough 33 years ago cough!