Bluebell Railway General Discussion

To be fair, that’s not actually too far off what we have now - the Mets, 1098, 7598 & the 4 wheelers have 55 compartments between them, weighing in at around 184 tons. Admittedly that is 10 coaches, but only 1098 is a “full length” coach, so the train is roughly 6 Mk1 coach lengths.

 

Just had the shareholders' papers today. This is the financial review for the 8 months to 31 Aug:



August 2026
Key Observations:
• The YTD Loss after Tax of £(976)k is 137% worse than last year
and £(291)k worse than Budget, due mainly to the “steam ban” in
July and August, reducing turnover by £(241)k, which is now down
5.2% YTD. Prior to the “steam ban” turnover was growing at 4.3%
YTD.
• Gross Margin YTD is (3.9)%pts worse than last year, due to £(73)k
increase in Direct Costs which are £27k better than Budget. This
mainly results from the increased “hiring in fees” of £80k, which are
£64k higher than last year.
• Total YTD overheads of £1,865k, despite being only £(6)k worse than
Budget are £(170)k worse than last year, an increase of (10)% YoY.
That said, our growth in total overheads slowed to 2.3% in August, as
actions were taken to start stopping all but “essential” and “funded”
costs.
• Trade Creditors have increased by £87k from the year end to £660k,
and the balance of overdue payments has increased by £159k to
£336k.
• Given that the “headroom” on the overdraft facility is only £90k at
the end of August, the company is currently cash flow ‘insolvent’
• Finally, if we hit Budget for the remainder of the year, then this
would indicate a total loss for the year of £(756)k, compared to a
profit of £66k last year – Underlying loss last year was £(520)k before
exceptional items
.

Key Recommendations:
• The significantly increased loss for the 8 months, coupled with
the the lack of “headroom” on the overdraft facility, the
“insolvent” trading position and the recent ban on the running of
steam trains is clearly a call for action.
• Recommendations agreed at the previous board meeting:
• An immediate cessation of all “discretionary” expenditure,
with only “essential” and “funded” expenditure continuing.
• Resolve the solvency position once and for all. Specifically,
we are looking to raise c£1.7m through the sale and leaseback
of Sir Archibald Sinclair to The Bluebell Railway Trust, together
with the sale of 3 railway cottages which are currently on the
market. This money will be used as long term working
capital for the railway and will resolve our solvency position
for the foreseeable future.
• Undertake a “drains up” review of the £5.7m cost base, also
splitting it between “essential”, “funded” and
“discretionary”. That said, we can’t save our way out of this.
• Complete detailed monthly Budget of the P&L, Balance
Sheet and cashflow, linked to the weekly operations report, with
rigorous scrutiny of the monthly phasing, ensuring that the
Company has a good margin for solvency for FY27.
• Undertake a critical review of the customer offer to drive top
line growth.
• We need to accelerate the benefit of being a charity.




To a financial layman like me these figures look pretty scary. Can the railway continue making losses on this scale (£500k last year, probable £750K this year)?

 

For many, many years the Bluebell Railway had rich friends; from the surrounding area - what used to be known as “the Stockbroker Belt”. Rich friends who would donate money to projects such as loco restorations and overhauls, taking pressure off farebox income which only had to pay for day to day costs.

Now there are vanishingly few upper middle class altruists left. Their monied place in society (and their houses in the villages of the middle of Sussex) taken by nouveau rich who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. With no chance of donating anything anywhere.

 

I fear that 2026 has been a bad financial year for many of our heritage railways, particularly those who had to suspend steam operations for prolonged periods during the hot summer and drought. More broadly, the inflated prices for coal and diesel will have had a direct impact on the finances, while cost of living pressures will have affected potential customers and probably caused many to stay away. Staff costs will have been impacted by the rise in employers' NI contributions, and of course there are the ever rising costs for loco, rolling stock and infrastructure maintenance and overhaul. I don't imagine that any heritage railway finance manager is having an easy time at present.

 

But they appear to have a practical plan to resolve the situation, so will presumably not 'continue making losses on this scale'.

 

Please find some photos from the charter yesterday. Thanks to @jonpbowers, the railway and the crews particulary the driver who only agreed the day before to cover for the rostered driver, who couldnt make it.
Atlantic Dawn by Paul Simpson, on Flickr
Atlantic approaching Horsted by Paul Simpson, on Flickr
Atlantic approaching broken bridge by Paul Simpson, on Flickr
Atlantic passing broken bridge by Paul Simpson, on Flickr

 

A few more photos take on my phone this time.

 

One assumes not, and it would appear that folks are on the same page of the playbook unlike some lines we could name.

However the sale and lease back of 34059 to the trust seems to me strange as they are not to me "a third party" and the property sale (whilst good they have the opportunity) is just selling off an asset.
I sesm to remember a rather large loss about 2 or 3 years back as well.
But as others have said ti shows

 

I guess the idea is to protect assetts. If the railway defaults on a loan then the loco cant be seized in lieu of payment.

Sent from my SM-S741B using Tapatalk

 

It’s also a mechanism by which the Trust can use its reserves to support the plc.

It is, over time, making the Trust the biggest loco owner on the railway apart from the plc itself: 592, 263, 65, 488, 72, 90% of 80151 and seemingly soon 34059. If I were a betting man, I suspect there might be other loco transfers to come; 323 would be an obvious candidate.

Tom