BlueBell photo charter with 30777

Looking on the Bluebell web site today I see that Jon Bowers is doing a photo charter with 30777. The cost of the event will be £60 per head. Is anyone from this forum attending this event and is it a bargain price?

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/personal/jon-bowers/charter.html

 

Yes my Dad and I are booked on the charter & really looking forward to it. £60 is quite steep but the prospect of photting 30777 paired with green Bulleid carriages is just too good to turn down. The pairing is something that can't be done on any other railway yet and from what I understand the charter might be fully booked now. But e-mail Jon Bowers if your interested to see if there are any spare places left.

 

It certainly isn't a bargain price when compared to charters elsewhere but it costs a fair bit to hire an NRM loco and the Bluebell has hiked its charges a fair bit over the past couple of years. Add together these two factors and you end up with a large hire fee with the choice of far too many photographers vying for space on the lineside at a lower price, or a sensible number of photographers at a much higher price. I wish Jon the best of luck in his endeavour but my money's staying in my wallet on this occasion.

 

But you do get quality from Jon, as David has said 30777 in front of genuine Bullied coaches is not something you see on every Railway is it?

Well done to Jon I wish him every success,remember you only get what you pay for.

Regards
Chris

 

Yes Jon's charters are always well organised and you do get quality for the money you pay. We're seriously lucky we have Jon on our railway as charters have become rare. I think Martin Creese very diplomatically explained on another thread why other organisers have decided to stop doing charters at the Bluebell, it's a great shame but fully understand Martin's reasoning. Jon has another charter coming up in November with 80151 on P/W wagons which we're booked on and he has plans for 34059 and hopefully the black Dukedog with nameplates taken back off paired with P/W wagons. So if anyone's interested e-mail Jon.

 

Not suggesting for one minute that Jon doesn't deliver quality and the price he's charging
simply reflects the much higher charges the Bluebell asks for such events these days.
Sadly these charges mean that the Bluebell is getting just the one charter with 30777 instead of several if the charges were more reasonable.
I hope the sun shines and the participants have a great day.

 

Here is Jon's plan for the charter and as said before if we get weather like the 7F charter last Novemeber then Freshfield Bank at 7.00 will be the place to be on 20th October. I know I will be there.

"The charter is planned to start from Sheffield Park at 7am and run initially through to 11am. For these first four hours we will have sole line occupancy. There will then be an extended break while the first service train goes up and down the line.
Photography will resume after lunch, with a further break being taken prior the next service train. The final session will start at about 3.15pm and (apart from a short break to cross the final service train) we will then work through to sunset. The day will finish with a night-shoot at Horsted Keynes. In total (excluding the service train breaks and including the nightshoot), this will give us about 9 hours of "charter time" over the course of the day."
I've attached one of Jon Bower's picture from that charter. Stunning.

Regards,

Dave G.

 

Hi folks

Sorry for the delay replying to this thread. The charter with 30777 is indeed now fully booked, but if anyone would like to be added to the waiting list please let me know.

My next Bluebell charter will be with 80151 on a PW train on Friday 6 November. Full details will be posted on the Bluebell website in about a week or so, but places are still available and the price is £47 per head.

I think it's fair to say that the pricing issues for Bluebell charters are well known to most of the regular charter participants, and when I first advertised the event with 30777 I did say that it was a toe in the water type event to see whether people were prepared to pay the extra money as compared to a charter at the GCR or SVR etc. Personally I would love it if the Bluebell were to price their charters competitively so that we could have a few days with 30777 but can only work with what is on the table. Fortunately in this case people are prepared to support it so let’s hope the sun shines on the day!

Cheers,
Jon

 

I hope so Dave otherwise the mob will start wanting refunds

Ps. First location unlikely to be Freshfield as sun angle is pretty much straight up the line at 7am in October...

Cheers,
Jon

 

Ps. First location unlikely to be Freshfield as sun angle is pretty much straight up the line at 7am in October...


I thought with you being the "Sun God" you would have been able to move it for the day.

 

I've created a Facebook group for anyone who would like to share their photos/thoughts about various charters they've been on just for a bit of fun. The link is below but you must have a Facebook account to be able to gain access to the site.

http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Haggar/1043115216#/group.php?gid=147593819388

 

It is interesting that the Bluebell charges more for a photo charter than the other lines, but just what is it?

It's an expensive business running a steam loco, so I'm not surprised that it costs a lot to hire one for a day, particularly as there always seems to be a very early start judging by the phots I see in the 'steamy mags'.

I'd be interested to have some insights into this matter.

Regards

 

With regards to the Bluebell's pricing, I hope Martin Creese doesn't mind me quoting him about what he said on another thread;

"I'll try to put this diplomatically whatever you think of photographers , many of us Ian Bowskill, myself , Matt Allen and Matt Fielding from this very forum who do try to put money back into preservation through photographic charters . We used to do a number on the Bluebell and had some fantastic days and were met with a real welcome . You will now notice that only Jon Bowers ploughs a lonely furrow for Bluebell based events.

Unfortunately we no longer do so not because we don't want to. The railway have made it almost impossible for us to, so and as a result lose out on a revenue stream that otherwise would be there . I for one would be in the queue for the H and the E4 in SR livery"

So reading into what Martin has said, obviously the Management have seriously bumped up their costs which isn't helping the situation but with regard to the 30777 charter it's owned by the NRM so they'll have their own fees as well. Also I did hear a "lineside rumour" a couple of years ago that one individual on the Bluebell Management tried to get charters outright banned on the line but was he was luckily shouted down because charters brought too much money into the railway. How true this was I dont know but if so it could be this person sticking his oar in again because he's very anti-charter/lineside photographers.
As much as the 30777 charter is very expensive my Dad and I have taken our places for 2 very good reasons. A) you cannot get a charter with 30777 paired with Bulleid carriages on any other railway and B) at Giants of Steam the loco may well be paired with the Bulleid set but there is the big risk that the organisors may put the Observation Car or the Great Northern Directors Saloon in the with set which really no-one wants to see, remember the 7F at last year's gala when it hauled green coaches but had a Pullman Car and the Directors Saloon mixed in the set. So yes the cost is very expensive for this charter but, for my Dad and I, the pros out-weigh the cons and we're very lucky to have Jon Bowers on the Bluebell to keep going with the charter scene.

 

A photographic subsidy?

I can't help but feel that this discussion is looking at this matter from the wrong perspective, or rather, that it is looking at it from only one perspective, that of the end user. If you chose to look at it from the perspective, or possible perspective, of the provider it might just cast a little light.

Let us assume that the provider would wish to provide this service, ie the photographic charter, to the end-user, the photographer, at a profit via middle-man. That middle man in the Bluebell's case is Jon Bowers, but there are other's too. You would assume,wouldn't you, that the costs of providing such a service would be reasonably consistant throughout the industry. The issue then becomes one of why is the Bluebell the odd one out? Why is it that only the Bluebell wishes to charge more, apparently a lot more, than other railways?

If it is the case that photographic charters are a profitable market then why would the Bluebell Railway want to raise its prices to the extent that it removes itself from that profitable market?

Might it be that the market is not what it seems to be? Might it be that there really isn't a market at all, that other railways are subsidising this activity out of, say, a publicity and marketing budget or something similar, and that the Bluebell can't play this game because money is so tight at present because of you-know-what?

I find it very difficult to believe that the Bluebell Railway would effectively rule itself out of a reputably profitable activity if there wasn't a damned good reason for it. That the Bluebell's policy of charging Jon Bowers more than the usual going rate is perhaps a matter of charging an economic rate, not a matter of over-charging.

If what I'm saying above is true, then I think the Bluebell's present policy of providing photographic charters is good for the railway and good for BRPS members.

Sorry if this offends

Regards

 

The only down side to being on a charter is the weather. I hear if it throws down with rain then its game over and you don’t get a refund. This then becomes an expensive white elephant.

 

That's the chance you take.

The flip side is you get the chance to get pics like we did on Jon's 7F charter last Dec that you could never get on a service train...

I'm prepared to take the risk on the weather when the rewards are potentially so high.

 

Spot on Matt, I remember Jon's charter with the U class and SR wagons we did a little while ago. It was gloomy with heavy rain for much of the day but in the late afternoon the sun finally came out and we got some stunning photos of the train in sun with dark clouds in the background and for a brief moment a rainbow.

Also if last year's gala was anything to go by with the 7F carriage combinations, 30777 may not always be paired with the Bulleid set and then there's the risk that either the Observation Coach or LNER Teak Great Northern Directors Saloon maybe put in with the Bulleids. So yes it's a lot of money to pay but to be guaranteed of photting Sir Lamiel with just green Bulleids it's worth the price to pay.

 

Unfortunately the charter will not go ahead, 30777 failed at the GCR and won't be able to make the charter or Giants of Steam, shame.

PS. Does anyone know exactly what the failure is?

 

Superheater elements.