Mid Hants

I guess that's Nat Pres for you - snipers snipe, trolls troll, know-it-alls preach and people who care get touchy.

Forums in a nutshell.

 

ooooooooh you bitch

 

I did not put my comments to get a reaction like i got i thought i would get other people with a similar situation at the MHR i apologise if it upset a lot of people but i did not put it on here to annoy

 

Change of subject. Tomorrow is members and shareholders day.

 

It is unfortunate that one bad interaction with a volunteer or member of staff at a tailway can leave a bad taste in the mouth that lingers for years. When I was a teenager (that is decades ago by the way!) I had a bad experience on a Welsh narrow gauge railway and the negative feelings lasted for a long time. As a volunteer on the Mid Hants myself, I know that the railway has had its moments in the past, I genuinely feel that the vast majority of staff and volunteers now are very pleased to interact with customers and genuinely keen to help. I also know that the directors of the PLC and the Society welcome feedback, both positive and negative. I attended the recent gala, and got a good impression from the volunteers helping, especially at Ropley, most of those I met and spoke to did not know me as a volunteer, but all seemed helpful and enthusiastic, for instance Andy Netherwood in the boiler shop was explaining to large numbers of people the finer points of boiler restoration and seemed to be well received. Of course that does not mean that Nine ELms Fan had a similar positive experience, as another poster said, one negative out of 500 is still too many, and overshadows in many respects the 499 positives. I hope NEF will give us another chance, and also, as other posters have said, would encourage him to e-mail or write with specific details of his experience to the MHR to give the management a chance to improve.

 

I have been around a small number of preserved outfits and it seems to me that heritage railways do get more than their fair share of 'miserable old gits/gitesses'. I have a theory which goes along these lines...it may be the fact that in the main you are working with a voluntary work force who are not neccessarily there for the public or to be the public face of the establishment. Also you have a certain amount of conflict between overly enthusiastic enthusiasts (!) wanting to get their nose into everything and a didcated group of volunteers who wish to be left alone to get on.

What then happens is that a small number spoil it for the rest.

 

its more than that, some people are just not public facing personality, or dont know how to behave in front of the public, where are others can be on an ego / power trip demonstrating their assumed responsibility and power when in public uniform that maybe they don't have in real life.
Unfortunately whilst preservation is not over flowing with volunteers to pick and interview for positions it will be a persistent issue.
It's not limited to preservation only, there was even some mini-stalins in games maker uniforms at the Olympics, though as always it's very few.
But who hasnt encountered a restaurant, bar, bus driver etc who has demonstrated some level at attitude ?

 

Just to add in another anecdote, albeit from more than 10 years ago; one volunteer at the Mid-Hants displayed one of the best attitudes I've ever come across.

In 2000 or so, I was only 9 or 10 at the time, I went to the Mid-Hants on a normal operating day with my grandad. We got off for a look around Ropley and I had a nose into the workshops from the main doors. One of the volunteers saw me and proceeded to both grandad and myself on a tour of the workshops giving updates on how work was proceeding on every loco in there before showing us around the yard and even letting us have a nose on the footplate of a couple of locos. It was fantastic and really interesting and answered every question I had (or got his mate to when he didn't know), and there must have been some annoying questions as they were coming from a nine-year-old.

That was fantastic. The staff at Medstead and on the trains have always been very friendly too, so I've never had a problem.

I've had issue with one or two other visitors at the line in the past, but never the staff.

 

I agree. The other day I was in a car with a friend of mine when we passed a very senior member of a well known preservation outfit stood at the bus stop. I expressed my surprise, not at seeing him at the bus stop but at seeing him at all, hadn't realised we were local to each other. My friend (not being an enthusiast!) wasn't sure what all the fuss was about and after I had explained who the chap was he simply said "for all you know in his real job he makes the tea!" Quite right too.

 

It only takes one thoughtless person to get a railway a bad name, everyone should remember that, But in fairness, when you work in a workshop or on the footplate then safety has to come first, if that means closing the yard then so be it, I had more than my fair share of people thinking they are engine proof over the years ,and where most do comply with a polite request to move, you get the odd ones who thing it doesnt apply to them , Early this year i happened to pop in at ropley to say hi, i signed in, read the notices and after seeing frank and dave went out into the yard, to take a look i was approached by an member asking why i was in the yard, explaining that it was a working area and i should be careful, etc , i explained who i was, showed my Kesr id and grade card and pts , then hear a shout of, its wing nut, he's ok now the person in question didnt know me but was polite but firm , At Tenterden we get the public some times strolling in past private keep out signs, they get the same treatment , a polite and firm reminder that they shouldnt be in our workshop , but if they knock on the mess room door and ask, if possible some of us will try to show them round, but we do have one person who is just plain rude and makes me cringe at his lack of public skills