Severn Valley Railway to launch £4,000,000 share issue.

In order to move the railway forward you need to have the best people for the job. That is why the current General Manager is worth his salary. What I am sure we dont all realise is the late nights and early mornings that are required to fill a position like that and that is before you have to deal with not only how to move the organisation forward as well as all the flack that being in a public position like that creates. We are all excellent football Managers when watching the television but there is a good reason why we are still on the sofa. So instead of finding the negatives, why dont we all support the Management instead of slagging them off and put our points forward in the correct manner which is in one of the question and answer sessions. You know the ones the Management have to attend in the evening while we are spending time with our families or shouting instructions at the television while the football is on.

 

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The reported salary is £52k or £1000 per week

Volunteers get nothing and spend lots of their own money getting to the SVR and staying locally

 

I note this is your first ever post

Are you the GM?

 

No I was interested in the shares and I am just someone who realises what it takes to have to take the heat while everyone sits on the sidelines and throws rotten eggs.

 

Thats fine but I think a positive perspective brings positive results. And thats my opinion.

 

Like I say we are all briliiant football managers .............

 

What is the relevance of that analogy?

Speaking for myself, I have never had any interest in football whatsoever - but I have been active in heritage railways since 1968.

 

Things must now be getting a bit uncomfortable for the Gang of Four right now and to sit and read this forum without being able to comment must be a bit emotional! The temptation to invent a "Geekfinder General" or a "Mrs GM" non de plume must be tempting in the extreme. It is though going to be an interesting few months and let all of the good people hope that the few good men succeed in their plans for an EGM and achieve their aims to save the Severn Valley Railway that we know and love.

Dave

 

Sir, your post suggests that you are one of the gang of four or an acolyte of theirs! If not you are most certainly that naive you can-not see beyond the end of your sofa.

GF-G’s posts might be controversial but be warned there are copious quantities of truth told by that gentleman.


Your share value, along with mine, will be required in the not too distant future when his calls for an EGM are realised!





_________________
Are you in the dark?
Plato: life (The Classics Pages)

 

Could I just use this rather blanket-reply approach to thank everyone who has emailed to pledge their proxy or just wish us well - I will I promise answer you all before midnight! And Plato, we would very much appreciate your share value now to actually make the EGM happen as well as hopefully enjoying the pleasure of your company when it happens. You can reach us on militarytrain2012@gmail.com.

Thanks

Neil

 

Hi all,

may I make a desparate attempt to get away from the EGM plans to a discussion of the suggested actual alterations to Bridgnorth station, even though I'm not involved with the SVR and only a very casual visitor?

Has anyone got a feeling what the visitors might prefer? Will they dislike the modern looking Plan A buildings because they are too modern when they are looking for nostalgia? Will they like them because they are up to date facilities? Would they prefer the first floor dining area of Plan A from where they have a better view (ground floor only in Plan B) as has been suggested on the SVR EGM thread? Will they care at all?

Let's face it, much of the proposed development has got little to do with preservation, restoration and historic accuracy of something which has already been there, we are talking about a new-build project which has mainly commercial reasons. At least that is my perception. Those commercial reasons mean that ideally everything will be built to please customers who may have a different idea about what they want than members and volunteers or even the management. Those customers, by the way, are in the first instance visitors but they are also, in a way, buyers of shares to finance the development. They have to be attracted as well. So the art is now to find a plan which will please both types of customers.

On a more personal level, I do not like the mixture of true heritage and modern elements too much. I go to a heritage railway for the nostalgia, to get away from chrome, glass, stain resistant multi-coloured carpets of today's world and all that. I want real stone, elaborate ironworks, wood floors (red carpet is acceptable), hanging baskets and similar. And, with apologies to the staff who try their very best, I don't want an ageing postacabin as café either, by the way!

Regards

Christoph

 

Christoph, I would like to have a stab at answering that because it is profoundly important. If you put yourself in the mind of a visitor, who is choosing where to spend the shattered remains of his disposable income after the taxman and his children have raided it, what motivates him or her to choose the SVR over doing something else or even doing nothing.

I suggest it is the “gemütlichkeit” of the steam age railway, and all its pomps and works. It is the smell of steam and a Fry’s Chocolate machine, a trip back to a lost time – hopefully one they don’t actually remember, or you are just building your business on coffin-dodgers.

The individual elements of that motivation are hard to evaluate – the steam engine is vital we know, but the rest is amorphous – is it the clunk of an Edmundson ticket being dated or a huge array of semaphore signals guarding Kidderminster or a cheerful bloke in a uniform and a button-hole with time to chat while he nips your ticket? It is all of that, and it is certainly clean toilets and proper catering within a civilised heritage environment.

What won’t do it is going broke before the customer even thinks about visiting you, and that is the stark conundrum faced by SVR Holdings over Project Xanadu..

Neil

 

Christoph

I hear what you are saying and of course what the visitor really wants is a vital consideration (In terms not only of what to provide, but also what to leave out as frivolous). But what you have not stated and which I fear certain railway leaders are underplaying, is what the volunteers and wider membership want. We keep it all going for the absolute love of and devotion to it. A huge miscalculation of our passion for the steam age railway has been made with this scheme and I fear that even a revised 'plan A' will not be as good as what we could have had with the right mindset from the beginning. That's assuming the worst case scenario of none of this having achieved anything where it matters. The response so far from HQ is not encouraging is it?

Kevin

 

Oh and anyone with access to 'The Other Place' please feel free to copy me in there, as after two weeks and as many emails to the webmaster address I was given, I haven't had a reply to my request to join.


KS

 

Message passed on at the other place, Kevin, with a request that someone sends you a PM here.

46118

 

Oh dear, I will try to get that sorted.
BTW I have just emailed you...