Great Goodbye at Shildon alert !

Whoops ! Missed that! Thanks for pointing it out

28th March sounds good to me !

 

Ive seen them but you know that already. However, it would be nice to obtain one image of each outside - not much to ask for and I'm sure many others will agree but to limit it to a choice of one day in that period and for the last occasion they be here on UK soil, surely it deserves more?

 

In which case Doug, may I suggest you write directly to Shildon and ask.

 

8 and 10 were outside at Barrow Hill so there's two opportunities you missed. All six were outside for nine days with five night shoots so there's more opportunities you missed. As for work schedules and night shoots - should have done what I and many others did and booked a day off if getting the shots were that important to you.

 

I wish it was simple as that but you are assuming people are in the same position as you, which is not always the case. You may have notice, I tend very rarely go outside the Merseyside / Cheshire for photography and hardly do any steam - why? It is not like the old "steam charter" days where I could do it as and when, time/funds were not a great issue. Things are different now. My personal circumstances have changed along with my priorities. Before you and others suggest this, that and the other, please bear in mind peoples personal circumstances and day to day priorities with some being in better position than others to participate. Regardless I am pleased that you and others had the opportunity to get all six - I have no problem with that what so ever but it is not that easy for me (and probably others too) to have the same opportunity, so again I was just asking that one daylight appearance out of 37 days available is a little limiting in the circumstances. If I can make the 28th March then I will but as already stated by Anthony Coulls, that depends on the weather!

 

Whilst not wishing to ignore personal circumstances and limitations, isn't it slightly unfair to suggest there is only one opportunity to see the locomotives outside in 37 days, and totally disregard the fact that there has actually been multiple occasions over 18 months where they could be seen outdoors, alongside even more opportunities indoors?

Presumably there could be some who would argue two days before they hit the ship home that there's only 48hrs left and surely they should be seen arranged in a certain position along with all the other remaining members of the class for the benefit of those who were unable to see them together on all the other occasions - because after those 48 hours have elapsed the chance will be gone!

Perhaps rather than leave them on public display, and even dragging 'um outside on one of the days, should the NRM have stuffed them out of sight in a shed somewhere, or moved them to a private haulage yard for the intervening time until their departure? That way the 'Great Goodbye' would have been just that, and the NRM would have been saved any further criticism seeing as the locomotive's last public display would have been outside, with all the other remaining class members, arranged in a flippin' line?!

 

Well since you don't know the position I'm in Doug, the above is a moot point. There are many things that my circumstances do not allow me to participate in but that's life and I can't expect museums, tour organisers, charter organisers, show organisers etc. to base their plans around me. It's never going to be possible to do everything, no matter what one's circumstances are and I accepted that long ago. 20 years ago I could do almost as many photo charters as I liked but now I can do hardly any so you're not the only one whose circumstances have changed. To accommodate everyone is/was an impossible task for the NRM and given how many days they've been on display, I think it's very unfair to criticise them for not making them available even more than they have been.

 

hello again
come on lads stop pussy footing around making excuses for the good folks at shildon
the event was for the vast majority of those that visited a complete diasaster the way the locos were displayed was verging on ridiculas
who wants to ride behind one of them not me who wants to cab them not me they should have simpy lined them up in the classic fashion put a fence around them and some tierd staging so every one can get a good veiw/ photo charged a fiver job done end of argument !!
and if some one wants to stand in the rain afterdark to do the same thing and pay £90 best of luck to them

 

119,897 reasonably happy visitors then

 

That's an awful lot of questionnaires with a "reasonably happy" box ticked, or is it just a guess?

 

No, it's 120,000 minus the email complaints (mainly about the parking) and the folks of the various fora.

But you get the gist.

I've said before, it wasn't about the picture, it was about the atmosphere. For info, I have worked 21 days solid now (yes, someone has to tidy up before and after the event) and I didn't get a decent picture of the 6 either. I loved seeing the museum buzzing with people enjoying locos and railways though.

 

Once again, just like Network Rail, an organisation in the Public sector gives the taxpayer what they want to provide and the rest of us should be grateful.

 

What an ignorant and selfish post. Given the length of the queues to access the cabs and ride the shuttle, the NRM got it right. The vast majority of visitors were members of the general public to whom the "master shot" was of secondary importance. To deny them the access that they obviously enjoyed so a few petty minded enthusiasts could get their uncluttered pictures would have been a dereliction of duty on the behalf of the NRM.

 

By the way, just been setting up the two A4s inside Shildon. On days the cabs are open, the corridor tender on 4489 will also be open for walking through. I've also set up the position of the fronts of both locos side by side with a DSLR so you can get both front ends together.

 

Hope you got approval from the whingers on here first.

 

It won't be right...

 

It's attitudes like this that give our hobby a bad name.

I'm an enthusiast and, yes, I would have got a kick out of photographing all six in a neat line. However, I have enough imagination to be able to realise that people who are not railway enthusiasts - in other words, the vast majority of the world's population - might find taking one photograph of six steam engines a little boring, and might want the event to be a little more engaging and interactive. I also have enough knowledge of practical economics to know that institutions such as the NRM and Locomotion need to attract a large number of these non-enthusiast visitors to survive.

Finally, as someone too young to remember the days of BR steam, I'm grateful to the pioneers who had to foresight to preserve engines such as the six A4s - and I am also concious that my generation has a duty to safeguard that inheritance so that our own children and grandchildren might have the same opportunities that I have had.

That's why I don't think selfishly about what would have made the Great Goodbye a good enthusiast event. Instead, I broadened my mind and enjoyed the event for what it was - and by the sounds of it, I enjoyed myself rather more than you did as a result!

Attitudes like those you have just expressed will be the death of our hobby. Don't you ever get tired of railway enthusiasts being the butt of jokes among "normal" people? Have you ever stopped to wonder why we are derided as "nerds", "anoraks", even - as Nigel Harris highlighted in SR back in the '90s - "simpletons"?

My message to all of you who have whined about the Great Goodbye: if you want to see the greatest threat to future of railway preservation, look in the mirror.

Yes, I'm sure I'm in danger of being thrown off this forum for saying that, but it needs to be said.

Ask your selves, all of you, whether you only care about enjoying railways yourself, or whether actually care about the future of the railway heritage we love. And then, in the words of Michael Jackson: take a look at yourself, and then make a change!

 

I've got the perfect solution to all this petty and childish whining....

Next time the NRM wish to organise a big event that is hugely popular and makes the museum and its exhibits accessible to all, can I suggest admission is free and unlimited to members of the public who do not possess any 'enthusiast' tendancies, whilst those who are 'enthusiasts' should be barred from all entry at any cost.

This will ensure only those who will enjoy the event are allowed in, the occasion will be viewed as a huge success by all those who matter (the vast majority of the public), there is a good chance of turning a welcome return on the initial outlay, and the inevitable complaints will concern realistic things like the long queues to empty their wallets into the shop till. If the 'enthusiasts' are going to selfishly bicker, moan, whinge and complain anyway, then at least by excluding them they'll have something decent to moan about!

 

Drysdale, you promised several times on this board a few days ago that you would never post again on this board. I breathed a sigh of relief, as I abhorred your unwarranted personal attacks on a prolific, constructive and highly valued member of the group.

Mods, you asked Drysdale to show restraint and he has failed to do so. I hope the necessary actions will follow so that those who come on these boards for relaxation, enlightenment and enjoyment can be spared such vitriol.

Peter, at the end of a sunny afternoon in Manchester
http://pjhtransportpix.zenfolio.com

 

In my time at the Bluebell, I've probably welcomed scores of people onto the footplates of locos and universally they get off with great big beaming smiles - whether they are aged 7 or 77. There is a great thrill to getting on the footplate. I'd guarantee that there will young children who have cabbed Mallard or Sir Nigel Gresley over the last few weeks, maybe had a photo sitting in the driver's seat, and who will treasure that memory and that snapshot for the rest of their lives. I'd wager there will be precious few who will be thinking in fifty years time "standing there pushing a camera shutter was a life-changing event for me".

I can still remember "cabbing" a loco on the Bluebell when I was maybe eight or nine, and I have a fuzzy box-brownie picture on my kitchen wall of me standing next to 75027 at a slightly younger age. I treasure those memories nearly forty years later. I can't ever remember being in the presence of a steam loco and treasuring the act of taking photo over and above the actual presence of the loco.

If the presence of 6 A4s in the country simply boils down to possession of a picture, then I suggest you go here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=great goodbye shildon and take your pick...

Tom