Embsay & Bolton Abbey - Branchline Weekend - May 4th, 5th & 6th

The tea room comes with a cost of sale though, so the margin is likely to only be about 30% - 40% at best. So you've probably got to make about £15 of tea room / shop sales to make the same contribution to the bottom line as a £5 platform ticket.

Tom

 

Was that you with the two Nikon D2x`s ?

I went on the line the week before and apparently the tickets can be used as platform tickets valid for up to a year.

I went to Halton east to the Dales Ice cream farm for lunch about a mile away - excellent burger and chips and even better ice cream with lots of different flavours as well ... but over run with kids ( great day out for them though)

John

 

Not me no. I'm the younger of the two with steps. Between us we had 2 Nikons though. Never spoke to you I believe but spotted you early in the day on the other side.
Some good pictures John!

Fair point Tom and had I been advised that it could then be used for a year I may have bought them just I'm unlikely to head over to Embsay before the 1940's weekend in September if at all again this year.
As I mainly photograph I don't begrudge a donation, membership or line side pass since these help the railway run and provide a days entertainment.
Richard

 

I visited yesterday afternoon with family, as we'd been elsewhere in the area during morning. From an enthusiast viewpoint it seemed to be a good show, but I wasn't there with my enthusiast rose-tinted glasses.

Showed up at Embsay, and the guy in the booking office made a meal of processing my payment, first charging myself 30p for the 2x tickets I was buying. As he then continued to fumble with the machine he started to apologise as it was his first day on tickets. Fair enough, but as he was struggling why did the other person in the booth show no interest in helping him out if he's so inexperienced? He then asked me to Gift Aid my tickets, which I agreed to but he couldn't find the forms, and the other person continued to show no assistance whatsoever, so I said leave it. You only have 1 chance to make a first impression, and sadly it wasn't great.

After getting our tickets, we then boarded what we presumed was the 2pm train. However turned out trains were 20 mins late, so ended up on the 1330, not the biggest issue in the world but the 10/15 minute wait at Stoneacre after we left was. How was it some trains were constantly losing time? I suspect it's because you were trying to swap the Freight sets over in the same amount of time it takes to runround. I like the idea of showcassing everything you have on show, but if you need that extra 5mins to swap the sets over then add it in. Don't try to do too much. Sure we'd of been happier to wait that exra 5-minutes in Embsay Station than sit in a loop with nowhere else to go.

During this wait we started looking round the coach (as you do) and it was obvious the windows hadn't been cleaned in a while, as they were very dirty. May sound like nitpicking, but clean coaches should surely be a priority seeing as this is one of a railway's main selling points, enjoying the scenery from a wide window not available on more modern trains?

We arrived Bolton Abbey and went to buy some lunch from the tea rooms, only to be informed they'd sold out of sandwiches etc and could only offer cakes / snacks. Again not the biggest issue in the world, but with such a large tea room to have sold out of the majority of things by 2pm isn't great. Wouldn't have been so bad if it had been busy and the trains were chocka but they weren't, passenger numbers seemed steady rather than spectacular.

We had a cuppa & piece of cake, before getting on the Parcels set back to Embsay. Got off here as the set was then shunted away, so we crossed over to wait for the Vintage Set as despite my Girlfriend saying she'd had enough I managed to persuade her to ride in the Stately Trains set thinking that this would be a bit of improvement for us. Unfortunatelty not though. The set arrived and the L&Y saloon paintwork looked very tired. We then boarded this and first thing we noticed was once again dirty windows. As we sat down and looked around we noticed the carpets were dirty and everything again looked tired.

At Bolton Abbey we changed ends and went into the GER Saloon where again we noticed dirty windows/floors with the added inclusion of dead flies and cobwebs this time! I'd pointed earlier this set was used for the Strawberry Specials, to which my Girlfirend replied she wouldn't eat McDonalds in these! We arrived back into Embsay where we decided to leave to go and find a local pub, as not having had anything substantial for lunch we wanted something before driving home.

If I'd been on my own, I'd of wanted to then get the Passenger back to Bolton Abbey in order to ride behind the doubleheader back but I was lucky I didn't want to do this as the Mk1 set left before anyone had a chance to cross over the footbridge. This would of really annoyed me if I'd been there as an enthusiast, as I'd want to ride behind as many of the trains as possible but for whatever reason this wasn't made possible for this connection.

In general it wasn't a bad day, but sometimes it the little things that make a big difference and cleanliness in particular is not a major job yet it is one of the first things you'll notice as a visitor. I'd not visited E&BA since the D49 came, and when I realised we were going to be in the area I thought it be nice to spend the afternoon supporting the gala. As said at the start though I wasn't there as an enthusiast where all I care about is noise and mileage, I was there with family looking for an afternoon's train ride. Whilst we did get such, it was far from the best we've enjoyed and my family said they'd rather travel further to somewhere they'd see a better level of care than return Embsay.

 

So you freeloaded? Well done. If I was them I would have put the ice cream where the sun doesn't shine, honestly...an ice cream... cause that pays for the locos up keep, water, coal, oil... pathetic excuse. I wouldn't dream of going to a railway and taking pictures for free. I assume it cost you money to get to the railway, if you can't afford to pay an extra £5 to have a day's photography then don't go at all.

 

If you don't begrudge a donation, why couldn't you see the platform ticket as such?

 

Because of the way the charge is presented. Some posters on this thread have stated that the "Platform Ticket" is valid for a full year BUT the publicity available to visitors doesn't make this clear thereby creating a poor impression that dissuades people from future visits. Describing this as an Annual Access Pass might improve the perception but the simple "Platform Ticket - £5:00" certainly doesn't encourage visitors.

 

Why are folk still banging on about a £ 5 platform ticket, I don't recall seeing anything other than a £ 1 request anywhere.

 

Footage from the final day yesterday, mostly in the sun and a bit breezy at times. Only had to cut 20 minutes worth of shots...

 

http://www.embsayboltonabbeyrailway.org.uk/speciale.html#mtwe

Adults: £15.00
Children: £5.00 (normal fare)
Platform Tickets: £5 (valid at both stations on the day of issue)

 

Stand corrected, and yes it does seem steep, but you do get your parking for nowt.

 

And, of course, the opportunity to view and photograph from the platform the undoubtably busy scene at each station.

Unless you want it all for free?