An appeal to help fund vital works at cash-strapped Nene Valley Railway has been launched

Sorry if this has already been mentioned before, found on Faceache - http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/...-news/nene-valley-railway-cash-plea-1-6655665

I wasn't aware of any issues as I thought the NVR would be quite stable given its large local population...

 

Far from it sadly. And some of their recent decisions leave a lot to be desired. For example, there's only one diesel gala rather than two this year, and the spring one is only two days rather than three. Plus no evening beer trains. Apparently the diesel galas don't make enough money. But if they're making some money, why change it?! Also, the recent steam gala. Three locos in steam, one of which was a visitor that only worked trains that required a £5 supplement to travel on. Day rover was £25 for the other two locos. No wonder attendance was so poor!

 

Ah has as. Que the dirty washing...

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

 

I think my mate Alan needs to clean his overalls going by that pic.

 

Needs to wear some safety goggles, as well! they don't even look like safety specs.

 

Sent from the pub after a few bevvies more like!

 

Odd, there is nothing on their web site appealing for money for this bridge repair as such. There is a general appeal and two others for an engine overhaul, and a station fund, also going on as well.

 

No. Auto spell check strikes again. Should have aaaaa-haaaaaa!

 

It is common enough for railways to put out appeals for help with exceptional items, but in this case the amount involved does seem relatively small, which does rather suggest that they may be struggling.

 

I'm not so sure. There have been warnings of financial problems at the NVR by the Chairman and other officers, published in the Railway's magazine over the past year.

 

Maybe it's an oblique reference to "alternative revenue streams" as recently reportedly employed by the Epping-Ongar Railway.

 

The problems is a totally incapable management/board .who have no business experience or any idea on how to run a business .It is sad as the railway and it hard working volunteers have been let down by said management and board over the last 5 or 6 years.

 

This is sad. Is that actual fact Matthew? It is my local heritage railway and such an obvious disappointment in the way it runs. Was at the GCR on Saturday, and a train came through that was not timetabled. It was full of diners paying god knows what, and they were loading another up after the last scheduled train. NVR really need to visit some other railways and have their eyes opened. What's one of the next main events? Industrials weekend, hardly imaginative when you realise all they have on the line is 2 saddle tanks.
And another thing, no passing loop in the middle of the line? You can't run a gala where if you got off to watch a loco away you know you're stuck there for an hour. I'm afraid looking at the other local lines, NNR, MNR, GCR and even the GCR(N) as it is now can all run an intensive service. In fact the service was more intensive at the Battlefield line last week.
Now I hate to sound like I'm giving them a slating and am sure there are lots of people putting in a lot of hard work and effort, but something seems to be severely lacking. Obviously it appears to be money now, but that's as a result of and not the root of the problem.

 

I've just been looking at the diesel Gala timetable, looks like a 3 train service. One in the Yarwell section, one Wansford to Orton, and one in the Peterborough section. Why isn't this done at Steam Gala's? One train running up and down, plus brake van rides on either a branch or the Yarwell section just do not compete with other railways.

 

Lack of imagination and lack of locos mainly. Matthew is correct, the railway has gone downhill in recent years. The independent groups there (BBLS, Ironstone and International) are pretty proactive, yet the rest of the railway is stagnating or going backwards.

One example - one of the Danish coaches has just been overhauled. Well, the body has. It's now sat on accommodation bogies while it's bogies are overhauled. Why wasn't it put on accommodation bogies to start with? Then the whole vehicle could've been ready at the same time to enter traffic.

Oh, and the bogies have a wooden core, and there's a long lead time in getting the wood!

 

Lack of vacuum braked rolling stock is the problem there. At the last steam gala they had five(?) Mark ones on the main train and one on the mixed local. Until more Mark ones are available, another passenger train would have required use of the continental stock and an air braked loco. No doubt that would have brought criticism from enthusiasts had that happened. Also the last minute unavailability of the N2 didn't help the choice of locos available for the event. Not every railway has a dozen locos running at a gala and from that perspective the NVR is no different.
The NVR's core market is very much families and having Thomas out of traffic doesn't help. Hopefully his return to traffic will have a beneficial effect on passenger numbers.

 

Fair enough what you say on the stock, but surely you book loco's to run the stock that you have, or maybe even bring some stock in for galas.
I don't agree on the one train format. Every railway that is capable runs one in each direction at a gala. NVR made a slight attempt last time with a one cariage stopper I guess.
I agree that it is obvious that the railway appears to be happy with the targeted family market, but if there's not enough of them you end up in this very situation. Decline is inevitable unless there is a change on that front.

 

No disrespect Nick but have you any idea of the costs involved to do that? It's so easy to criticise when you haven't the job of organising things yourself.