Embsay Harvest of Steam - 26/27 September 2009

Typo, I think, as I was using copy and paste. Haven't got it in front of me at the moment to correct. Will do later today!

 

The slot had a goods train in it, so should not have appeared on the list! That's why there were other gaps. I've also had to change some of the printed material too... Ooops.

 

Woe betide those who miss the 14:30 at Bolton Abbey and have two hours to wait for the next one......

 

With the late start and gaps between passenger trains, looking doubtful for us now sadly, such a shame after a great visit when 246 was there a year ago.

 

I'm going to put the timetable up on the website shortly today, as we've now tweaked it slightly. The two hour gap is incorrect... I must have made a mistake typing originally with the time of that 78019 trip, not the trip itself!

Trains run every 40 minutes from both ends - I haven't shown the goods train as these departures were taken from a different document - the only one I had available at the time.

At Embsay there are also services to Bow Bridge.

If we had had another loco, we could have had the half hourly service as planned...

I thought I had made it clear that there was more than appeared here, that this was JUST the passenger service. As to the late start, it isn't a lot later than before, but we had to run the goods up to BA first as the passenger went second.

 

The biggest problem with only 3 locos is that engines need recovery time, as well as crews - with four engines, each can take a turn 'out', giving half an hour. With this timetable they have 20 minutes if they're lucky.

 

Trying to post the gala timetable on here, but it won't do Excel files!!

Have done a print screen of it instead - hope it's legible enough. Full timetable will be given along with programme when you buy your tickets.

 

Seems to have been a good photocharter yesterday - looking forward to seing some of the results from it. Only the LMS hopper ran a hot box (currently being attended to), so hopefully we're all set for 15 wagons over the weekend following some excellent work from the volunteers who've been 'at' them. I think there are 5 or 6 wagons that haven't been out in a long time, but have been fettled up and repainted, had new brake cylinders fitted etc. Not bad, eh?

 

My photos from the Saturday are are here:

http://teamhotosbyeilarvey.fotopic.net/c1760605_1.html

A superb day in brilliant weather and thanks to all for their friendly welcome.

Roll on next year.

Regards
Copy Pit

 

Your pictures came out better than mine today in the cloudy weather - pity I couldnt have made saturday.
The Class 2 looked just right for the line as well

http://john-robinson.fotopic.net/c1760731.html

 

What a Great Gala I must Say even though they Put a Diesel in atill was spectacular Weather was spectacular Was one of My First Visits to the railway its Nice to see the Standard 2 on a line that doesent host tender Locos Often. So what does everyone want to see visiting steamwise at their next Steam Gala?

 

Replying to some of the comments previously, there was no way of cancelling it, as the standard 2 had already been signed for. Had to try and make so as best as possible.

Going to be hard pushed next year as this was not a particularly successful event for the railway. Unless there are a lot of guarantees of locos available, money to fund their transport etc...

As far as dropping ticket prices goes, we did from last year, but bear in mind the costs. Also bear in mind the unlimited travel in the stately trains 6-wheelers, usually £2 for a return on top of the standard fare. All in all quite a saving!! Maybe the prices should have been higher... (ducks for cover!)

Really glad people enjoyed it. I'd particularly like to thank those photographers who had no intention of travelling, but still came and bought tickets to support the event. True enthusiasts.

Hope the efforts on the wagons for the goods were appreciated too - I thought it looked good from where I was in the signalbox!

 

I personally think as a whole the gala market for steam is unsustainable by enthusiasts UNLESS:

1) something really out of the ordinary is coming
2) lots of things are coming to visit.

Certain magazines don't help either when they do not feature events that have had something out of the ordinary (yes, I am going back to Morayshire's visit). Had that been featured there may have been more people coming this time, but that is pure speculation.


Sadly a lot of steam enthusiasts feel it is their right to see everything without paying for it and very few are aware of the costs involved. It is always nice to see the genuine enthusiasts who realise that freeloading will kill such events for the future.

 

I can't help but think the 'issue' with the event is that, after the rather interesting visit of 246, with it's first and only 'in steam' visit away from Bo'ness for quite some time, the line chose to follow this up with the rather bland appearence of 78019 which, although may look decent, isn't exactly a rare engine for events these days, nor is it a crowd puller.

You can't always get a 'rare cop' but surely there's more exciting items out there for a similar budget.

 

Having not attended the event I couldn't possibly comment on the event itself, although one observation I did observe whilst I was doing the filming job was the lack of publicity for the event, well it came across to me as little publicity & even when I was out talking to fellow photographers at various places nobody seemed to know that 78019 was actually attending the railway.

I remember after the post gala conversations last year a comment was made regarding No.1704 'Nunlow' attending this year's gala... For some reason Nunlow seems to be a well liked engine & wouldn't include such high transport fees with it only coming around the corner from Ingrow. Another one i'd quite like to experience would be Manning Wardle No.1210 'Sir Berkeley' again only based at Middleton so not that far.

One thing for next year too, if the extra engines that are being overhauled are complete why not experiment with some double headers? Bankers? After all they are industrial engines, that was the one thing I felt last year & this year lacked but obviously I understand the reasons behind this.

I do look forward to next year's event, hopefully fingers crossed I should be able to attend if it's going to fall on the same weekend as this & last years.

Good luck to the organisers & see you next year! Si

 

Was it the Severn Valley's Gala w/e too??? - With new 'in-house' traction!

Also 78019 had just appeared at the Llangollen literally the week before too (not sure who booked if first though...).

Still, it was well-suited for our line.

http://www.1stbingley.talktalk.net/78019.html (couldn't fit the whole Goods Train in, sorry!)

Let's hope for future Gala, mabee a three-day gala over May Bank Holiday (with 'Ivor' and 'No. 8' thrown in to apeal to the younger inthusiasts???)...

...And perhaps some 7 1/4" Gauge steam on the HVMR! www.hvmr.fotopic.net


Regards
Will

 

Steam Galas are almost always a waste of time from a financial point of view and unless you have a reasonable sized home fleet this becomes even more of a problem. The reason most railways incurr the losses on running them is because of the positive motivational impact on their own supporters and the percieved competition with other railways.
There are simply too many railways and now too few working engines for the smaller or medium sized operations to be able to compete effectively. Embsay's strength has been its very succesful family orientated events which pay the bills and not catering for the fickle enthusiast market. I think it would be better off spending money on restoring its own fleet rather than losing it on galas

 

This is rather worrying as we had a full page in Steam Railway, 1/4 in Heritage, lots of bits on the web, other magazines etc.

Maybe it reflects on some of the visitors. They cannot complain there is no publicity when it IS there. You can lead a horse to water...

The wish list for locos is always very different to what is feasible. Locos we want aren't necessarily available (we were after the standard 4 tank from Boness as well, but it was required elsewhere)

Also, what one person wants to see is not what others want.

 

Sorry to hear that the event wasn't successful for the line and that the 2010 event may be in doubt.

For me personally as a fan on the line (2007, 2008, 2009 diesel and 2008 steam events), the line up of 2 steam locos and a diesel for a "Harvest of Steam event" just didn't get me in the car to drive the 90 odd miles down.

It really is all about disposable income at the moment.

78019 was a suitable visitor in my opinion.

Do people expect 60163 for next year?

Seriously though, the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of Monckton and the similar withdrawal of 140 last year are very bad timing to say the least and must be highly frustrating for all involved.

Please don't abandon the steam event for 2010, hope that between now and then some of your overhaul fleet may return to steam and than perhaps "industrial locos" could be the theme for 2010, I don't know the figures for the recent Tanfield Gala with Alfred and Judy but it seemed busy both days.

Joem should be in steam shortly and perhaps Twizell could visit from Tanfield, just a couple of thoughts to kick about.

All the best for 78019 this weekend.

Best Regards