Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

I have to say that having a Museum at least about your 'own' railway, if not any others in the same area, seems to me to be a natural adjunct to the actual operational heritage line. This would be especially true in cases such as the L&BR that has such a unique history and, as Colin has said at 3 above, is part of the Trust's objectives anyway.

Having said that, I have seen both very good and very bad such museums. At the good extreme, you can go in there and learn pretty much everything basic that you need to know about that railway. On the other extreme are those whose view of a Museum seems to be just a dusty room full of rusty relics with fading labels of little relevance other than being something left over from an old railway somewhere. Somewhere in between are those who motto seems to be "pile it high and do it on the cheap".

Important also IMHO are Museums with (volunteer) staff who are well informed about its contents. My pet hate is going somewhere, seeing an item, asking about its origin and/or purpose and getting merely a brief 'dunno' and shrug of the shoulders. Hardly inviting, is it, let alone 'educating the public'.
Much is made these days about getting formal accreditation. OK, so that has its advantages in the long term, but frankly when I go to a railway museum I've got no interest in whether it is accredited or not - my interest is in (a) what it has in it collection and (b) what I can learn about those items while I'm there.

And for the avoidance of any doubt, I write as someone who has at times been variously an Assistant Museum Curator and a Joint Museum Curator of a railway-specific museum not all that far away from North Devon And yes, I've presided over some bad bits as well as good bits, but learnt along the way....

 

Fundraisers are EXPENSIVE and don't (tend to) work on a commission basis. We're best to use our own resources as the COF project showed.

Sorry, Colin, but £10m a mile is nonsense. Chris Duffell estimates the cost at £500,000 a mile plus major structures. So Skew Bridge to Snapper, would be £3.2 - 4.2m, comprising:

- Skew Bridge £1.5m (Bridge 19)
- two river bridges @ £500k (£1m) (Bridge 16, Bridge 17). Bridges 20 and 21 seem ok - but if not, add £1m to the cost
- 1.9km of railway (bit over a mile) at £700,000

The costs are the land, and the structures. North from Chelfham to Bratton, Bridge 24 will be £1-1.5m as it involves the main road, probably another £1m for Lancey Brook and Mill Lane and Bratton Mill Lane should each be in the £500k range. So that's £3.5m for bridges and 3.25 miles of track at £500k a mile is £1.8m. So even Chelfham to Bratton is £6m, plus the land and remediation at Chumhill. All in, that's roughly £10-12m for Snapper - Bratton Flemming, which is a bit over 5 miles, and has lots of expensive bridges.

There will be a museum already planned for the EA good shed at BF. We don't need a museum to run, however.

Sorry, Colin, but no. No, we don't need Statfold. Yes, there should be a discussion of relevant steam power, and I'd not be averse to NG15 2-8-2s if we're talking about 8-10 coach trains, with the heritage operation firmly in the hands of the MWs and 762. But we're miles from there - let's walk before we try and run. But even if the long term will be carriages that look like the WHR with NG15s, a key selling point of the L&B is precisely that it is about what was there. So for me, you repeatedly raising Statfold and Collection X is quite unhelpful and I suspect it just annoys people.

 

If you want an example of what you could become, look at the Isle of Wight. Five miles long, all the wagons and carriages and several of the most significant locos being directly connected to the line in pre-preservation days; an interesting museum of both area-specific rolling stock and small items; and stations sensitively restored in line with historic photos of how the line once appeared.

Things it doesn't have: giant continental locos hauling oversized inappropriate rolling stock; an adjacent heritage centre bearing no connection to the line; a professional fund raiser.

Tom

 

If the cost is £200M then I think we can forget it right now.

 

What it does have - a clear vision of what it’s for, a leadership focused on delivering that, and intelligent use of momentum as projects complete.

I’m a trustee of a grant giving charity. We give small grants to projects supporting young people, and we keep the application process light. But when we review applications, we look for a project that’s well formed, will deliver more from what we give than it costs, and which will have lasting impact. If the project is just “but we’d like to do x”, we just don’t give money - because experience tells us that those projects just waste money.

There are some interesting ideas being canvassed on here. But I'm struggling to see how they support reopening the L&B. Instead, they give the feeling of “wouldn’t it be nice”, and break the focus on the core thing that L&B supporters want - reopening.

The same goes for discussion of fundraising approaches. Any, all or none of them may work. But they need to follow the project, as that’s what will motivate those with large sums to give. That is where EA have been so successful in recent years - there’s a vision to buy into, including a contingency if reopening doesn’t happen.

Of course there will then be choices, and of course there will be disagreements over those choices. People I respect have spoken in favour of CFL; while I don’t see it, they aren’t just people who go “we need to do something, this is something, so we’re doing it”. But those conversations have to be centred on the core ambition.

 

The reality , I think, is that it is no longer possible to do another "Collection X" or "Statfold" - it would be almost impossible to amass another collection to rival those ones - so it will be unlikely that a museum collection of similar standing is probably a daydream, what is left will largely be the leftovers from these, another acquisitive enthusiasts.. If 134 proves its worth on the WHR it might even be difficult to get hold of another NG15!

 

And even if, given a billionaire's chequebook, a redux of Collection X or Statfold isn't what the L&B is about, anyway.

What is a useful thing to think about is what role will "heritage" services - ie, the current coaches and the new MWs or 762 - play in a significantly longer railway? They will certainly have a role, but does anyone seriously think that a hour or more without a loo in late-Victorian third class is where the family day trip market is? Much to learn from Ffesterbahn and, in particular, the WHR. Anyone fancy photoshopping an NG15 with a tender cab into Maunsell SR Olive livery?

 

Absolutely! I'm sure that FR no.14 will be a significant example of how that plays out. It's unavoidable, and 'tis devoutly to be wished, at least for realists. (And I'm speaking as the hopeless romantic who would wait for the bladder- busting slatted benches of 3rd class for the real experience).
Just hope that I live long enough to be able to make the choice!