Monthly Newsletter - April 2008

An Easter with indifferent weather has come & gone with not very exciting passenger numbers but April has seen an improvement on train loadings in the first few days of the month. The staggered school holidays between various counties has resulted is considerably different traffic loadings to previous years so as is normal when Easter fluctuates between March & April we will have to wait to the end of May before we can get a fair comparison with past years. Local schools have returned to studies but others are not doing so until the 21^st April.

Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon

The railway has continued to struggle with motive power going from one crisis to another. Whilst the M7 has continued to give sterling service we have had to rely on our hired in pannier tank 5786 from the South Devon Railway to run a two engine steam service. Whilst 34028 Eddystone has worked some trains it was stopped for investigation of valve gear problems which stopped the engine halfway through Easter Sunday. Originally it was not planned to use the engine at all over Easter & rely on 5786 & 30053 but on a very windy & later dry Easter Saturday a number of lineside fires at various locations. Cautious Operations Department staff withdrew 5786 that evening despite the Bulleid being in the early stages of being prepared for a washout. However 34028 was not ready for the start of the day so the first booked steam service was covered by D6515. Of course the Crompton had to kick in again later in the day to cover the unfortunate Pacific which blotted her copy book & failed. There of course were ongoing discussions as to whether 5786 or heavy handed driving was the cause of the fires but independent witnesses seem to indicate the crew were responsible. I will leave the Operations Department to monitor staff in future to ensure that crews do not drive aggressively at times of fire risk. However 5786 was returned to service the following day & no more lineside fires to date have been noted.

5786 has now left us but I can report that the re-assembly of 80104 is now complete following repairs & returned to service for the Railway at Work weekend. 34028 is now re-assembled & tested so is with us for the Branch Line Weekend.

Regretfully one of our class 117 DMU has also failed with suspected blown head gaskets on one engine. Again, additional workload on the Locomotive Department.

The bar car in the Goods Shed is seeing progress with side door & window surround work now complete. Both sides are now being painted so not only is progress happening but it is seen to be happening. The Wareham end panelling is still to be completed but at least the end is appearing on the horizon.

Smoking of a different kind

This time it relates to human beings smoking. As you should all know following the change of legislation on smoking in England last July after earlier changes in Scotland & Wales the Swanage Railway Company introduced a total no smoking ban across the whole railway. Unfortunately standards are dropping & certain members of staff & volunteers are appearing to abuse the policy. I am aware there are a number of pipe smokers on the railway & they do put an unlit pipe in their mouth. To avoid the risk of people being wrongly acquiesced of smoking when they are not I would appreciate if it is not done on company premises. I am also aware that some of our signage across the railway needs improving & I have asked departmental & station managers to review their respect areas to ensure they are adequately done.

Communication on & off the railway

A number of you have been speaking to me recently about this subject mainly centring on the use of e-mail & blogging plus advertising our railway.

Firstly e-mail, a very useful means of rapidly forwarding information & opinions. As a receiver of much of these from a wide circulation of sources can I ask people before they press send or reply all buttons that they stop for a few seconds & think if everybody wants to receive what you are sending? Some correspondence which bounces backwards & forwards really is of importance to the sender & receiver & not necessarily everybody at the end of the reply all tab. This does not mean I or my colleagues do not want to receive information about the railway & its operations. However please ensure it goes to the right person who needs to know in the first place & only circulate to others who really need to know. For example on marketing matters go to Dave Green or operations to Steve Dyer. I need to know if something is not happening or is unsafe but only after you have contacted the correct person first. If it is urgent you can include me in the loop initially for information so I can monitor & intervene as required later.

Marketing

Another issue of concern is marketing the railway. Whilst this is an area covered by Dave Green this one of several hats he wears & he cannot do it alone. This is something every member of the railway can be involved in. One key area the member can help with is leaflet distribution. For people living away from Purbeck please make the effort to distribute leaflets in your area, be it libraries, hotels, tourist or visitor information centres or the like. If you are staying in accommodation in & around Purbeck hotels etc usually have tourist information packs of local attractions. Look to see if they have the latest brochure about the Swanage Railway. If they have please given them a leaflet or more if they have packs in each guest room. This is a simple & cheap means of getting the word out about the railway. In the short term I am making sure that Swanage Station booking office will have leaflets readily accessible.

Early information from the tourist board is that people will be more likely to take UK rather than overseas holidays & although people will be tightening of belts with the current economic climate they are at least keeping holidays as a must have. The incoming overseas visitors however are expected to reduce in number.

Finally on marketing we are looking at simple signage on or about the railway. Introducing or moving signs to better locations is another cheap & effective improvement.

Finance

Mentioning doing something on the cheap nicely brings us on to money or the lack of it. An old story I know but with a bit of a down turn in passenger numbers means that with less income there is less available to spend on maintenance & new works. However we obvious do no want to see standards drop or safety put at risk. If you are aware of an item that needs attending to please initially see if we can action a repair in house with our own resources rather than say bring a contractor in to fix it. I am hoping the Railway at Work weekend will bring some new volunteers which in turn will improve the resources to action work within the railway. Whilst there were encouraging responses on the weekend these still have to be trained & converted into active volunteers. Past experience on many heritage railways is that drop out rates can be high.

Hole on the Big Railway

As many of you are already aware there has been a subsidence in the run round loop at Furzebrook which is having an impact on the planned delivery of various incoming visiting diesel locomotives for our Gala over the weekend 10/11 May. Current discussions with Network Rail are that a temporary repair will be actioned to enable incoming diesels to still arrive by rail. It seems the hole was caused by a collapsed culvert drain which was installed when the loop was extended in 1978 in conjunction with building the oil terminal. So whilst the have been ideas of a plan ‘B’ of bringing in some locomotives by road we are at least now back to the original scheme where the majority arrive by rail.

Mick Dean
General Manager
12^th April 2008