Trust Council of Management summary: February-June 2010

A summary of key points arising from Council of Management meetings held between February and June 2010 (in no particular order):

Staff and volunteer issues. Concern has been expressed at recent Trust Council and Board meetings regarding a shortage of volunteers in some areas - particularly Operations and Passenger Services. We are conscious of the enormous commitment required to operate one of the busiest heritage railways in the UK and Mike Whitwam and Geoff Carter are therefore preparing a volunteer survey. Please look out for this and provide us with some honest feedback.

Approval has been given to introduce name badges for all staff (paid and volunteer) who regularly work on the Railway.

The shower\toilet block has been in position in Swanage for some time now (where the Ops office used to be) but sadly progress on bringing it into use has been hampered by the need to install adequate drainage.

Accounts. Draft audited accounts for the year ended 31st December 2009 were reviewed and approved at April's Trust Council meeting. The Swanage Railway Company recorded a net profit of £179,267 for the year and as a result a sum of £91,345 has been covenanted to The Swanage Railway Trust. The consolidated Trust accounts list net incoming resources of £343,069 for the year and net assets of £1,435,094 for the SRT only and £1,886,873 for the Trust and Company combined. Whilst the Company profit in particular represents excellent business, and is a great credit to all the staff and volunteers involved, we are all cautious of the fact that our projected development costs far outweigh this amount. In other words, sadly we are not awash with money and the need to carefully control costs remains as important as ever.

As in previous years summary accounts will be sent to SRT members with the AGM papers later this summer. Full accounts will be available on demand and posted as PDF files on the Trust website.

Swanage station freehold. Swanage Town Council has agreed in principle to sell the freehold of Swanage station to the Railway. This constitutes the main station buildings, platforms, goods shed, trackbed and all other railway land situated between the buffer stops and Northbrook Road bridge. A meeting with the valuer representing the Town Council has been arranged in order to discuss the asking price. It is highly likely that a commercial mortgage will be required and the financial implications of this will be carefully considered before any final decision is made on whether to proceed with a purchase.

Strategic Plan. The Swanage Railway's existing Strategic Plan was produced by former General Manager Nick Brown and covers the period 2006-2011. It is now being fully revised and the new draft Plan is being put together by Mike Stollery and Steve Doughty. When complete it will be circulated to departmental managers for comment before a final version is made available to all Trust members.

Project Wareham. The team led by Mike Whitwam continues to play a very active role in the Purbeck Community Rail Partnership (PCRP). The proposal to reinstate passenger carrying standard signalling at Worgret Junction enjoys unanimous support across the political spectrum. Officers at Dorset County Council (DCC) are "optimistic" that the required £3m funding will be secured to ensure that Worgret Junction is included in the Network Rail re-signalling scheme. DCC Councillors are continuing to be lobbied. Network Rail has confirmed that the current target date for completion is May 2013. The next PCRP meeting is scheduled for 14th July.

One of the infrastructure requirements for a regular Swanage-Wareham service is the installation of a fully gated level crossing on the Wytch Farm road at Norden. BP has agreed to fund this but the new crossing will mean that the road-rail interchange facility will need to be moved. Options for alternative locations have recently been reviewed. Ideally we would like this to be at Furzebrook but with BP being reluctant to allow this on their site and the Imery's facility on the other side of the line being unsuitable a reworked layout at Norden seems the most likely outcome.

Furzebrook. Arrangements for the lease of Furzebrook depot site are finally moving forward with DCC. A future lease is likely to be split into two phases; phase one - three years for storage only - and phase two which will incorporate train care facilities. The Trust Council has confirmed the operational need for this site regardless of, and certainly well before, the introduction of a Wareham-Swanage train service.

Old Oak Common turntable. An operational 70 foot turntable currently located at Old Oak Common depot in London has been made available to the Railway as part of the Crossrail project. This is due to be dismantled and delivered to the Railway later in the summer. A location for it to be installed has yet to be determined and the Trust Council has agreed that, following acquisition, a strict project deadline, e.g. three years, should be drawn up. If installation does not look likely then sale of the turntable is likely to then be the preferred option. A Borail wagon on free hire from the Bluebell Railway will be used to store the turntable in dismantled form following delivery.

Herston Carriage Shed. The extensive ground works to the South East of Herston Halt have progressed well in recent weeks thanks to the hard work on the part of all involved and the thankfully dry weather. Funds for the all important phase two works - construction of the shed itself - have yet to be raised. An appeal is due to be sent with the next edition of Swanage Railway Magazine.

Rolling stock. The overhaul of Bulleid brake coach no. 4365 is nearing completion whilst Bulleid Composite coach no. 5761 has now returned to the Railway following extensive restoration offsite at contractors Rampart Carriage & Wagon Services Ltd in Derby. Car 14, which requires some further repairs, formed the return load and will hopefully be back at Swanage later this summer.

The SK(O) open access coach had recently entered service following extensive refurbishment and has been well received by its users.

The SR Walrus ballast hopper, currently in a very poor condition, is to be refurbished at Ramparts and used by the Permanent Way department on a regular basis going forward.

Harman's Cross station. We hope to pursue a grant from the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme in respect of a future project to install a footbridge at Harman's Cross station. Currently there are two SRT owned footbridges located in Dave Guppy's yard at Ringwood which were left over from the Croydon Tramlink reclamation project. A recent inspection of these has indicated that a footbridge for Harman's Cross should be possible using combined parts from these.

Trust AGM. Nominations for this year's Council of Management elections are now being accepted. Anyone interested in standing should request a nomination pack from the Trust Secretary, Mark Woolley. Completed nomination forms need to be received the Returning Officer, Derek Montague no later than 12:00 on Saturday 14th August.

Sorry for the lack of report in recent weeks. Well try to ensure that in future a monthly update is posted by a Trust Council member. Normally these will deal with strategic issues rather than day to day operational matters.  However, if there is any particular point that you feel should be reported on - or indeed that warrants greater attention - do please let me know.

Mark Woolley

Trust Secretary

mark.woolley@btinternet.com