A Poster on the
WNXX▸ Interactive Forum, who organises heritage diesel galas, made some excellent comments there overnight concerning the organisation and running of such events sparked, it would seem, by some people having expectattions at a level that's too high to be realistic of achievable. I won't quote the article at all, as it's only available to registered members ... if any of you are registered members then you can find the thread at
http://www.wnxxforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=19&p=70319And this struck a chord. I walked to Trowbridge Station on Saturday, pausing for a while on the aquaduct that carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the railway line just to the south of Bradford Junction, and I was happy to watch a TransWilts train come off the single track, and a little later another one pass on its way up to Swindon via Melksham. Well - I may have been happy, but a camera-bedecked person, photographing trains beside me, was bemoaning the lack of interesting stuff in these parts.
As long ago as 2008, I visited a preserved railway and was shocked and saddened at the amount of decaying stock lying around in the open -
http://www.wellho.net/mouth/1757_Preserved-railways-struggling-to-the-future-.html . Preserved and heritage railways, and mainline charters, are largely run using equipment that went into that field second hand (at best) and worn out and restored from decay at worst. So that equipment will come with the vagaries of age, and whilst there may be a period of good and easy use (as when something was withdrawn before it was knackered, as happened at the end of steam and in early diesel days) there is an ever-mounting toll that makes things harder to run, together with a faster and more sophisticated and safety and compensation based rail network that means that even if preserved stock stands still, it's falling behind if you get what I mean. Diesel galas may indeed be running on 25 m.p.h. private railways, but guest locomotives have to get there is the railway has just one or two of its own stalwards - perhaps they have just one main line type, and can't make a gala out of it - perhaps (indeed) they have the quaintness of a Colonel Stephens line (Authentically so, of course, for the East Kent and Kent and East Sussex).
I have the most enormous respect for the heritage and enthusiast business and people - huge amounts of time put in, lovely people, a great leisure industry, and I very much enjoy the opportunity of trying out their services and remembering what things used to be like ... it's just as different as night and day from what we're about here in Wiltshire on the TransWilts.
I'm delighted to see that 153 come off the TransWilts, and a 150 go back up. I'm delighted to catch the following 153 trip back up to Melksham, and indeed to have over a dozen people get off the train at Melksham and a far bunch get on as well. And this is the general ebb and flow of traffic in the area, and not the "anorak". Yes, the anorak is welcome (I wear one sometimes!) as is his / her feedback, but the service that's running on this line cannot rely on the enthusiast's custom or the custom of the passenger travelling just once to try out the train. I'm very relieved indeed to report my guestimate that at least 80% of our traffic is repeating business, and that the line is carrying well over the daily averages needed in the third year, even on a cold and wet midweek day when enthusiasts and try-it-once people are notable by their rarity.
