Edition 173 RAIL LINK November 2018 News and information from the Wensleydale Railway Association (Trust) and Wensleydale Railway plc DATES FOR YOUR DIARY NORTHALLERTON BRANCH MEETINGS - held at the Cricket Club, Farndale Avenue, Mondays at 19.30. Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a WRA(T) member to attend. Monday 19 th November - Virginia Arrowsmith and Steve Davies (WRplc). December - No meeting, but Branch Christmas Lunch at one of the local inns. More details later. Monday 21st January - The Stockton & Darlington Railway 1825 -2025, birthplace of the railway age - Niall Hammond. Monday 18th February - Network Rail Enhancements Delivery Plan for the ECML and Trans Pennine routes - Edward Dunn. TRAIN SERVICES – During November there will only be trains on Saturday 3 rd November. BEDALE BONFIRE Saturday 3 rd November – As usual there will be a special train from Redmire for the Bedale Bonfire and Fireworks. See the website for more details. https://www.wensleydalerail.com/future-events RACE NIGHT - 10 th November . Bedale station support group is hosting a Race night at Crakehall village hall. You can arrive from 7pm and the racing will start around 7:30. It is £10 a head. Also available is supper which is a jacket potato with chilli, cheese, coleslaw, or beans. There will also be a raffle and a cash bar. Tickets: from Bedale station or whistle stop cafe or from Brian Whitehead on : [email protected] or mobile 07999 374111 WREATH MAKING ON THE WENLSLEYDALE RAILWAY – Sunday 25 th November - Join Wensleydale Railway’s very own Helen Ashworth on a very special wreath making train! Helen will guide you through how to make your very own wreath using a wide range of foliage collected from around the Yorkshire Dales and along our line as you travel up to Redmire and back. For more details see below or the railway website. AUTUMNAL SCENIC LUNCH – Sunday 25 th November Enjoy a scenic journey through the Yorkshire Dales and marvel at the crisp autumnal scenery as we approach the start of winter, all while enjoying lunch served at your table in the warmth of one of our heritage carriages. Lunch will consist of a selection of locally produced sandwiches, pastries and cakes served on delicate vintage china. Your lunch will be accompanied by a welcome glass of mulled wine and unlimited tea and coffee. There will also be a bar on board for additional drinks. For more details see below or the railway website. SANTA SPECIALS AND SNOW SISTER SPECIALS - Tickets for the Santa Specials and Snow Sister Specials are now on sale. Tickets can be bought online or by calling the office on 01677 425 805 . https://www.wensleydalerail.com/santa-specials-2018 Also we have a lot of A4 posters and A5 flyers and would love some help distributing them. If anyone can help please can they come and collect the posters/flyers from Leeming Bar office. ------------------------------------ GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS Looking back over the past few months, it has been interesting time. During the August period we ran 98% of the advertised service, which has been an improvement over the past few years. Takings for the month of August were in excess of £74,000 which was up on previous years and ahead of expectations. Ticket sales were highest at Leeming Bar, followed by Leyburn, Bedale and the Guards. Buffet sales were reversed, with Leyburn having the highest revenue, followed by Leeming Bar and Bedale. On train buffet revenue on the steam set was up over the previous years as well. I think a well done is deserved by all for helping to achieve these figures! Overall, however it has been a mixed year to date, May and June were unusually quiet, with things not really picking up until July. Quite why this is, I am unsure, although talking to passengers in September and October - where the numbers have been quite healthy, it may be an effect of a Tour de Yorkshire, where those not interested in cycling are stopping away to avoid the crowds – certainly that was the reason given by three groups of passengers. Next year’s timetable is in the printing design stage – there are a number of changes, some of which might seem odd. For example, Thursdays has been removed during August. Why? Well when reviewing the data, Thursdays was by far the worst day which was repeated over both the two years. In fact the passenger numbers followed a surprising trend – Tuesday was the busiest, dropping on Wednesday, bottoming out on Thursday before picking up on Friday and Saturday, with numbers dropping off again on Sunday. Running days will primarily be Tuesdays and Friday to align with the market days but also because Wednesday is the day when a lot of volunteering takes place – not having trains running increases the amount of work that can be done without having to work around trains. The biggest noticeable change will be the change to services. We will operate on slightly more days, but there will be a reduction in the number of round trips for a large proportion of those. Most days will operate on a yellow, 2 round Page 1 of 7 trip timetable. Again, why? Well put simply, the last service of the day was not particularly well patronised; on a number of occasions returning empty. Cutting this service means cutting out around 3600 miles of running and thus reducing wear, tear and cost. Will this cause lost passengers? Perhaps, but if we take in to account the cost of operating those services vs the number of passengers actually using it, we lost money. The Afternoon Tea service bolstered it on the days it was operating but the service needs to be able to at least break even on its own, which it wasn’t doing. In addition, it will also bring benefits to those having to work the services and enable them to get home quicker. Some of our volunteers regularly come from West, South and East Yorkshire as well as Lancashire. This meant when time travelling to and from home was taken in to account, some volunteers were looking at a 14 or 15 hour day, which is a long day by anyone’s standards. November is a “drawing breath” month, before the rush of Santa takes place. I think most people will be aware that there a few changes taking place this year, primarily aimed at improving the product. The most obvious change is that a marquee will be put in the car park to enable our customers to have somewhere dry and warm to wait. Up until now, it has always been pure luck as to whether the weather would be welcoming as there is limited accommodation for the customers to shelter in when waiting – and personally, I always think there is nothing as cold as a railway station to wait at when the weather is miserable, it must have been some Victorian design competition: which Architect can create the coldest, most miserable station! We have an excellent product to begin with, it is now about trying to sort out some of the things that customers have commented on that can improve the experience for them and mostly that is off train, rather than on train. As new things are introduced, there will be things that perhaps don’t work as well as expected but if we don’t try things out we will never know. Sales are at around £22,000 already, which is close to half of last years total. In the pipeline, Rebekah has also negotiated some advertising on Smooth Radio in conjunction with their “Make Some Noise” appeal which is yet to run. Hopefully this should help extend our reach this year. We have had a suspicious incident at Bedale dock over the weekend, where a number of items have been moved towards the gate. It looks like an attempt at theft which has been disturbed. If anybody is passing there and sees anything suspicious please report it to the police on 101. Finally, look out for the Railway on TV next year. Sue Threadgold, Gordon Steadman and myself were interviewed for the final programme of a series called “The Dales with Paul Rose” which features the line between Redmire and Leyburn. This is the follow up to the program “The Lakes with Paul Rose” and will be shown on BBC2. On Friday I was with a George Clarke delivering him to a property alongside the Railway as part of his Amazing Spaces programme, with filming of the 121 dropping him off at the property and also featuring as a backdrop. This will be shown on channel 4. Earlier in the year the J27 was filmed at Finghall Lane Station in connection with the Yorkshire Vet tv series on Channel 5 and finally, the J27 at the Railway will also feature on the programme that follows the NYMR(!?). So by the end of next year, hopefully people will be fed up of the Railway on TV!! Richard Brown NEWS FROM THE WR PLC BOARD At the October Board meeting there was detailed discussion about the financial position. Although the turnover for the year to date has been in line with the budget (a considerable increase on last year), costs have been higher (particularly in operations) and the gross profit for the year has been less than expected. There have been welcome donations to enable much of the required track and infrastructure work to be carried out and we are expecting a large payment from a leisure company relating to changes in a track crossing arrangement.