I have just read your editorial page.  All good thought- and debate-provoking stuff!  It may ruffle a few feathers, but healthy debate is exactly what is needed to ensure that we maintain and improve upon our position.  As always in this world, there are those who will decry the opinions of those they consider to be 'newcomers' but a fresh set of eyes is always best situated to point out 'the elephant in the room'.  Just because people may not have a professional railway background does not mean they have nothing to bring to the party.

With regard to the relationship between ANY railway Trust and it's supporting association, I like to think of it as being analagous to a marriage rather than a coalition.  You get together because of mutual interest (attraction) and goals but it is a relationship that has to be worked at rather than taken for granted by both parties.  It is also true that it is often not what is said, but the way in which you say it that is critical to preserving the relationship and building upon it.  The relationship between various groups based on a particular railway is more like a coalition (living in sin???).  Should the parties differ and decide to go their separate ways then this can be done without too much damage to any party involved - provided there was no kind of pre-nuptual agreement!  This cannot be said of a Trust/Association relationship.

As you rightly point out, we are fighting to get customers money in competition with many other leisure attractions.  We have the advantage that we are allied with Totnes Rare Breeds Farm and the Butterflies & Otters and can therefore offer something for most people as well as a varied day out.  With ever-spiraling costs, we need to strive to give people better value for money (VFM).  This does not mean giving them something extra for nothing, rather it needs to be low cost (to us), high value (to them).  The last Thomas event was a prime example of this with many favourable comments as to the VFM we offer by comparison to other railways.

Knowledge transfer is vital to the future of the heriatge railway movement and the encouragement of those with different backgrounds to learn fast-disappearing skills.  Just because someone is/was, for the sake of argument, an accountant doesn't mean they should be pigeon-holed as an office worker and not let near operational duties.  It is often surprising that when offered the opportunity people show previously-hidden abilities but it is incumbent upon all of us to encourage new (and current!) volunteers in experiencing the wide range of options for their valuable volunteering hours.

The issue you highlight regarding repeating events year after year reminds me of my days working for a major outsourcing company.  I distinctly remember asking an (ex-) Civil Servant the reason why they did something a particular way.  The response was "well, we've always done it that way".  I tried to point out to them that they had just given me a statement of fact rather than a reason, but they just couldn't see it!!!

Now the usual caveat - these are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of any society/association to which I belong.

Keep up the good work,
Phil Parratt

Jason Moore (Guard on the SDR)

Hello Sarah  and Maureen,  once again many thanks for a top class show on Saturday evening  we hope that a lot more visit your site to gain thefull benefit of your very informative pages.    Once again  thanks.    Chris and  Jean   (her indoors)

Having driven to Kidderminster I parked in the car park beside the station where Ivatt Mogul 46443 was simmering with 4 Mk1s that would form the 12:05am service to Bridgnorth, the time was midnight. Parking ticket paid, I dashed down the path beside the station and onto the platform (the booking office was shut, tickets had to be bought on the train) and I then discovered I had no ready cash and no self-respecting steam railway would ever employ a card machine on their trains. Fortunately the guard wasn't in too much of a rush to send the train out and directed me to a cashpoint at Kidderminster mainline, I told him I would be minutes and I was, the cash point for a change was quick. I sprinted back to the train, the guard jokingly asked "Are we ready to go?" my response was a panted "Yes". With that we were off and I explained to the guard that I had never run for a train ever as I worked on the South Devon Railway. The "South Devon Railway!" he cried "I used to travel on that when I lived in Torquay!" Next thing I knew two of his friends who were doing photography appeared in the corridor and were also former Devonians before relocation to the Midlands and before long we were discussing (as railway staff do) the SDR & the SVR and all things in between!

The upshot of it all being that as soon as I pass my guard's exam at home the guard on the train said I could do a bit of route training on the SVR and then become a guard at the SVR on weekends off from university! But that wasn't all, between you, me & the gatepost at Bridgnorth the guard had a word with the driver and when we departed everything seemed the same as before till Bewdley, when the guard told me to stick my head out the window. The departure was deafening! The whole way down from Bridgnorth the fireman had been building the fire so that when we left Bewdley the loco erupted into a cacophony of sound & light! Granted the photographs came out all blurred but the memory of that night resonates in my mind still! But it is good to know that home or away you can find a friendly face, who may even know the same people you do! As the song goes, "It's a small world after all..."