TELFORD STEAM RAILWAY
Learning from mistakes has prepared the railway for the future
The Telford Steam Railway has its roots set deep in the history of Telford and the Industrial Revolution. Abraham Darby III’s blast furnaces are only two miles away from the railway near Ironbridge, where the first cast iron bridge was built. Horsehay iron works was adjacent to our operational base and was where the hull plates for the SS Great Britain were rolled, and the world’s first iron railway track and wheels were cast. The TSR’s main site belonged to the Horsehay Company, whose bridges and turntables can be found all over the world. We currently operate over approximately one mile of track, laid out in an inverted Y shape, and serving three stations: Spring Village (based around the original yard and loading dock used by the Horsehay Company), Horsehay & Dawley (an original branch line station), and Lawley Village (opened in 2015). We are based on the original branch line that ran between Wellington and Craven Arms, via Coalbrookdale, Buildwas and Much Wenlock. Originally the brainchild of the Telford Development Corporation, which oversaw the development of Telford, the origin of the current operation can be traced to the mid-1970s with the aim of buying and restoring ex-Barry ‘56XX’ No. 5619. The locomotive was secured and work progressed to restore it to steam. The Collett 0-6-2T is still in the railway’s possession and is now operational, but is nominally out on long term loan to other lines, primarily to pay for the work required during the last ‘ten-year’ boiler overhaul. Furthermore, No. 5619 is too large and uneconomical for the current short length of railway, which means that the traditional mainstay of the fleet is Peckett Works No. 1722 ‘Rocket’ (ex-Courtaulds of Coventry). This 0-4-0ST engine is undergoing boiler work at Tyseley and should be back in service shortly. In the meantime, Grant Ritchie 0-4-0ST Works No. 272 is covering our passenger trains and driver experience courses.
FULL CIRCLE
Running a railway in today’s world is no easy feat. Despite our railways using equipment and infrastructure from another century, we have to operate as a thoroughly modern business in this fast-paced world. The first thing we have to understand is that most, if not all, of us are not actually running railways! We are, in fact, operating a tourism business that happens to run trains. Because most of us in the railway preservation industry are not relied upon to get people to work on time, or deliver the coal to heat their homes, we face very different challenges to those of old. The main one is providing entertainment that our customers want to purchase. For some that may be big engines and perfect re-creations of the past. For smaller groups like ours that can be very hard to achieve, with small returns from what is a small enthusiast market when compared to the size of the market that is the general public looking for an entertaining day out. The key performance indicators for the two markets are very different. For the latter, larger, market they are very much centred on providing clear information (including websites), clean carriages, clean toilets, somewhere to get something to eat or drink and, most of all, an enjoyable experience. From a low point when we had an incident that led to one of our volunteers being injured, we have rebuilt from the ground up. Back then we were in quite a gloomy place, but I am proud that we regarded it as a wake-up call and we took a long, hard look at what we were doing, how we were doing it and where we wanted to be. That brings me back to where I started. We had to have a thoroughly modern business, fit for the 21st century, with focus on health and safety, human resources regulations and data management. The biggest challenge is making a profit to reinvest and grow our business, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that the very base of our business is to preserve railway environments/equipment, and to do so costs money, and lots of it. Therefore, if we are not to be reliant on handouts, grants and continued donations, our business has to return a healthy profit to continue to preserve items and now we have come full circle again: running a railway in today’s world is no easy feat and we need a good business in place to do so!
POLES APART
Telford Steam Railway operations are split into two discrete models. During the operating season (Easter until the end of September) the railway is a relatively low-key affair, running small industrial steam and diesel locomotives, with a single carriage or two and a brake van. Our 1940s show, held during the August bank holiday, has grown in popularity, as have a number of our smaller events. Our driver experience days receive rave reviews and sell out very quickly once we announce availability. We also have a 2ft gauge steam tram on site (originally authorised by the Commission for New Towns to run in the town park), together with a model railway, café and a 5in gauge railway. We are also gaining a lot of interest from Scouts and Guides since we opened up our Mk 3 Sleeping Car for overnight stays at weekends. Initially seen as a bit of a marketing exercise to bring in more families, we have actually found that it generates funds and volunteer interest in improving our yard area where it lives. In December, stations take on a different feel, however, with Horsehay & Dawley becoming ‘Grand Rapids’, the embarkation point for the big screen-inspired ‘Polar Express’, pulled by an ‘S160’ on hire from Greg Wilson. Where our normal summer running days involve about 100 to 150 visitors, the ‘Polar Express’ attracts more than 1,000 people a day over 20 evenings. The event has become hugely successful and sold out just 36 hours after going on general sale last year, but is also a considerable amount of hard work for what is a small railway with no full-time employees. One of the key reasons for running the ‘Polar Express’ event is our strategic vision of operating a park and ride service from our Lawley Village station, to Buildwas via the Ironbridge Gorge. Plans have been on the back burner while we wait for Ironbridge Power Station to be decommissioned, as Buildwas station, and railway line leading to it, were used for transporting coal, and later biomass, to keep the lights on over Telford and Shropshire. With the site in the early stages
WE OPERATE A TOURISM BUSINESS THAT HAPPENS TO RUN TRAINS
of being sold for redevelopment, we found ourselves in the position of having to move quickly to be in the position to extend our line by one mile to meet up with the line between Madeley Junction and the power station. This would normally have been a simple matter of re-laying track on the existing formation, but in the 1980s much of the line was severed by a new bypass, which was built across the branch line, demolishing a significant amount of embankment. This will require a new bridge to be built if we are to achieve our aim. This naturally takes a substantial amount of cash, but the ‘Polar Express’ is starting to generate the funds needed to put the plans into action. We are pleased to say that Telford & Wrekin Council is hugely supportive of our aims, and we are very thankful for its continued work on our behalf.
FINE BALANCE
Having a business that allowed us to plan for our future is now starting to pay dividends. We have already invested in a Class 08 shunter and five Mk 2 coaches. Our volunteers have restored all but one carriage to operational condition in less than 12 months, and they continue to raise the standards of the equipment. Over the next year or so we will be progressing the construction of
a carriage shed to accommodate six of these, simultaneous to our track extension to Doseley, as well as the many smaller projects that will vastly improve the appearance and security of the railway. A profitable business is important, but we are not just working on that front. We have also engaged a consultant who will explore grants and continued constitutional change that will lead to the appointment of a full-time general manager and clerical support to continue the development of the railway. So, there are exciting times and challenges ahead for our railway and the movement as a whole. As we improve the balance sheet and make strategic plans for the future, one thing we have discovered is that volunteers are becoming more valuable than cash, and moving at a pace that is both sustainable and capable of keeping our most vocal of critics happy (the volunteers, that is!) is a very fine balancing act. As we continue to grow we are always looking for people with skills, enthusiasm, or both. This encompasses all areas, from front of house, engineering and operations, through to project management and administration, so we would be delighted to hear from you if you would like to be a part of
our future.