£6.5 MILLION RAISED TO PULL RAILWAYS THROUGH COVID-19
London Transport Museum among latest to launch appeals, as lottery, councils and photographers all contribute.
Over £6.5 million has been raised for railway preservation from appeals and grants since the coronavirus lockdown.
Steam Railway’s survey of preserved lines’ appeals estimates the total to be, from available figures, £6,529,949.50, at the time of going to press.
Where known or declared, this figure includes grants received from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (see separate story, page 10) and other sources, such as local councils, as well as donations.
The highest totals are those of the Severn Valley Railway (over £1m, including £250,000 from the NLHF), the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways (£450,000) and the North Yorkshire Moors and Bluebell railways, with the Sussex line nearly matching the NYMR’s figure of £400,000.
Paul Lewin, general manager of the F&WHR, commented: “We have a good team, and a lot more supporters than people know – it’s a good reflection on that.”
The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has gathered approximately £360,000, consisting of £50,000 from the lottery’s Heritage Emergency Fund, £45,000 from the KWVR Trust and the remainder from members and supporters of its ‘Worth Saving’ appeal.
The Dean Forest Railway’s appeal has reached its target of £50,000, although Rob Harris, the DFR Society’s filming and press officer, said: “The appeal remains open on the basis that (a) there might be a second wave of Covid-19 and (b) revenue will remain low this season and we have development plans which are stalled at the moment.”
In contrast, the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway has raised £22,000 through sales of virtual tickets, but is yet to launch an appeal. Said general manager Danny Martin: “We’ve done things a bit differently – we didn’t launch an appeal to ‘keep us alive’ because we’ve kept ourselves alive, but we will be launching one to sustain us through the winter.”
One of the latest organisations to launch an appeal is the London Transport Museum, which has lost £1.5m since the lockdown in March cut off 80% of its income. Although it costs £25,000 per day to open the museum, it receives no regular central government funding. As of August 11, donations including Gift Aid totalled £28,414.
In its 60th anniversary year, the Middleton Railway has launched a ‘Safeguarding the Future’ appeal to help fund projects that it had hoped to launch or finish as part of its Diamond Jubilee celebrations. These include expansion of the
line’s museum, the restorations of Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST No. 6 and Kitson 0-6-0ST Conway, and a new cylinder block for Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST ‘Matthew Murray’.
Although it has raised only £2,000 so far, vice-chairman Ian Smith admitted: “We were late on the scene,” having launched the appeal in early July. However, the line has been another beneficiary of the lottery grants (see page 10).
Another relative newcomer is the Plym Valley Railway, which has launched a JustGiving appeal for £20,000 towards long-term projects such as the overhaul of Bagnall 0-6-0ST Byfield No. 2.
Declaring a relatively modest total of £16,000, the Bodmin & Wenford Railway’s chairman, David Nelson-Brown, admitted: “It’s been a big lesson for us – Bodmin has not paid enough attention to the structure of fundraising, so we had no platform on which to stage this.”
While donations to the East Somerset Railway stood at £6,250, membership subscriptions have risen by 70% compared to the same period last year. Said chairman Dick Masters: “I was surprised, but I think that’s just the way people felt they wanted to support us, and they also get the membership benefits so it’s a better deal for them.”
Mike Spall, chair of the West
Lancashire Light Railway Trust, said of his line’s £7,000 total: “While I appreciate this is a small sum compared to other ‘big’ railways, it represents 10% of our normal annual income. These donations have not only come from known supporters, but also from others we have never known of before and from all over the UK.”
Support for preservation has also come from the photographic fraternity. Martin Creese of 30742 Charters, and fellow photographer Anthony French, launched an appeal which has raised £6,000, to be distributed between 30 lines that have hosted, or were due to host, 30742 events. Mr French, who runs model railway shop Tony’s Trains of Rugby, is making a donation from the sale of every locomotive, while Chris Eden-Green, producer of the Steam Locos in Profile series, is doing the same from each DVD sale.
The Colonel Stephens Society has also made donations to former Colonel Stephens lines, namely the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway (£1,000), Kent & East Sussex Railway (£1,000), Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (£500), East Kent Railway (£500), and the Colonel Stephens Museum at Tenterden on the KESR (£500).
Said treasurer Nigel Bird: “This is mostly funded by our members adding a donation to their annual subscription (only £10 per annum), and, in true Colonel style, running a very tight ship! We hope in some small way this helps the lines get through this very difficult time.”