‘We’re all enthusiasts now’: RTC CommiTs To UK sTeam
the death of Railway touring Company founder and enthusiast Nigel Dobbing is a big loss, but its new MD, Kelly osborne, says that gricer tours are still a fundamental part of its offering.
The enThusiasT is a big parT of whaT rTC does, whiCh is why we’ll always ConTinue wiTh The emphasis of sTeam
“
Massively important.”
So says Kelly Osborne about the status of enthusiasts to the Railway Touring Company under her leadership. She’s speaking in November 2018, a little under a month after the death of the East Anglian promoter’s founder, Nigel Dobbing (SR486).
We are in RTC’s office in its rambling old listed building in King’s Lynn, alongside the Norfolk town’s Tuesday Market Place (it has two). The firm’s new managing director is explaining the future of a charter promoter that, in the last 15 years or so, has done more than most to shape the main line market. It runs around 70 day trips each year, plus the annual multi-day ‘Great Britain’. On top of that is a different, but almost as large, activity – overseas tours.
Given its traditionally enthusiast leanings, what happens to RTC has a potentially major effect on how we as gricers spend our time. So this interview is topical – but there’s an unfortunate irony too, because it would actually have taken place slightly earlier had Nigel Dobbing lived, as he was planning to only carry on part-time. His hitherto ‘number two’ has, for a while, been taking an increasingly leading role. And now Kelly is also part-owner, for Nigel left the company to four people – her and his three sons. At RTC, a generational change between those who remember steam and those who don’t is no longer theoretical. It’s happened. He was 66, she is in her 30s.
So… where now?
‘Dobbo’s’ gReAtest hIts
While Kelly says not all of RTC’s clients are gricers, she judges that without them “none of us would have what we’ve got now.
“The enthusiast is a big part of what RTC does, which is why we’ll always continue with the emphasis of steam, and trying to continue doing things, and the one-offs, that we were always known for.”
Such trains, she recalls, were important to Nigel – himself a grown-up gricer who’d spent his childhood spotting ‘Jubilees’ at Melton Mowbray.
Given that he founded and led RTC from the start, it’s perhaps no surprise that the former owner’s thinking still infuses the organisation. Indeed, having known him for over 23 years (and been at RTC for 17), Kelly considers that “in my own head I am working for him still, and will continue to do everything that he’d wanted us to carry on with.”
In fact, Kelly reveals, the team has been going through the hundreds of tours run over the years, looking for inspiration for a potential future series. Those might irreverently almost be dubbed ‘Dobbo’s’ greatest hits’.
“It’s not as easy as it once was, but we do plan to revisit some of his old haunts and see if we can push the boundaries once more in his memory.”
A private tribute train taking in Nigel’s home town of Melton Mowbray could run as soon as spring, probably around his birthday which was in late March. Another trip – this time public – might follow around the anniversary of his death in October. That one will be advertised to RTC’s customers “who have kept us going with their support and passion for us to carry on,” says Kelly.
Such ideas aside, the new season’s programme – which has already been published for the whole of 2019, rather than in two chunks as previously – is so far “very similar to last year’s.”
‘Favourites’ such as the Shap/Settle-Carlisle ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’, LondonWeymouth ‘Dorset Coast Express’ and Bristol-Par ‘Royal Duchy’ are there – just as they would have been if Nigel was still alive.
RTC’s MD points out that such tours have an ongoing popularity, but also that this is “what we know works.” For she contends that “while we will continue to try to push the boundaries on certain occasions, to ensure that we keep steam on the main line, we have got to ‘play the game’.”
Despite that, there is also some innovation: the East Anglian promoter is heading to Blackpool for the first time with a train from Euston that changes to steam at Carnforth (April 13, then again on September 21). It’s also returning to Wensleydale (April 6 from Carnforth). Both those plans were devised when Nigel was still alive.
RTC’s founder is clearly much missed within the organisation office and the discussion keeps coming back to him in various ways. Despite Kelly’s welcome commitment to enthusiasts, bluntly, how much does it matter that the gricer has gone from the top of the organisation?
“I don’t think it’s a problem. He is, obviously, a huge loss, for his passion. But he’s instilled his passion into me, into the whole team. So we’re not born enthusiasts, he’s made us enthusiasts. And because of that, and the closeness that we had with him, there’s no way that we’re going to ever let the enthusiast side of it drop. That is what he was about.”
Plus, she says, those in the office are not on their own, because “we’ve got volunteers that work on the train that are all enthusiasts and always coming up with ideas.
“They would be putting ideas in Nigel’s head as well, so none of that’s going to change. They’ve all been incredibly supportive since Nigel’s passing and they will keep us on our toes.”
In fact, Kelly has already undergone a bit of a conversion: “I’m incredibly enthusiastic about what we do. When
I first started here, I didn’t understand the enthusiasm for them [steam engines]; however 17 years in I get it. When you look at the history of steam, the passion that went into the building of all those locomotives and then restoring them, how can somebody not be enthusiastic about steam?”
LONDON STILL CALLING?
A couple of weeks before our conversation, Kelly had been one of the nearly 60 people at Network Rail’s latest charters conference, which opened with her paying tribute to her former boss.
Things shifted quickly onto ‘brass tacks’, with the most lively debate of the day perhaps being on NR’s timetabling and planning performance (SR487). The RTC MD, though, is positive about the place the industry is now in. From her company’s standpoint, she says she feels things are “incredibly better” than they were not so long ago. This season, timings have been with her a month before trains are to run. Two years ago – “particularly with Christmas coming up” – they would, she says, only be received “five days before a trip.” At that point, too, there would be “later starts, different routes potentially, which causes a big impact from a customer point of view.”
Kelly adds: “I’m not saying that it’s perfect and there isn’t the odd isolated issue, but everything is completely different.”
NR’s planners, she says, “work really hard, they’re looking at things months in advance and, often, they come to you with a problem and a solution at the same time.”
Indeed, Kelly describes the partnership between RTC, operator West Coast and NR as “working better than it’s ever worked.”
Yet what about the specific issue of lastminute engineering possessions, something debated with force at the conference?
“We’ve not had any major issues, and if there have been [any], they’ve dealt with it quietly and it’s not had any impact on us. So, at the moment, everything’s been fine.”
That doesn’t mean RTC’s leader sees no challenges – and she shows some scepticism about the ideas currently swirling around on the future pathing of trains. Kelly shows understanding towards the pressures involved in squeezing steam-hauled charters into the timetable, particularly somewhere like London’s King’s Cross, during the week. Equally, though, RTC is not willing to give up on steam in the capital, even if that may translate into making more use of suburban stations such as Ealing Broadway.
“We’ve got to understand it’s now 2018 going into 2019 and that we do have to adapt in order to keep charters running, but Network Rail has always said that if we have an idea of doing a one-off, it will consider it. It’s not a ‘no, you can’t ever do it again’, for example, we’ve got trips around Christmas which are coming out of King’s Cross.”
RTC, she affirms, “will continue to push for steam out of London.”
On the subject of establishing fixed paths (SR484), she says: “I see the logic. But obviously that then makes it very limited,” describing what she sees as a “knock-on effect when you’re all going to be attacking the same market. I think we’ve all expressed [that] we all still want a little bit of freedom to be able to do other things outside of those particular paths.”
The highest number of day trips ever delivered by RTC in a year stands at 76, Kelly says, with the current programme offering around half a dozen below that. Demand for the trains is there and she thinks the figure “will remain stable for the next few years. It may have to drop with the pressures of the network, but if it does it will only drop a few.”
Kelly accepts that “the logic is that the network is getting busier and it’s going to be harder to continue to run main line steam. But we’ve always said that that is something we don’t want to happen and will continue to be passionate to make sure that we keep going.”
Part of the answer to this, she contends, is “adapting the style of thought.” So, while she does think things will become more difficult, “I guess that’s where the determination will come through from us – and keeping up those relationships with everybody involved to make sure that we all work together to keep it going.”
She describes RTC’s relationship with its train operator West Coast as ‘very good’.
“There are no plans to change that. They’ve been very supportive throughout the years and we’ll continue to work very closely with them.”
FORTH BRIDGE PLANNING
If one train pushed boundaries, the ‘Great Britain’ tour certainly did when it first ran in 2007. Although the itinerary varies, it remains a hugely ambitious project, even now.
Easily RTC’s biggest UK-based trip, the 12th version is to run for nine days from April 27 2019. It will once again start and
finish in London, this time with a route snaking between Kingswear and Stranraer.
However, running the ‘GB’ has not always been easy. Aside from 2015 – when it delivered hardly any steam at all while West Coast was going through its post-Wootton Bassett trauma – a tour of this scale brings the constant possibility of changes and problems. It’s easy to see why its promoter has repeatedly mulled over the idea of laying the ‘GB’ to rest.
However, Kelly was quick to affirm after Nigel’s death that the trips would carry on “as his legacy” (SR486). And she now says: “I’ve been told by many that there’s no way that they can stop. There’s too much of a family community among the ‘Great Britain’.”
Whereas any ‘GB’ itinerary is collaborative with ideas from various people, this year’s stands to be particularly poignant as “there are elements in ‘GBXII’ that are from Nigel’s head, and it will be obviously in his memory.
“We’ll make sure that he’s remembered every day at certain points throughout the ‘Great Britain’, as we will do throughout the whole of RTC now. From an RTC office point of view, he’s everywhere around us. Nigel may be gone, but he definitely is going to be around here forever.”
Planning for the ‘GB’ is a bit like ‘painting the Forth Bridge’, which itself is an optional part of the 2019 programme (riding over the bridge, that is, not slapping on red oxide). So with this year’s tour still some months off, RTC is “already thought processing” for 2020.
Normally, Kelly says, there is a two-week gap after a tour “where I clear up, and then start the process for the next one. When you are co-ordinating 200 people, maybe eight different destinations, two or three different hotels at each destination, coaches, and luggage transfers – to make sure that it’s perfect, or as perfect as it can be – it takes a long time to plan.”
West Coast and NR’s work on the operation is “huge”, and “for us to make it work on the day where the customers are concerned takes a lot of time and energy.
“But it’s such a reward at the end of those nine days when everybody gets off and are already saying ‘see you next year’. I think that speaks volumes for the level of attention to detail that’s taken year-on-year.”
Kelly describes the ‘GB’ as now being “a reunion” because so many passengers repeat-book. That’s great, but given the tours’ scale and complexity I ask her if there were times when “you wish you weren’t doing this?”
“There are times,” she admits, “it’s a huge, huge, operation for us – and a risk – but to hear the successes being discussed among the customers makes it all definitely worthwhile.”
She says a personal ambition – agreed with Nigel – was to reach the tenth tour. But “at the end of ‘GBX’ there was a petition on board for us to do ‘GBXI’. I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t, and likewise a ‘GBXII’ and so on. It’s become part of what the RTC does every April.”
However, whatever the 13th version in 2020 is titled, it won’t be ‘GBXIII’.
“That’s the hotel background,” says the woman who also worked for Nigel Dobbing in his previous life managing King’s Lynn’s Duke’s Head, “so you never had a room 13, you always skipped that one number.”
Suggestions, she says, are welcome!
FARewell ‘NumbeR NINe’?
RTC has used a wide variety of engines over the years, but there’s a clear awareness that one of the favourites is sentenced to soon retire forever. Could RTC do something special to mark the end of Union of South Africa’s active life?
“I’d like to think so,” Kelly says, although at the moment the company is waiting for confirmation of exactly how much longer the ‘A4’ might continue.
Certainly Kelly describes ‘Number Nine’ as being “a big loss to all” as and when its fire is finally dropped. She reckons “there’s plenty to keep us going” in the absence of the ‘A4’ – and names engines as diverse as British India Line, Flying Scotsman, Princess Elizabeth and Bahamas – but describes John Cameron’s 4-6-2 as “very close to our hearts.”
RTC will use the newly restored ‘Jubilee’ “as much as we possibly can and as much as they want us to” she says, with particular emphasis on the summer ‘Waverley’ trains over the Settle-Carlisle – although “there’s a good share of locomotives and, obviously, we like to be fair to everybody.”
What, then, about non-steam tours? After all, this is the Railway Touring Company and not the Steam Touring Company. Kelly doesn’t say it would never happen, and points out that modern traction already hauls some legs of certain tours. However, in one further response likely to give comfort, she describes that as “not our priority.
“Our priority was, and will always be, steam.”