UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL
OUR INDUSTRY INSIDER SHARES THEIR VIEW ON THE ISSUES AFFECTING PRESERVATION
HOW DO MANAGERS GIVE A STRONG AND CLEAR MESSAGE OF A PICTURE THEY DON’T HAVE THEMSELVES?
WHEN COVID has passed, we’ll be able to get back to running trains…” Oh, if only we’d known!
Last issue, Steam Railway carried the news that volunteers within a railway’s steam department were threatening to withdraw labour owing to poor communication. Now railways are disposing of rolling stock that’s deemed surplus to requirements. Of course, these items were probably somebody’s dream and ambition that have been dashed on the rocks, and that will inevitably cause bad feeling. Then there are reports of vandalism and theft, and news about railways curtailing services to avoid the risk of starting fires.
If you are the manager of a preserved railway there is a good chance you are dealing with any – or all – of these issues. To add to the fun, we can add in the issues associated with the economic downturn – and coal. Whichever one of the issues your railway is facing from the above list, there is one thing of which everybody has in abundance, and that is, of course, opinions.
Immediately after any theft or vandalism event, people will cry foul to the cretins who carried out the act, but this will quickly turn to how the railway has failed to address the security problem. What people constantly fail to consider is that the people involved with running a railway are paid to measure and estimate risk. In the case of vandalism and theft, it’s always down to what is the most cost-effective solution to the problem. Those whose hearts and souls are in the game accept zero risk, whereas those who are responsible for managing the risk have to be more measured.
Sadly, the best way to manage this risk could well be to accept that it will happen from time to time, and you will simply have to foot the bill of repair. Spending tens of thousands of pounds on CCTV, building security fences around your heritage site or paying a security company are simply not viable and affordable options. Turning to the perennial issue of communications within heritage railways, it’s a recurring theme. But now, more than ever, I would ask that before we shout it too loudly, we should also ask why communication is suffering. The answer lies very clearly with the footing on which the heritage movement now finds itself. Crisis management is the order of the day, post-Covid, as railways battle with a list of factors that simply didn’t exist in 2019. There is simply no solid base on which to build a heritage business at the moment, but nobody wants their railway to be the one that fails. Managers are earning their corn managing day by day, with no foundation on which to build a strategy. Therefore, how do managers give a strong and clear message of a picture they don’t have themselves? This is hopefully a temporary situation, and patience and trust should be the order of the day.
Turning my attention to redundant stock sales, boards may well make decisions to sell items of equipment, but it’s managers who bear the brunt of those decision. All I ask is that rather than assume this is hard-nosed business without consideration for volunteers’ feelings, that it may well be hard-pressed decisions, (in tough times) forced on railways who are trying desperately to keep one eye on the post-Covid world. We should take a step back and consider if the decision was made in good faith for the overall benefit of the railway. If we adjust our minds to one of understanding, rather than one of conspiracy and hidden agendas, the heritage railway world will be a much better place. They may not be the decisions you’d like, but I’d rather be at a railway that’s capable of making them than one that isn’t.