It's a "microcosm of a horrendous year" which has seen some railways make people redundant and furlough most of their staff - while the hundreds of seasonal workers on those famous old lines haven't been needed.

Railways have been "propped up" by online donations, lottery grants or government help - but Welsh operators are frustrated as they say English railways can get more from the latest financial support than those in Wales.

Railways in England could apply for £1m as part of the UK Government's £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund, while some lines had almost £2m with extra arts assistance.

Operators in Wales say they could only bid for £150,000 in Welsh Government support although the government said the application process "welcomed funding requests of up to £500,000.

The Talyllyn Railway in Gwynedd, where Thomas' creator The Rev W Awdry was a volunteer guard when it opened as the world's first preserved railway in 1951, was "extremely grateful" for its £150,000 government grant.

But after losing £670,000 or 60% of their year-on-year revenue, Talyllyn's general manager Stuart Williams said: "I feel we would have got more generous Covid financial help if we were in England."

The gentleman from Ipswich is spot-on about the inadequacies of the British government’s response to Covid and making decisions at the last minute - often in response to criticism rather than being proactive. It’s not just the heritage railways which don’t know whether they will be open at, or before, Christmas. Restaurants, bars, cafes etc also do not know to what extent they can trade and for most it is now far too late to order in food and drink etc. He is probably also right that more generous grants are available in England, and this is mainly because the Welsh government has no tax-raising powers and so has to rely on funding from the central UK government, but they are often preoccupied with pleasing their own, mostly English, supporters and MPs (members of parliament) who constantly threaten to revolt and vote down their legislation unless the districts they represent receive preferential treatment when it comes to money and grants. They have very few MPs in Wales or Scotland.

That said, so far as railways are concerned most English heritage ones are standard gauge, mainline-type operations whose overheads are far greater than the little railways of Wales, and so need bigger grants. I know Stuart Williams at the Talyllyn from my efforts with my fundraising books. He is a good guy but is being a little naughty when he says that the railway has lost about £670,000 in income during the summer. That is true, but it is a loss of their gross income before expenses, most of which consist of wages, and to a lesser extent things like coal and the cost of maintaining locos during the season. It does not take account of the fact that the majority of their staff have been furloughed, that is to say laid off temporarily with the (UK) government paying most of their wages, and the furlough scheme is not due to end until next March, by which time the railway can reasonably hope to be able to reopen in time for Easter. The Talyllyn’s bank balance currently is about the same as it normally is at the end of the summer season, thanks to the grants and a very successful fundraising appeal, of which the contribution made by my fundraising books is just a tiny proportion! An interesting statistic for the Talyllyn is that they were able to reopen at the beginning of August, at the start of the main summer holiday season. They were only able to run their trains at two thirds capacity because if the need for social distancing, but actually the gross income per train was about 30% higher than in normal years, partly because the Welsh holiday resorts have had a record summer thanks to most British people taking holidays within the country instead of going overseas for their holidays, and partly because of a substantial change in their fares structure, which charged the same per compartment or seating bay irrespective of whether it contained a family of six people or just one passenger. In reality it was a disguised rise in fares, albeit one that discriminated against single travellers or husbands and wives travelling on their own without their children. I can’t speak for the other Welsh railways but suspect that much the same is true there.

Best wishes,

James

Well, it's in Wales, but it is Standard Gauge, and due to a combination of factors (not just COVID-19), the Llangollen Railway have announced the appointment of a Receiver today as they have a six figure debt (£350K) with zero chance of recovery.
Details on their website..

https://www.llangollen-railway.co.uk/

A grim day for UK preservation.

It doesn't look like it was the pandemic that did them in, I wonder what is meant by "engineering contract disputes." They must have had a significant amount of cash on hand prior to 2018 to weather all those losses (around $1.3M) for as long as they did.

The "Patriot" needed a significant amount done to repace/repair substandard work, which has delayed its completion by several years.
Plenty to read about it on the likes of https://www.national-preservation.com/ if you have several hours spare...

Ah. (For those with time, do a search on the word "keyway", as in on the drivers, as far back as 2012 to find out one main problem, a violation of the admonition "measure twice, cut once"). Llangollen Railway seem only peripherally involved with LMS Patriot project, and not at all now, but I'm sure it wasted some time for them.

Here's an update on this locomotive from last fall: https://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/news/202 ... tober-2020

I must admit I've not been following the whole saga in detail, so can't list the number/type of components that have had to be remanufactured, but it has involved a lot of additional expense for the group and their supporters.