T.R.P.S. Report of the Council for 2001

Some swing violently between elation and despair at minor changes in the Railway's fortunes, but in 2001 even the most phlegmatic members endured something of an emotional roller-coaster. As we were preparing for the season, the foot-and-mouth epizootic raced across Great Britain. The Government seemed unable to provide rational guidance on which precautions were vital and which a waste of effort, and the early message that the countryside was closed cost us much more than the day's cancelled service in February. To preserve good relations with our neighbours some measures remained in place throughout the season. As Spring Bank Holiday approached Gwynedd Council took the brave step of reopening all public footpaths in the area, and in the event their courage was justified: the nearest outbreak of the disease remained many miles away. We did not experience the boom enjoyed by equivalent operations in some other areas, but the losses of the first half of the season were recovered later and traffic receipts kept up with inflation despite the lack of a fare increase.

As the foot-and-mouth menace receded, Bryncrug Community Council found it necessary to close, for safety reasons, some of the footpaths in the Dolgoch Ravine, including the direct link from the station to the lower falls; this situation will persist through 2002 but rectification is planned for the following winter.

14th. May saw the Golden Jubilee of passenger train operation under Society auspices and various worthies pushed the original carriages around in commemoration of the opening to Rhydyronen on Whit Monday 1951. That small start was also the beginning of successful volunteer railway operation throughout the world, and No. 1 Talyllyn was temporarily displayed in the National Railway Museum to mark the occasion. In a lower key, the Silver Jubilee of the opening to Nant Gwernol was celebrated on 22nd. May. The Jubilee Festival Week in late July encompassed many notable events culminating in a continuous steam-hauled passenger service over the whole Railway for over 56 hours. The following weekend saw the cultural highlight of the year, Phil Higginson's dramatization of Railway Adventure. The presence in the audience of a few of those who remember the early days of preservation added to the emotional charge, while perfect weather put the finishing touch to two magical evenings at Rhydyronen.

Various suggestions for children's play areas have been discussed over the years, but 2001 saw substantial progress on constructing a railway-themed playground in the Abergynolwyn picnic area. The Tracksiders contributed many hours of manual labour whilst others fabricated and installed bases for the "station", itself supplied by a local contractor, and restored a pair of the old Pendre level crossing gates to approximately their original condition.

At the Annual General Meeting the Society thanked Jeremy Wilkinson for his eight years as its President and elected Christopher Awdry as his successor.

On 25th. October the Charity Commission for England and Wales entered Talyllyn Holdings Limited on its register. This increases the attraction of the Railway for many grant-giving bodies and was also essential to benefit from the military aid at Brynglas described below. Furthermore, under the current tax regime basic-rate income tax is reclaimable by Holdings on donations by taxpayers, and legacies to it are exempt from inheritance tax.

The frustrations of the team progressing Wharf redevelopment have been well documented in the Talyllyn News. The principal phase is a project which must be undertaken as a whole and which cannot be commenced until all the funding is in place; it is hoped that the main source of money will be the Heritage Lottery Fund, and by the middle of the year it became clear that a start could not be made in 2001. Following H.L.F. guidance the application to them was reduced in scope but the grant sought increased as a proportion of the cost. On this basis, at their December meeting the H.L.F. allocated ?456,000 as a Stage One Pass towards work on the western portion of the final building; much further work is involved in obtaining Stage Two (final) approval. The offer of a significant regeneration grant from Gwynedd Council led us to unpick the original phase II, rebuilding the Booking Hall and Traffic Office, in order to separate it from the H.L.F. bid. This grant, which ended up at ?62,000, along with a further ?16,000 from the Welsh Development Agency, went a long way towards the completion of this phase. To qualify, work had to be started at very short notice. Our year-end therefore saw Wharf as a building site dogged by dreadful weather, but the result is now a great visual improvement.

Traffic & Operating

In response to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, Brynglas station and the halts were closed during the first part of the season; at Dolgoch, Abergynolwyn and Nant Gwernol passengers were requested not to leave the area of the station. Traffic figures were significantly down on the same period of the previous year. Fortunately, the disease did not reach the immediate vicinity, and as the season progressed traffic levels improved, to finish with a modest improvement over 2000. The final figures were: passenger bookings 49,689 (an increase of 4.2%), passenger journeys 92,530 (+3.9%) and traffic revenue ?241,081 (+2.8%).

The pattern of operation was similar to 2000, apart from an extra departure in the peak service and an experiment in April, May and October with a 10.00 train to Abergynolwyn and back only. The raison d'etre of the latter was partly nullified by the restrictions on walking. The operating highlight was the week of events marking fifty years of operation of the Railway by the Preservation Society. This climaxed with the running of a continuous service over three days and two nights. During the week there was one incident which had an adverse effect on services: a train became divided following the failure of an original wrought iron drawhook on one of the original four-wheel coaches. The airbrake system demonstrated its benefit by bringing the train to an immediate stand in complete safety.

Marketing

2001 saw the introduction of Duncan, the Skarloey alter ego of No. 6 Douglas, as much loved by children as the unavailable Peter Sam/Edward Thomas.

In spite of the footpath closures, people continued to enjoy taking advantage of the day rover facility offered by round-trip tickets, the Railway benefiting from people spending more time in the shop and caf?s as a result. Together with three other attractions in the area we introduced the Dyfi Valley Days scheme, offering a saving to those visiting all. We also experimented with issuing vouchers to passengers giving discounts with local traders.

Further foreign language leaflets have been updated and converted to a cleaner format, easier to produce now that most people have access to word-processing facilities. Vital information is still gained from our passenger survey. Each form is processed individually and replied to where necessary. Special thanks are due to those involved in this exercise,

The facility to hold civil weddings at Abergynolwyn has been well received and several have taken place. The made-to-measure Footplate Experience Courses have found a very limited market and a cheaper, summer evenings only, version has also been tried.

Shop & Catering

This has been a year of change in the Shop where Cherryl Statham has definitely made her mark, changing the arrangements to look more like a railway shop, including a repaint by volunteers during the 56-hour steam. Sales were boosted during the year by John Bate's fascinating book and the extremely successful production of Railway Adventure with its associated programme. Much old, slow-moving, stock was sold at reduced prices, further increasing turnover but decreasing the profit ratio. New lines were also introduced and attempts have been made to find suppliers who will fill smaller, more frequent orders. The lower year-end stock became even more desirable than anticipated when rebuilding severely reduced storage space.

Catering turnover again increased by significantly more than traffic levels, although this year most strongly at Wharf. As usual there has been difficulty carrying the improvement through to the bottom line.

Spells of heavy workload occur at both peak and off-peak times and offers of assistance will be gratefully appreciated by both the Shop and Catering Managers; even short periods can allow employees to have a cup of coffee.

Engineering

Locomotive No. 3 Sir Haydn returned to traffic in May 2001 after boiler work, and last winter the four driving wheel axleboxes were removed for repair. No. 4 Edward Thomas awaits the return of the boiler following extensive repairs now in progress. No. 6 was worked hard on occasions, aggravating the leaking tube ends in the firebox until a complete retube earlier this year.

Of the diesels, replacement of springs restored No. 9 Alf to the correct height above the rails. No. 8 Merseysider was operational even though the rebuild is still not quite complete. After installing the repaired engine, No. 10 Bryneglwys was returned to use. A major rebuild of the motor trolley with a new, diesel, engine was completed.

The biggest task undertaken on the permanent way was at Brynglas. Over two weekends in January 2002, the army removed all the points and the tracks between them before replacing ballast fouled by the flash flood in 1993. Restoration was the main task for Spring Outdoor Week. Other substantial tasks were renewing the track, longitudinal timbers and adjacent road surface through Forestry Crossing after damage by timber lorries, complex repairs to the masonry arch of the cattle creep east of Dolgoch platform, and rebuilding the deck over the ballast dock. A skid-steer loader was purchased, the value of owning such a machine having become apparent.

Good progress has been made with very extensive repairs to the body of former Glyn Valley carriage No. 14. It will be the last of our passenger stock to be fitted with air brakes. The Corris van, No. 6, has been through-piped.

While the Traffic Office at Wharf was rebuilt by a contractor earlier this year, a heavy load was placed on our own resources as other buildings were equipped for temporary roles. The opportunity was taken to refurbish the Wharf lever frame.

Health & Safety

An announcement by H.M. Railway Inspectorate withdrew permanent exemption from the Railway Safety Case Regulations. At a seminar called by the Inspectorate, at which the T.R. was represented, it was explained that for the future, those railways formerly qualified and who had obtained a permanent exemption, would now have to re-apply for a fresh exemption at three-year intervals. The principal grounds for a successful application remain those of having a running speed of less than twenty-five miles per hour, and not having a connection to the national rail network.

During the year, a number of projects were undertaken, for which formal Safety Plans were written by the project teams. These included the rebuilding of the Traffic/Booking Office at Wharf, track relaying by the Royal Engineers at Brynglas and the renewal of the level crossing on the Forestry access road. These Safety Plans included Risk Assessments where necessary.

The Annual Management Health and Safety Audit was again conducted. The subsequent report by our Safety Adviser showed that our overall mark had slipped slightly, from 1867 (79%) to 1808 (76.4%). This retains our position in the VERY GOOD category, but continues with the gradual downward trend of the last three audits. Particular areas of concern to the Adviser were certain storage areas, and he identified land around the North Carriage Shed at Pendre and the Catering Store at Wharf as needing improved safety management.

Society Activities

The Society's Golden Jubilee celebrations were enjoyed by many in 2001. All the events, regardless of their size, required a great deal of time and effort and were a credit to the Society and the members involved.

The Young Members' Group played an active role on the Railway, organizing social events and volunteering in traffic, locomotive and engineering departments.

Area Groups continue to function with different levels of success, but all support and represent the Society away from the Railway. Unfortunately, after many years of hard work, some areas have found it difficult to recruit new volunteers to take on certain functions and in particular to staff sales stands.

In August Talyllyn volunteers enjoyed an evening visit to the Festiniog Railway for what has again become a biennial event, the F.R. visiting us in alternate years.

Membership fell by 5% to 3,522 at the year-end, showing a large degree of loyalty after the Annual General Meeting had voted overwhelmingly the previous year for a substantial increase in subscriptions.

Museum & Heritage

The year in respect of Heritage and Museum matters was dominated by two issues. Firstly, the Railway's Golden Jubilee celebrations did much to publicise our Railway's history, and to relive some of the events of the early days of the Society. The Railway Adventure production at Rhydyronen demonstrates that there is plenty of scope in presenting our history to the public in novel and entertaining ways.

Secondly, much of the work of the Heritage and Museum Committee and of the Museum Trustees during the year took place behind the scenes in planning for the rebuilding of the Museum as part of the Wharf redevelopment project. The consultations that have taken place with other experts in the field have led us to widen our thoughts on what we are trying to present; the T.R.P.S. is now a significant historical entity in its own right. The new building will not only allow us to display our exhibits in much better conditions, but also give us space to interpret the story of the Railway and the pioneering role of the Preservation Society. An interesting two years lie ahead.

Report of the Honorary Treasurer

For the 2001 season the loss by the Railway was reduced from ?41,688 for 2000 to ?35,405. Traffic Receipts increased by 2.8% over 2000, with no increase in fares. Operating Costs were 4.5% lower; the greater number of trains run gave rise to an increase in Locomotive Running Costs, which was more than offset by reductions in other costs. There was an 8% increase in Other Expenses, spread over several items.

The results of the Railway's commercial activities appear in total in the Revenue Account; Note 3 gives more details and the division between Shop and Catering. Turnover in both sections increased and the information given under Catering in respect of subsidized sales to staff and volunteers is presented differently from that in previous years, with the object of it being more readily understood. Shop turnover includes ?6,343 relating to the very profitable Railway Letter Service.

Engineering turnover and profit were lower, reflecting a reduced level of activity.

Miscellaneous Income consists as before mainly of rental income from the aerials at Abergynolwyn and net commission of ?2,927 from the National Rail ticket agency, together with income from the first Footplate Experience Courses.

The increase in Expenditure on Line relates to Wharf Station redevelopment, physical work having begun just before the end of the financial year, and the increase in Plant and Machinery &c. is due to the purchase of a skid-steer loader.

Stocks and Stores show a large reduction of 25.6% due to the laying of considerable quantities of track materials and to a clear-out of stock in the Shop.

The Society's income benefited from the higher subscription rates approved at the 2000 Annual General Meeting and from a rise in Donations, which fluctuate from year to year.

The Society has again made a special grant (of ?35,405) to the Railway Company to avoid carrying forward a deficit in the Company's Balance Sheet.

Last modified on 15th. July, 2002 by John S. Robinson (Secretary@talyllyn.co.uk).
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