Suggest a Railway Preservation project to receive £500

ainsworth74 · 29 Oct 2014

Class 92 said:
Is all £500 going to one group or is it being split between several?

£500 will be given to one project/group that is chosen by the membership.

At this stage we're looking for ideas (and reasons why the forum should support them) once that's finished (deadline for suggestions 9 November) a poll will be created and the winner of that poll will receive the donation.

RailUK Forums

Temple Meads · 30 Oct 2014

ainsworth74 said:
£500 will be given to one project/group that is chosen by the membership.

At this stage we're looking for ideas (and reasons why the forum should support them) once that's finished (deadline for suggestions 9 November) a poll will be created and the winner of that poll will receive the donation.

What happens if the poll is a tie?

Mojo · 30 Oct 2014

Could I ask if people would mind putting a link to a website (if possible) about the appeals they are linking to? I've had a search for a couple and can't find evidence that an appeal currently exists. Remember that as per the original post the donation is for a specific appeal rather than for general funds.

Temple Meads said:
What happens if the poll is a tie?

It won't be.

HarleyDavidson · 30 Oct 2014

How do you know?

E&W Lucas · 31 Oct 2014

Love them or hate them, steam locos are what puts the bums on seats on preserved railways, and that's what puts the cash in the bank to pay for other projects.

My nomination is the Fight for Vera fund, at the NYMR, which has the aim of helping to fund the long overdue restoration of ex War Department 2 - 10 - 0 3672 Dame Vera Lynn.

Vera covered over 100000 miles in her approx ten years of service, a remarkable feat. She brought a great deal of pleasure, to an awful lot of people. Time she ran again.

Appeal details here: https://www.facebook.com/dvl3672#!/dvl3672/info

Parham Wood · 31 Oct 2014

It would be nice if the money went to a group with meagre funds, i.e not associated with societies and railways that are well off, which is trying to do something of note. Ideally it should also be to a project that is small enough for the money to make a little difference and not be lost in something that is costing tens of thousands of pounds, although I realise every little bit helps.

ThePannier · 1 Nov 2014

I'm new on this forum, but I'd like to suggest the extension of the carriage shed at Horsted Keynes for the Bluebell Railway.

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/trust/appeal/

I think they're looking for £350,000.

Busaholic · 1 Nov 2014

Parham Wood said:
It would be nice if the money went to a group with meagre funds, i.e not associated with societies and railways that are well off, which is trying to do something of note. Ideally it should also be to a project that is small enough for the money to make a little difference and not be lost in something that is costing tens of thousands of pounds, although I realise every little bit helps.

I would go with that.

generalvegitable · 1 Nov 2014

Going on the small railway's idea, I would like to nominate the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway's Museum Gateway project.

The Museum gateway project is a simple idea, to replace a life expired, inefficient, and generally rather unpleasant station building (amongst other works to the pages park station site), the plan is to replace the station building (and possibly the buffet as well but that's currently under discussion), with new modern facilities which will bring the railway into the 21st century. The new building will be modern, efficient, and have community and educational facilities. it can only be done with your help, a figure somewhere in the region of £800,000 for the complete project (which includes quite a bit more than just the new building) has been mentioned to me, but I'm not completely sure. The society are looking at using the heritage lottery fund for assistance in getting there, but they still need your help, the more that can be raised without the HLF the stronger the society's position will be, £500 will go a long way to helping that goal.

more details can be found on their website linked here: http://www.buzzrail.co.uk/static/museum_gateway.html

JoeGJ1984 · 1 Nov 2014

Parham Wood said:
It would be nice if the money went to a group with meagre funds, i.e not associated with societies and railways that are well off, which is trying to do something of note. Ideally it should also be to a project that is small enough for the money to make a little difference and not be lost in something that is costing tens of thousands of pounds, although I realise every little bit helps.

I kind of agree with that and I would have liked to nominate either the Cambrian Heritage Railway or the Electric Railway Museum. The Cambrian Railway hope to restore services from Gobowen to Oswestry (and the track is intact but out of use; there is a level crossing over the A5). The Electric Railway museum hope to create a short section of track electrified with conductor rail to allow their electric trains to be ridden in.

But neither seem to mention a specific appeal on their websites, which would make them ineligible for this award. (But both do have PayPal links for donation - and extra money would surely help with their aims).

Otherwise I would nominate the Great Central Railway's Bridge to the Future appeal.

Yew · 1 Nov 2014

Here is an unconventional suggestion, Samaritains , for the work they do preventing potential suicides on the railways, meaning a) Hopefully reducing the chances of one of the forums Railway Employee members experiencing a PHBT, and b) Helping our railways run to time, and finally, and potentially the most important c) potentially saving someones life.

transportphoto · 2 Nov 2014

I would like to nominate the North Norfolk Railway's 'Crossing the Line' Appeal; the railway are currently appealing for money to enable reconstruction of Footbridges between the platforms at Sheringham and Holt stations on this highly popular tourist preserved steam railway on the north Norfolk Coast. The idea of the project is to restore a footbridge at Sheringham to the condition of the time the line was closed all those years ago!

I'm sure they'll have further details about the appeal on their website soon.

TP

Whilst I am affiliated with the North Norfolk Railway PLC. by way of Volunteering, this post has not been sanctioned by the railway's management, I have posted this as an individual in an attempt to raise awareness of the project which the railway is currently appealing to raise funds for. Further details about the railway can be found on their website: www.nnrailway.co.uk.

greatkingrat · 2 Nov 2014

As there are quite a lot of suggestions, it might be a good idea to have a two stage process where the top three from the first round go through to a final vote. Otherwise you could potentially end up with a winner only getting a small percentage of the vote.

mpierce62 · 2 Nov 2014

i would like to nominate poulton and wyre railway society they have a sponcer a sleeper appeal at moment

LateThanNever · 3 Nov 2014

Yew said:
Here is an unconventional suggestion, Samaritains , for the work they do preventing potential suicides on the railways, meaning a) Hopefully reducing the chances of one of the forums Railway Employee members experiencing a PUT, and b) Helping our railways run to time, and finally, and potentially the most important c) potentially saving someones life.

In view of the number of people who unfortunately seem to regard a train as the ideal executioner, this is an excellent suggestion

SansPareil · 3 Nov 2014

If the donation is to be a fair reflection of the content of the forums, and accurately reflect the interest of forum contributors then this should be considered;

http://www.pacerpreservationsociety.co.uk/

alexl92 · 3 Nov 2014

LateThanNever said:
In view of the number of people who unfortunately seem to regard a train as the ideal executioner, this is an excellent suggestion

I'd support the Samaritans idea too.

Alternatively the Wensleydale Railway - the shed appeal is their current project: http://www.wensleydalerail.com/shed-appeal

However, earlier this year they suffered a major landslip which cost around £100,000 to repair, and I understand that in order to secure their survival they were forced to divert funds from other areas (stock maintenence/restoration and extension projects, etc) into repairing the landslip, which has set back their overall progress on these other projects quite significantly.

thenorthern · 4 Nov 2014

I think the Samaritans idea is good too I choose that as well.

lonogrol · 4 Nov 2014

I dont speak on behalf of the forum staff, but I would say that The Samaritans is not eligible as it doesn't meet the requirements outlined in the first post. They are not a "railway preservation project" and neither are they "a specific appeal".

Trainfan344 · 5 Nov 2014

transportphoto said:
I would like to nominate the North Norfolk Railway's 'Crossing the Line' Appeal; the railway are currently appealing for money to enable reconstruction of Footbridges between the platforms at Sheringham and Holt stations on this highly popular tourist preserved steam railway on the north Norfolk Coast. The idea of the project is to restore a footbridge at Sheringham to the condition of the time the line was closed all those years ago!

I'm in favor of this, as a regular visitor to the NNR, trying to run between trains at Holt and Sheringham on a gala visit is rather difficult at the moment, plus it would be nice and atmospheric, out of interest, where abouts would the footbridges be located on the platforms?

yorksrob · 5 Nov 2014

I'll be voting for Project Commuter. There aren't that many Southern Region EMU's preserved and it will be good to have a 2nd generation one in the National collection.

steamybrian · 5 Nov 2014

Trainfan344 said:
I'm in favor of this, as a regular visitor to the NNR, trying to run between trains at Holt and Sheringham on a gala visit is rather difficult at the moment, plus it would be nice and atmospheric, out of interest, where abouts would the footbridges be located on the platforms?

Maybe I should not comment on this..
The footbridges would be nice but it appears they would be of real benefit on only a few days a year when gala events are staged. At Sheringham there are two pedestrian crossings and a road level crossing in the approx. 100 yards between the NNR station and National Rail station.

In my opinion I would give priority to projects that would benefit societies on all/most of their operating days.

M28361M · 6 Nov 2014

I'd like to suggest the Friends of the 502 Group's Steel Appeal (http://www.class502.org.uk/donate/)

The class 502 EMUs worked on the Liverpool-Southport/Ormskirk lines for 40 years from 1940-1980. They were among the first mainline trains to have automatic sliding doors and other modern features now taken for granted.

The last surviving two car set has suffered from serious corrosion after 15 years of outdoor storage and funds are needed to buy steel to replace the bodywork which has rusted away.

EMU preservation is something of an overlooked area (non-Southern Region EMUs especially so) and it is often difficult to raise the money needed. The £500 would be put to good use, I'm sure.

E&W Lucas · 7 Nov 2014

greatkingrat said:
As there are quite a lot of suggestions, it might be a good idea to have a two stage process where the top three from the first round go through to a final vote. Otherwise you could potentially end up with a winner only getting a small percentage of the vote.

Good idea.

Better criteria are needed. I'd suggest weeding out any "fantasy" projects, and limiting it to projects where the item to be preserved is already owned.

A vote based on about ten projects, run by bona fide groups or charities.

Mvann · 9 Nov 2014

My suggestion would be the night mail project at ferry meadows. There aim is to put a museum on the site to display the mail coaches the group have and also to make their archives more accessable. They also want to put a restoration workshop on site. More details at www.nightmail.org.uk.

ainsworth74 · 10 Nov 2014

Thanks to everyone for all your suggestions we've got a good variety of interesting projects. Please see this thread for the poll and make sure you vote for the project you think the forum should support!

Whilst most of the suggestions are eligible unfortunately not all of them were so we've had to exclude some of them. Please see below for those that we've left out and our reasons for doing so:

The Samaritans - Whilst we agree that they are a very deserving organisation, in this case they don't fit the criteria that we were looking for. Specifically that they aren't a railway preservation organisation and that there isn't a specific appeal.
British Railbus Restoration - This doesn't appear to be an actual project being undertaken by any organisation so there is no-one to donate to.
APT-P Restoration - This group do not appear to be appealing for funding at this moment in time.
National Railway Museum - This organisation is already well funded and the project suggested does not appear to be currently being undertaken.
Spen Valley Line - This does not appear to be a current project.
Team Buckthrash/KOYLI Group/Deltic Preservation Society - Unfortunately we're not looking to support on going running costs on specific appeals.
Pacer Preservation Society - Do not appear to have a specific appeal ongoing at the moment.

We would like to thank everyone for putting forward the suggestions and we look forward to announcing the winner of the poll shortly.

Suggest a Railway Preservation project to receive £500

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