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Rail Riders Club 2020

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FGW_DID

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https://www.facebook.com/Railridersclub/?epa=SEARCH_BOX

Hopefully that link works.

Anyway it appears, according to said Facebook page that the 1980’s era railway club “Rail Riders” is set to make a return in 2020. I’ve not gone through the whole page but there seems scant detail on the actual membership details but they do seem to already be arranging various discounts with railway related retailers.
 
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Crepello

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I'm idly curious who's behind it and what the objectives are - but in t'meantime, a fond reminder of my own childhood hunting 47406 while collecting stickers... the wallchart's a very fond childhood memory - and I remember being chuffed that the London Transport Museum came second one year - by two votes - having seen my father greeted quite obnoxiously by their then staff. Improved vastly in the meantime, and is the one London attraction my kids request, time after time!
 

Condor7

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That’s great news. It says February next year for the launch. As mentioned the Facebook page is short on background information so will await more news.

In the past it was always designed for youngsters and assume this will be as well. If so I have thought for some time something like this should be available. For many years now the hobby has been mainly older ones but I have noticed over recent years the increase in youngsters on platforms train-spotting or photoing/videoing helped by the ready access to cheap video cams and cameras, and I could see something like Rail Riders being there to help maintain an interest in the hobby after dad or granddad has taken them to watch the trains, and hopefully introduce the hobby to a younger audience.
 

theblackwatch

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Simon Buxton of Bufferbeam is behind it - he's been selling 'Rail Riders' merchandise for some time. Discounts with a couple of preserved railways and model retailers have been announced. Of course it is bound to be something different to the original club... if the old club was going now, it would have changed and moved on - you'd probably have an 'app' on your phone to get your sticker station badges for a start. I suspect also, you won't get kicked out when you reach your 18th birthday!
 

WideRanger

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Remembering Rail Riders has just made my day. When I was a member, it all seemed so glamorous. Sending my £1 cheque to Wetherby, West Yorkshire to get my £5 of vouchers, was my monthly routine. Always used the vouchers to go from my local station to the next one, which made the journey effectively free (apart from the £1). Amazing value. And it opened up a world that I couldn't imagine. Wetherby seemed like some special metropolis where kind people like Caroline and Angela (If I remember correctly) would serve up travelling happiness.

Feeling old now.
 

pdeaves

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If the revival is to be seen as relevant to young people I hope they don't reuse the APT logo. Nice as it was, using a museum piece is probably not best for now!
 

GlosRail

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I used to be a member, in the 80's right up until it closed 1992ish??

Will Angela be coming back to run it?
 

AY1975

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I used to be a member, in the 80's right up until it closed 1992ish??

I also used to be a member, almost for as long as it existed. I joined when I was 5 in 1980, when it was called the Great Rail Club, then it became Rail Riders in 1981.

Will Angela be coming back to run it?

Or Caroline who ran it to start with, or Lynne who latterly ran it?
 

Rail Riders

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Hi everyone.

New to this forum malarkey. To introduce myself, I'm Simon Buxton and i run Bufferbeam and have been selling the Rail Riders logo on clothing and other items on my stall and website since July 2018.

Since we brought the logo back the response has been fantastic bringing lots of fond memories back to all those who were members. From this we had the mad idea to bring the club back which planning started in late August 2018.

We never planned to go public till November this year so we could get nearly 90% ready for letting everyone know it was due to return in Feb 2020. However we had no choice to go public on the 13th September due to something coming up out of our control. We will not go into details but to say we were not ready to go public hence the lack of details on our Facebook page. We hopefully will be commissioning a web designer this week to start building the site.

We can tell you that we intend to get the club looking as near as possible like the original with the exception of no discounts on mainline operators. However we will be getting discount for members on preserved railways for which we have 4 agreeing already. Please note there was discounts on preserved railways in the original club.

We also will be expanding the discount scheme to as many railway themed businesses we can. Currently we have 5 with more in the pipeline including model railway shops, book publisher, and Bufferbeam. There will be a pass book to get stamped at preserved railways and a competition every year to see who has been to the most railways.

There will be 4 Rail Riders Express mags a year featuring various articles and competitions. We have the possibility of a mainline loco named as well.

While putting together the club we have found Angela the former club secretary and she has agreed to give us an interview about the old club. We aim to make the club fun and if we get enough membership we intend to have event days and possibly a railtour or two.

Please bear with us and follow the Facebook page for updates.

The membership will be available to all age groups this time and if everything goes to plan the club and membership will open in Feb 2020.

Kind regards Simon, Rail Riders Ltd
 

Journeyman

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If the revival is to be seen as relevant to young people I hope they don't reuse the APT logo. Nice as it was, using a museum piece is probably not best for now!

For the last couple of years, they changed the logo to a Class 91. :)
 

Journeyman

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I hope it all goes well - the club was one of BR's better marketing ideas, and I really enjoyed being a member for a few years when I was a kid. Never saw that bloody loco, though! I lived on the Southern, and all we got in my neck of the woods was 33s and 73s!

The magazine was always pretty good - will you revive Ben Racey, the superhero futuristic train driver? I wanted to be him, he had a foxy female sidekick too!
 

Rail Riders

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I hope it all goes well - the club was one of BR's better marketing ideas, and I really enjoyed being a member for a few years when I was a kid. Never saw that bloody loco, though! I lived on the Southern, and all we got in my neck of the woods was 33s and 73s!

The magazine was always pretty good - will you revive Ben Racey, the superhero futuristic train driver? I wanted to be him, he had a foxy female sidekick too!
We have not decided on that yet. Lots still to sort out as you will understand
 

route:oxford

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i am almost certain this will be nothing like the old railriders club.

Isn't that a good thing?

No JS for a start. Then there was turning up at heritage sites or museums to find they'd run out of rail riders stickers, didn't offer a discount or worse still closed down for good.

The £1 for £5 was great, but you could only order one book of vouchers at a time.

I never quite believed the mileage of all the kids either.
 

Edders23

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I was too old for this so was never a member but might be interesting. If you are doing the NVR diesel gala I will probably be on the RRRG stand on the sunday so might collar you for a chat although i suspect you will be much busier than normal

This should be a big boost for the buffer beams business as well which as a businessman i applaud ;)
 

Rail Riders

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I was too old for this so was never a member but might be interesting. If you are doing the NVR diesel gala I will probably be on the RRRG stand on the sunday so might collar you for a chat although i suspect you will be much busier than normal

This should be a big boost for the buffer beams business as well which as a businessman i applaud ;)
Thankyou. Its because of Bufferbeam, i came up with the idea of bringing it back. Really happy with the responce from former members. I was one too. Due to my experience with Bufferbeam has made setting up Rail Riders so much easier
 

WideRanger

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The £1 for £5 was great, but you could only order one book of vouchers at a time.
I always had a stock of books. Each time a book arrived, I would tear off the back page, and order the next one. I don't think I ever ran out. I never realised that wasn't allowed (if it wasn't)

I won a photography competition and won a Kodak Disc camera - ironically, it was of a location that was walking distance from my house, so I didn't need to go by train.
 

Rail Riders

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What's the point of this?
What do I get in return for being a member?
this should explain everything for you
Hi everyone.

New to this forum malarkey. To introduce myself, I'm Simon Buxton and i run Bufferbeam and have been selling the Rail Riders logo on clothing and other items on my stall and website since July 2018.

Since we brought the logo back the response has been fantastic bringing lots of fond memories back to all those who were members. From this we had the mad idea to bring the club back which planning started in late August 2018.

We never planned to go public till November this year so we could get nearly 90% ready for letting everyone know it was due to return in Feb 2020. However we had no choice to go public on the 13th September due to something coming up out of our control. We will not go into details but to say we were not ready to go public hence the lack of details on our Facebook page. We hopefully will be commissioning a web designer this week to start building the site.

We can tell you that we intend to get the club looking as near as possible like the original with the exception of no discounts on mainline operators. However we will be getting discount for members on preserved railways for which we have 4 agreeing already. Please note there was discounts on preserved railways in the original club.

We also will be expanding the discount scheme to as many railway themed businesses we can. Currently we have 5 with more in the pipeline including model railway shops, book publisher, and Bufferbeam. There will be a pass book to get stamped at preserved railways and a competition every year to see who has been to the most railways.

There will be 4 Rail Riders Express mags a year featuring various articles and competitions. We have the possibility of a mainline loco named as well.

While putting together the club we have found Angela the former club secretary and she has agreed to give us an interview about the old club. We aim to make the club fun and if we get enough membership we intend to have event days and possibly a railtour or two.

Please bear with us and follow the Facebook page for updates.

The membership will be available to all age groups this time and if everything goes to plan the club and membership will open in Feb 2020.

Kind regards Simon, Rail Riders Ltd
 

Edders23

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22 Sep 2018
Messages
549
What's the point of this?
What do I get in return for being a member?


It depends on what the terms of membership are and whether you frequent heritage lines much. There would be no discounts from the TOC's BUT a club for like minded railway enthusiasts might actually boost some of the Heritage railways give members cheaper visits AND provide a means for like minded people to get to know each other better and a better liaison between preservation groups and enthusiasts.

In short something like this could become virtuous circle leading to a closer relationship between enthusiasts and the Preservation movement

Things you might get could be something like a Members day at a preserved line on a day when running wasn't planned but members might get an opportunity to get close up and personal with locos and stock with plenty of Photo opportunities
 

stonojnr

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17 Apr 2019
Messages
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Hint to Bachmann, do another run of 47406s in Intercity livery and 47488 in Large Logo livery with "Rail Riders" nameplates

absolutely, if they can do a run of special Anglia 47s for their anglia based dealers (though anyone who wanted one had already bought the Heljan one years back,its like seriously it was in NX refresher livery as well for a bit why do the exact same model in turqouise again), but Id certainly buy a Rail Riders one.

but yes was a member too, and I remember the inevitable disappointment of arriving at some of these places youd bullied your parents into taking you to get a sticker to be met by someone behind a till who inevitably went "whats a railrider?", think Id got bored as a kid by the time the logo changed
 
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