Welcome
At the moment, every day’s a bonus”, Great Central Railway MD Michael Gough pondered to Steam Railway just before Christmas. “It boils down to £21 k a day - that’s what we’re protecting - every day is another £21 k we’re not going to have to refund.” The GCR was one of the luckier lines; a great many others succumbed to tightening coronavirus restrictions by, or on, December 23. Others passed through this most vital of financial months without stopping, others never made it off shed.
Certain factors, such as the Government’s furlough scheme and reduced asset depreciation return to life as it was before the pandemic, however optimistic we may be for 2021.
Even so, railway preservation is a resilient animal, and success is the only option. And it is with that thought that we shouldn’t reflect on the past year with anything less than pride for what was achieved under almost intolerable strain.
Indeed, it is heartening to present the magazine’s shortlist of projects completed in 2020 that readers are invited to vote for in our Heritage Railway Association-sponsored award (pages 84-85). That any such schemes could be realised in the middle of a pandemic is testament, were it needed fewer trains, or none whatsoever, eases operational wear and tear) will have helped alleviate some of the pain. But when Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway GM Paul Lewin reminded supporters last month that its revenue in 2019 was only a pound for every £6 it made in 2019, £6 million suddenly became £1m. These eye-watering statistics are a powerful reminder that preservation cannot immediately to the unerring dedication of this very special movement of ours.