Severn Valley Railway affected by floods

Whilst I am embarrassed (for them) that a 'commercial* railway' is asking for donations I must say that for all the rest of us in the heritage railway industry it's extreme sympathy and a 'there but for the grace of God go we' feeling.

*Of course no heritage railway is really commercial if the cost of the voluntary labour is factored in: no wages for Ops staff, and not even travelling expenses. Even our (WSR) board is keen to boast about the increased profits every year - until they are asked what would be the situation if all volunteers withdrew their labour..... (deathly silence).

I would assume more that the heritage railway cynics are jealous of said railway near a dead dogs grave than anything else. Yes they do get a lot of funding, but there again, they have marketed themselves for funding. I'm sure if other railways did the same and had a target which was as popular as said railway then they too could get public funding.

All heritage railways suffer from a critical lack of funding from all round and will quite often go cap in hand. They do whatever they can to try meet their objectives. A lot of this is done through volunteer labour. However, the SVR is suffering from an act of God. This is something that volunteer labour can't do quickly or easily. It needs professional contractors to do the work.

Whilst volunteer labour can help a bit, it needs the right kind of people to do the job. The railway near the dead dogs grave has a very young (in comparison) volunteer force, whilst the SVR doesn't have this volunteer resource. People will travel far and wide to rebuild this railway and a bit of positive marketing could easily do the same for the SVR.