You may have seen Steve Oddy's note about us reaching the level of 300 groups booked so far this year. This is an incredible achievement. In 2009 - before the landslips - we reached 233 for a whole year which shows just how much we have grown. Many thanks to everyone for this.
Yesterday there were two groups and I managed to talk to all of them. One genuinely remonstrated on us not having air conditioning, another complained that his beer had foam on the top of it - you should have seen how he was pouring it! - and several others just went off to sleep. One of the coach drivers said he had had nothing but complaints on his coach as some wanted the aircon on and some wanted it off.
This hot weather is obviously having a large effect on our passenger numbers and demonstrates even more clearly how important pre-booked groups are to us.
Cooking bacon baps yesterday was murder - I can't imagine how hot the driver and fireman were!
Colin Fewell
I had a day on the cushions on Tuesday, and accompanied 2 Dutch friends round the railway.
ReplyDeleteAlthough a volunteer, I have to admit that when it was my turn to pay at the Toddy ticket office, I didn't really know what to ask for. 3 trains were operating on the line, do we catch them all? Maybe it would be an idea to have an explanatory A4 by the ticket office window, which shows graphically which train is going where.
We took the steamer to CRC and back.
Back at Toddy, the Bubble car was waiting over on platform 2. We galloped over the footbridge for the ride to Laverton, and installed ourselves right behind the driver at the Laverton end. Brilliant seats ! The railcar then set off for Winchcombe....
It seemed to me that more passengers were in the steam train, than in the diesel hauled one.
It certainly was hot ! Tempted by a guard carrying a mouthwatering bacon bap, we ordered 3 in the restaurant car. I immediately regretted this - it meant condemming the lady chef back to her sweltering kitchen. But they were really good.
All in all, a good day. My Dutch friends were impressed, and decided to extend their stay by one day.