New S&D AGM 16 January 2016

HURN

FRIENDS OF THE S&D

The next AGM of the New Somerset and Dorset Railway will be on 16 January 2016 at the Avon Causeway Hotel, Hurn near Bournemouth, from 1.30pm to 4pm.

This is a very important meeting as we shall be looking at bringing in a lot more committee members and volunteers - if you care about the S&D it will definitely be the time to start making a difference!

The New S&D will be just short of 7 years old in January 2016. We own Midford and are of course cosmetically restoring Spetisbury. I've been Chair since the group formed in 2009, prior to that I was a committee member holding several posts at Midsomer Norton. I shall be stepping down as Chair at the start of the AGM as I simply no longer have the time to do anything outside of promotion, a role I hope to retain! I'd originally announced I'd be officially retiring as Chair in August 2016 but events have simply caught up with me (as anyone who's been following The Rail Thing will realise!) So if you feel you have the skill set needed for this role please let us know!

The venue is a Pullman coach at the site of the former Hurn station on the Ringwood to Christchurch line, which closed in 1935. There's still plenty of railway interest there so worth a visit just for that. We've always allowed non-members to attend meetings including the AGM, but not to vote of course.

We have two main vehicles for S&D activity on the route - The New Somerset and Dorset Railway and Wessex Links Ltd. It may be that we need to redefine each part's focus, so there's a lot to discuss.

It's imortant that anyone planning to attend give us notice of attendance as the venue's owner needs to know numbers. Food and drink will of course be available at the Avon Causeway (highly recommended!) and if more than 10 want to eat before the meeting we will need to pre-book the meals.

So would ALL members please email me on leysiner@aol.com to let me know if you are coming or not - non-members should also let me know if you are planning to come just so we have some idea of numbers.

AGM

This time last week I was on my way to chair the New S&D AGM, down at Hurn near Bournemouth. We always alternate AGMs from one end of the line to the other, to make it easier for members to attend at least every two years.

The location was excellent, the old Hurn station, which has an industrial loco and old carriage as an extension to the pub, now the Avon Causeway Hotel.

The meeting went very well with almost 10% of the paid up members present.

The three main issues raised were all passed unanimously.

The first was the need to raise membership fees. Membership fees were originally set way back in 2009 when the New S&D was really just an idea. You didn't get a lot for membership, just the occasional A4 home printed newsletter! Now we have insurances to pay on both sites, the mortgage payment on Midford and two printed magazines a year. The original membership fee of £5 was nowhere near enough to cover this, so general funds were subsidising membership. We worked out that with the current membership level we would need a charge of around £15 to cover these basics, but of course we were also aware that this is a 200% increase. However the average rail restoration group charges around £15 so in a way our members have been getting a bargain for a while now!

To ease the transition to the new rate the meeting decided the following -

Date of the change will be 1 January 2014.

Existing members will be given the one off option of buying a THREE YEAR membership at the new rate ie £15 for three years (£5 per year).

The junior and family rates will also rise at the same rate, with the same three year concession for existing members. Life membership will remain the same.

Members paying by standing order will get an additional 10% reduction.

All members will be receiving a 3 year membership option form plus a standing order form with the new edition of Right Lines and these will be sent out over the next 1-3 weeks.

The second major decision was to apply for charity status for the New S&D. This matter has been brought up regularly at previous meetings but the meeting agreed that now was definitely the time to proceed with this. A team consisting of Anna-Jayne Metcalfe, Ken Vater and Geoff Newman aew auctioning this. We are seeking members to become trustees if interested!

The final major decision was that the MIDFORD APPEAL will be launched in early 2014. The basic aim will to be raise the money to rebuild the station building and oil store. A rough estimate of £30,000 was suggested, this figure will harden up once we've done proper estimates of the costs involved. This will give Midford and the New S&D a much higher profile, give us a proper office (and address!), a sales point and an information point covering the history of the station and line plus comprehensive details of the whole line restoration. It should also convince people that this restoration, the third, will be the one that succeeds! We have felt for some time that there has been a credibility problem at Midford because of the two previous restoration attempts, despite those being just small projects for Midford alone, rather than as part of a much larger project. I'm sure that a fully restored station building with the facilities listed above will finally lay that ghost to rest!

All in all the meeting was great fun (and I hate meetings) and I feel that we have now stepped up a league with a proper membership fee structure, charity status and our first real base on the line soon to be a reality.

four more from broadstone

Four more 1977 shots from Broadstone.

This was once the main line to Dorchester and Weymouth, before Bournemouth even existed. A new direct line was eventually opened to Bournemouth, and this section of Castleman's Corkscrew became something of a backwater. Even so it had a fairly extensive service, always worked by steam.

It seems strange that rails remained to Wimborne (until 1977), West Moors and Ringwood (1967), as well as to Blandford (1969), yet all of this potentially valuable Bournemouth commuter network is currently completely closed. All of these areas, despite being unserved by modern transport, have grown since closure of the railways. I remember reading somewhere that the trackbeds were to be reserved for a future rapid transit system but nothing seems to have happened on this front. Surely it's long overdue? But then even Bournemouth Airport (at Hurn) is not rail served. I don't think airports have any long term future but it does seem incredible to me that a reasonably busy regional airport has no rail connection, particularly one very close to an existing closed railway formation (the Ringwood-Hurn-Christchurch line, closed in 1933!)

I do see this area as one of prime importance for the New S&D because as well as through trains on the main line there will be scope for many (possibly tram-train or Parry People Mover) local and commuter services in this heavily populated area, as well as many potential freight flows.