Issue 12, October 2002
Editorial The refurbished 2-car units have started to return from the shops; this one was recently spotted at Exeter St David's. The lilac doors are - well, interesting. Many seem to dislike the colours but approve of the internal changes; not perfect, but a distinct improvement. Picture: Babs Stutchbury A sentiment was expressed, in a letter recently received, that we must be careful to guard against taking on too much work in order to prevent an enjoyable hobby becoming a burden. I subsequently thought of all the work undertaken by many individuals, without remuneration, on behalf of many community-based organisations throughout the country - including NDRUG - and wondered whether I was doing all this because it was a hobby.
Table of Contents Editorial Chairman's Report AGM - Our Speaker The King is Dead; Long Live the King? What’s Hungarian for ‘Dr Beeching’? Or, for that matter, for ‘Ernest Marples’? Partnership-funded Tarka Line Station Improvements One for £100 or a Hundred for £1? Fortress Barnstaple? Station Gardens Competition Today Swanage; Tomorrow Barnstaple The Market and Coastal Town Initiative News Update At Home... ...and Abroad
Why do we do it? Do we ever get anywhere? Most of the time, it is very difficult to evaluate the impact we have on the organisations - governmental or corporate - we seek to influence. Usually, if we infect at all, we infect unseen. But history relates how wholesale changes in attitude - and often, indeed, in the law - do come about from very small beginnings. The trick is, I take it, always to maintain pressure; if you do not achieve your aims, then someone else, taking over the reins, may do it for you, in time. Thus slavery was ended, for example; and the incipient trade union movement of the nineteenth century, smashed by the force of law from its infancy, survived to grow, perpetually reminding deaf, unbending authorities, defending interests of their own, that the poor deserved better. Eventually, not only did physical matters improve, but attitudes changed. And so with the present day. What is lawful, should not necessarily remain lawful, if subsequent reflection shows it up to be immoral or just plain stupid - and there are plenty of examples of that around. Similarly, what is current practice should not necessarily remain current practice, if other examples point to a better way.
A Reunion with the Master It Doesn't Always Have to Be Expensive And How Did the Journeys Go? Readers Write Membership Matters New Members Committee Meetings (Members Welcome)
The socially inclusive nature of the rural railway is becoming accepted, but its acceptance is by no means universal. The ludicrous spectacle of thousands of stationary vehicles cramming to go where there is no room, and destroying a valuable earth in getting there, is dawning on some of us as being, perhaps, somewhat less than over-rewarding! But universal realisation will be a long time coming, if ever it does come; some have yet even to renounce slavery, such is the penetration of centuries of custom and a misguided inculcation that what is right is what I want, and to hell with everyone else. The obsession with the private car is deeplyrooted and bathed in commercial self-interest, while the vanity of possession, and the insecure need to impress, guarantee sales. The West has long since swallowed the pill, and the Third World has already been shown the medicine bottle. It's difficult to get some to understand the transport needs of those unable to drive, to get them even to think of others, to reduce their selfishness and the effect that selfishness will have on the ultimate quality of our lives. All this sounds very grand, doesn't it? But it really can't be just a hobby, can it? David Gosling
Chairman's Report