Keeping the home fires burning

It’s all too easy when the physical shutters come down to shut down all marketing and communications at the same time.

After all, the primary focus is on dealing with staff matters and taking a long hard look at the finances to see how long any company can survive. That planned ad campaign or that great marketing idea has to take second place to staying in business.

Like all other companies – and all other leisure and tourist attractions in Sussex – we’ve been working flat out at the Bluebell Railway to handle personnel and pecuniary matters.

But we were also determined to keep the flow of information going during the closure period.

                                                Photo credit: Peter Edwards

Alongside the paid staff, we have more than 10,000 members of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, more than 750 volunteers and hundreds of thousands of visitors a year enjoying a day out, luxury dining and a steam train ride through the lovely Sussex countryside.

The one thing we’ve never lacked is people who are passionate about what they do and the contribution they make. It’s what helped to get the wheels turning on the Bluebell Railway in 1960 as the first standard gauge preserved passenger railway in the UK and it’s what has helped it steam along for the last 60 years.

So we have launched a new regular newsletter to keep fanning the flames of interest even if the firebox is no longer being lit.

We’ve been inspired by the soldiers of World War One.

Some of you may be familiar with the story of The Wipers Times. It was a publication written by soldiers in the trenches after they found an abandoned printing press. It helped to maintain morale during the fighting around Ypres in Belgium.

It was that sense of making the most out of adversity that led me to propose our own version of The Wipers Times to keep up spirits at this time.

Hence the birth of The Bluebell Times.

In just a few days, it went from an idea to a publication. Issue 1 has already been read by thousands of people both within and beyond the Bluebell Railway.

The Bluebell Times aims to cater for everyone whether they are a steam railway enthusiast or children looking for something fun to do while they aren’t at school. It combines the best of our existing internal and external communications.

It’s written and produced by volunteers with contributions from people in all different departments of the Bluebell Railway and with a variety of skills. And the only cost is our time and effort – it’s always good to keep the finance director happy!

And when we reopen, we hope people will remember the efforts we made - to borrow another World War I phrase – to keep the home fires burning.

:: Issue 1 and all future issues of The Bluebell Times can be downloaded from https://www.bluebell-railway.com/bluebell-times/

By Paul Bromley, communications director, Bluebell Railway