Yuck. End of Year Review Clickbait Articles, don't you just hate them?
Well for the 'writers' this is easy bread and butter, regurgitate your big news from the past 12 months and bang - you have something half new to throw out. Turns out it's actually pretty difficult to pull things from the mire that was 2016, and particularly more difficult when you bang on about 2016 two days into 2017.
If in any doubt, do what we did and sit down for a couple of hours and enjoy this. 2016 wasn't all bad after all.
Truth is the more interesting world of Heritage Railways is being outdone by the shrinking violets of 'real trains' that get you from A to B without so much as a thank you.
Fares have just gone up by 2%,
Southern couldn't run a train on tracks,
The future Vivarail units have gone up in smoke.
And that is just two days in.
As 2017 dawns things are looking pretty miserable on the national network so we find ourselves looking at more enlightening news of locomotives reaching ends of boiler tickets and heading to a siding near you. It's all looking pretty grim isn't it?
We all started 2016 talking about that blooming A3 coming back to metals on the East Lancashire Railway. It causes divisions and opinions but above all it got us talking about something. It seems the rest of the world is still talking A3 on the Telly Boxes and loving every minute of it. Three Heritage Railways will have big results from bagging the bidding of 60103 visiting them in 2017.
The mainline Tours are also dominated by Scotsman as it covers all possible areas of the UK over the next 12 months.
It does however seem us enthusiasts have moved on. But what do we move on to?
Our biggest hope of 2016 is that the enthusiast Gala as a 'thing' took a battering when being replaced by that A3, but was replaced by triumphant Enthusiasts Galas that captured imaginations, albeit not the financial success Railways actually need.
The Keighley and Worth Valley were allowed to bring in visiting locomotives and stuck their head firmly in the 'visiting locomotives' pie and came out covered in Manors and Bulleids. This year they have bagged a B1 and a Crab. This isn't greed, this is going for it when the wings are unclipped.
2017 really does create a level playing field for Railways. The mass market have Scotsman, and will have for the next 12 months.
How do you capture us? The enthusiasts.
We have two Britannia's and a King to return to the mainline, we also have another Bulleid heading out of of Carnforth to look forward to. (one more can't hurt). A Pocket Rocket also hits the mainline in the form of 76084.
The Lynton and Barnstaple may have a Baldwin gracing their tracks again. Keep an eye on the ladies and gents of Devon. The giant is awakening again.
We are never pessimistic here at the BM (Honest) so we look forward to plans being outlayed of what will wet our screechy whistles in 2017.
Keep the daftness flowing by emailing us any old crap (or gems) to thebashmash@outlook.com by visiting, liking, loving and peeing over our Facebook and Twitter Sites. Upload your #BashMashGold to our Flickr Group.
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