The RPSI Council (the elected management committee of the RPSI) formed a sub-committee in 2005 to look at the constraints facing the Society and develop a project that would overcome or manage the constraints to ensure our core aims can continue to be met in a sustainable manner. 

Key constraints
These can be summarised into a few bullet points:

• The RPSI has an ageing working volunteer profile.  If not addressed, this will cause a future shortage of working volunteers.
• Engineering of the type required to maintain and operate the RPSI’s locomotives and carriages, is no longer widely practiced in Ireland and the people with these skills are becoming scarce.  The RPSI relies on staff (paid and volunteer) with these “heritage engineering skills” to ensure that its fleet can be maintained.  If not addressed, the loss of people with these skills will prevent the RPSI being able to maintain and operate its fleet to a suitable level to continue mainline trains.
• The dynamics of market forces, infrastructure requirements (watering facilities, turning facilities) and operational requirements (slots in the timetable for our mainline trains, Central Door Locking, On Train Monitoring and Recording) cause issues for organisation of our mainline trains.  If not addressed, it will become impossible to organise mainline trains.

In January 2007 the RPSI acquired ownership of its Whitehead site.  In November 2007, the Business Case was used to obtain a Project Planning Grant from the HLF to inform the RPSI of the options for a project.

Why does the HLF offer Project Planning grants?
Our Project Planning grant provides funds to pay for the professional production of four plans 
(you can find more detailed information about these plans from the HLF website):

A Conservation Plan, outlining: 

An audit of the historical importance of our rolling stock and museum assets, in both a local and national sense. 
The policies we should adopt in maintaining our rolling stock and museum assets. 
Options and a plan for the use of our rolling stock and museum assets. 

An audit of the skills our staff (paid and volunteer) have at present. 
An audit of the skills our staff (paid and volunteer) require to fulfil the conservation policies outlined in the Conservation Plan. 
Options and a plan to ensure our skills are developed/enhanced in a sustainable manner. 

An audit of our existing audience and how they access the RPSI. 
An audit of how the audience could be developed in light of the significance audit carried out in the Conservation Plan. 
Options and a plan to ensure our audience is developed/enhanced in a sustainable manner. 

An audit of the barriers to accessing the RPSI in the action plans coming from the Audience and Conservation planning exercises. 
Options and a plan to ensure access is maintained 

Where are we now?
In April 2008, after a tendering process, we appointed:
 

• Atkins Heritage to produce our Conservation Plan. 

Atkins Heritage has produced 23 HLF Project Plans, with major success in furtherance of the plans to a successful HLF bid.  In a railway context, their lead consultant, Bob Clark is a leader in his field and was behind the SRPS museum buildings and development at Bo’ness, now recognised as Scotlands national railway museum.
• Advantage Consulting to produce our Audience, Access and Training plans.

Kevin McCaughan and Helen Keys have had experience in producing these plans for a number of local projects, the diverse nature of which have given Kevin and Helen extensive contacts in the tourism, education and funding arenas.  Helen is a consultant with extensive experience in heritage.  Kevin is a professional fundraiser.

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