The first week of the re-opened railway : April 2021

Passenger Numbers

It has been a good week for the railway which - despite current Covid restrictions - experienced the usual passenger numbers for this time of the year. All being well, we would like to maintain or indeed, exceed our passenger numbers throughout the remainder of the year.

Here are some photos taken by Tony Nicholson on Tuesday 13th, the first day of operation.

Purchase of a new Electronic Point Of Sale (EPOS) Cash Till system

For some time now it has been recognised that a new till system was required to replace the existing till installed in our ticket office and shop at Woody Bay. The present till was installed more than 11-years ago, and had become unreliable in operation with support non-existent due to the manufacturer no longer trading

Clearly, it was essential that any new system would have proven modern up-to-date features and facilities needed by the L&BR as well as being upgradeable and relatively future-proof, as the railway will hopefully be a bigger operation in 5-years time.

Several potential suppliers were approached for quotations. After due consideration, the preferred EPOS system was purchased from a company based in Newton Abbott. This company are licensed agents for TouchPoint a recognised world-wide system. Their being based in Devon ensures that - if needed - the call-out response time will be same-day service.

4. Dave Blencowe processing a sale using the new EPOS system.

5. Close-up view of the terminal.

This new till has the proven modern up-to-date features and facilities needed by the L&BR, including:

• Fully integrated and networked EPOS system - handling all our local debit and credit card payments.
• Although not yet set up, it can handle Stock Control - Monitoring, reporting and control of all shop stock.
• Management - All features can be remotely accessed via the internet by authorised users.
• Data transfer - All transaction records can be exported into accounts packages as well as CSV and PDF.
• System expansion - The system can be expanded to serve a future larger railway by providing additional terminals at other locations including the Tea Rooms as well as anywhere else we need a till.

Finally, our thanks to the L&BRT Surrey Support Group for partially sponsoring the purchase of this new EPOS system.

Words by Chris Dadson, Photo's 1, 2 & 3 Tony Nicholson, 4  & 5 Barry Marshall.