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He was a proponent of the need for heritage railways to be financially solvent, part of a leisure industry and expected to show a profit.<ref>Burton, Anthony, A Steam Engine Pilgrimage, Pen and Sword, 2017</ref> “The two essentials for a preservation business – Love It – Make a Profit”.<ref> Deayton Alistair and Quinn, Iain, Waverley Steam Navigation Company, Amberley Publishing Limited, July 2014</ref>
Mr Draper is referred to for his repeated view there were too many heritage railways. In 1981 he said the ever growing steam movement was “sowing the seeds of its own destruction”.<ref>Brown, Jonathan, The Railway Preservation Revolution: A History of Britain's Heritage Railways, Pen and Sword, June 2017, p. 266</ref>. He also wrote in 1997 “Make no mistake, there will not be 150 [preserved] railways and steam centres in this country at the end of the next thirty years”.<ref>Carter, Ian, British railway enthusiasm, Oxford University Press, January 2017, p. 284.</ref> Mr Draper’s predictions have not yet come to pass as, despite some failures, by 2019 2023 The Heritage Railway Association has 180 member organisations regularly open to the publicrepresents 173 working railways and 24 museums and steam centres, with 156 many of these operating with passengerswhich operate trains on selected day.<ref>[https://www.hra.uk.com/ resources Heritage Railway Association website] (Retrieved 6 April 201930 January 2023)</ref>
Mr Draper was also a member of [[List of preservation groups|preservation groups with an SVR connection]].
