West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Combined ticket, GWR to TN, bus to BL, WSR to MD.

Robin

 

You may have missed the news item on www.wsr.org.uk on 15 May. It's about half way down this page:
http://www.wsr.org.uk/r-news201605.htm

Steve

 

Seen they made it there a few times on rare occasions, if its 73/0/1s they may be a tad hot by bristol , only type 1s on the diesel.

 

As loco crews we are banned from running through wrongly set hand points at NF. There is good reason for this local rule as it would be possible for ballast to be spilt as part of the unloading & processing operations thus jamming in point blades. Adopting this local rule avoids the risk of point blade damage in these circumstances. This of course adds to the time taken together with the local instruction to reset points to the position in which they are found to facilitate HOBC operations.

 

This Saturday will be a busy day on the wsr. From Bl the 4f and 7828 will be out as service engines, both 7fs are also at Bl and will double head the incoming whistling ghost charter from Bl to me and return. And from Minehead, 6960.

Fireman Sam meet and greet day on minehead platform and lots of entertainment for kids.

Any other railway would count this as a gala, but for the Wsr it's just another Summer Saturday!

 

And I have managed to grab a vacancy at Blue Anchor for Saturday - rare for we veterans at one of our 'training' signal boxes - give me a wave!

Robin

 

Not forgetting that on Sunday we have the train service, Class 47 on DMU diagram, Class 150 coming from Taunton and Classic Car Run along the Railway after gathering at BL and parking up at MD for the afternoon......

Robin

 

One great weekend in glorious Somerset!!

Sunday also has a QB!

 

Even the weather forecast looks good for the weekend.

 

You can of course speed things up , for instance the loco can reverse as soon as it clears the points & begin to reverse in whichcase the fireman can hop on the steps as it passes, simples! Also I see they've begun to landscape the farm site at BL, what will this become?

 

I think firemen or anyone else hopping on and off a moving loco (or any railway vehicle for that matter) isn't looked on very favourably these days.

I seem to recall either Chasewater or Foxfield got into a spot of bother over it a few years back..

 

I hope you are not suggesting that the WSR should practice unsafe procedures in order to save a couple of minutes.

If the driver reverses immediately, he is unlikely to have checked that the points have been correctly set, which could result in a derailment.

No-one is allowed to board or alight a moving vehicle as staffordian has mentioned above.

 

If the driver & fireman know each other & work as a team its not unsafe at all . Its been done like that since the start on the Railways. I myself have jumped on & off locos , admittedly at walking pace, for 25 years or so , with no problems, its just getting the job done in a more railwaylike fashion .

 

Indeed, in the past it was common practice for experienced staff to join or alight on the move, some times at closer to 15mph than 5mph. But it is no longer allowed, any railway which permits such behaviour nowadays would soon be in trouble.

 

WSR Rule Book Module J 'Shunting' , paragraph 4.2.1.1 (v) provides that:

'The Shunter must not join or alight from any moving vehicle.'

Robin

 

Any possibility of getting the intermediate times for the 7Fs Saturday please ta,

 

When I was involved with timetabling, it was general practice to give:

BL-NF: 10 mins
NF triangle turn: 15 mins
NF-BL: 10mins (couple extra minutes sometimes given if a steam service, either on run time or dwell at BL given the gradient)

 

Anywhere in particular?

Robin

 

Have a look here
http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t16/t0618c.htm

 

Ta very much,