West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I always hope for a Damascene conversion.

PH

 

Excuses for what? AFAICS I am not making excuses, but simply pointing out that your POV is 95% personal prejudice and 5% reasoning.

 

To dip my toe into the big chufferitis argument and the generalisations about customers I would like to suggest that many people like variety and that variety is more likely to create return visits than uniformity.

In that respect a selection of both large and small locomotives with long peak service trains and short off peak trains sounds good to me.

As amazing as it was to have the two S&DJR 2-8-0s working on the railway I would suggest that to many passengers it didn't matter whether they had 53808 or 53809 on their train as the only way they could tell them apart was by looking at the number. The same with two Manors or two Halls.

With regard to liveries the whole point of them was to make the locomotives distinctive and to see different liveries adds to variety - otherwise why so many comments about the 'blue' King?

If it isn't for variety why are galas so popular?

And now the best bit - To many people outside the GWR there's not a great deal of difference between a Manor, a Hall, a Modified Hall, a Castle, a King or for that matter a Grange, a County or a Star. When standing on Dunster platform how close does the loco need to be before you can recognise it? And how close before Joe Public can make out the difference?

This is one of the advantages of a railway not owning its own locomotives. You can ring the changes and keep the railway fresh for visitors. The S160 certainly fits that bill.

 

Yes. Which brings me to my...

Pop quiz!!!


Are more punters thinking:

A) "Oh wow, that steam engine is too big",

B) "Oh wow, that steam engine is totally inappropriate for this line",

C) "Oh wow, that steam engine is awesome"

???

 

You do know what an S160 looks like?

S160/42XX = good
Castle = bad

Hate to break it to you but all preserved railways are commercial organisations, if they weren’t there would just be a trackbed.

The incoherence of the argument is such that the cynical might wonder if you were just saying it to get attention.

Yeah, there is a lady who stands outside Warren Street Tube station shouting at passers by and the pigeons who is hoping the same.

Physician, heal thyself

 

or you could have
D) " I would rather be playing minecraft"
E) " i am missing out on my retail therapy"
F) "We're only here because Dad wanted to come "

 

Only up to a point - you can only “ring the changes” if there are locos available for hire, and there isn’t generally an excess of supply over demand at the moment. The trend amongst several major railways seems to be one of consolidating their loco position by acquiring locos, in effect swapping the risk of being caught without a loco to run the service, for the risk of becoming responsible for the long-term maintenance and overhaul costs. Of course, there is not exactly a very liquid market any more, so within reason if a railway wants to acquire a loco, or sign a long-term agreement, you may have to take what is available rather than what is ideal. A Castle has the potential to be an iconic loco for the WSR, which is all good, but I suspect there is also an element of wanting to ensure the long-term continuity of a home fleet and be less reliant on short-term hires or independent loco groups that, as has been seen, can have a falling out with the railway.

Tom

 

Damn ground hogs have learnt to swim the Solent...

 

3

An alternative could be greater use of loco exchanges where railways swap their own locos for a season or two.

 

Can someone ban Tom? He talks far too much sense....The Mid-Hants has certainly pursued a policy of controlling its own loco fleet- not surprising considering the history of the past 25 years or so with fallings out with loco owners. The choice of locos is indeed somewhat a matter of taking what is available, the fleet the MHR will end up with will contain at least 1 loco that, given cold Vulcan logic, would not be on the line...but it is, and will be able to pull passengers on pretty much any train the MHR run, including well loaded beer trains on slippy Autumn evenings. The railway has costs to restore and maintain their locos, but they are quantifiable and predictable to a great degree.

 

Oddly enough I was thinking much the same of you! Time to stop this I think.

You just can't assume that "normals" will share the W.I.B.N. attitudes of gricers. Very likely they won't. They are more likely to be concerned about being able to see out of the window than what is hauling the train and they will come in all sorts. @Jamessquared has got things about right save something designed to run the Cheltenham Flyer or the Bristolian along an easily graded main line hardly seems ideal for 25mph tourist line service to me.

PH

 

Testimony under duress is inadmissible*


*the above advice should not in any way be regarded as qualified.

 

Manners! Of course I know what an S160 is. I have ridden behind one. Just the job for a medium to heavy load over a line with steepish gradients. The WSR could do with one. Despite any W.I. B.N. fantasies flying around, tourist railways do not run the Cheltenham Flyer or the Beistolian.

PH

 

To put it in a nut shell there will be very few preserved railways which operate more than 10% of how the line was run pre preservation days, and most likely none over 25% as engines would have never worked on the line, and in the few lines the big chuffers did work on they would have not done the stopping trains as now, and if been run in on the stopping trains the coaches would most likely been non corridor as well. The coaches are wrong, or in some cases where all the coaches did work on the line in the past they operate coaches now which didn't work at the same times with the oldest ones withdrawn and bodies sold before the later ones came into use on this line, and where these grounded bodies are put back into use again the railways have cheated and used incorrect chassis for them. The speed of the trains are too slow, and the time tables are incorrect as well as there isn't any trains stopping at 7 in the morning or before that at the station. Also far too many people on the stations using the trains as a platform full of people would not have happened other than a couple of days a year say for the Sunday school outing. Shops and food been sold. Goods sheds not been used for moving goods, yes some lines do run goods trains but they don't move any goods as when they did in the past.

If we did run authentic trains including the length of them and shut down the shop/cafe reduced the toilets to what they were and run the Sunday timetables and some lines there wouldn't have been any trains on a Sunday, nearly all of Jo Public wouldn't come and the lines would shut down so remember the railways are just there because of the Jo Public coming to what is a form of a theme park and we have to make it the best for them so they keep coming.

 

Or my wife's (disapproving) comments on a trip to the Bluebell "There are a lot of toy-like locos in funny colours" (somewhat mollified on seeing a "proper" loco, the BR Standard Class 5 in black).

 

Heathen ...

Tom

 

The dog barks (at its own farts) but the caravan moves on.

 

Up to a point, up to a point. To the uninitiated, a large locomotive, especially named, has a charisma; something that other locomotives lack. My unscientific observation is that people do notice that, and it does influence their perception of a day out.

 

Bring out the re education chair, and the loop of the sayings of the Sage ,

 

Manners (x2)