West Somerset Railway General Discussion

The fact that whether a planning permission is Plc or WSRA is still an issue shows how little progress has been made towards "one railway".

 

It only seems an issue here - not in the real world.

 

Fair enough, I suspect like a lot of things! But as I've said before, perception plays a big part in all this.

 

a marketing professor of mine was fond of saying "perception is reality" and whilst the audience in here may be small, a number of contributors (even dyed in the wool supporters) have by their comments damaged that perception to at least some of us.

 

Absolutely, and you say the audience is small, but we all know a certain magazine whose journalists are known to browse here for stories.

 

Unfortunately for the WSR, especially in recent years, the perception given to audiences in fora and newsprint has been of a damaging nature.
However, most of it was self inflicted and the real world (beyond the magical 200 miles ) has formed its own opinion.

 

This application was NOT made by the WSRA.

Robin

 

Didn't the Minehead rail link people publish something suggesting that if the Minehead branch became part of the national network again, supermarket stocks could come in by containerised rail?

Whether they had asked any supermarkets for an opinion on this seems ... unlikely

 

Thanks for the confirmation.

 

If one person is suitably qualified, competent and able to do both jobs I can't see any reason why not. Thee's plenty of multi-tasking goes on in the world and the WSR isn't exactly a large organisation.

 

Unfortunately the person who set up the page on the planning website has got that bit wrong. It's clear when looking at the attached forms that the application has been made by the PLC.

 

Given the confusion between the various bodies it is little wonder they got it wrong. For the PLC to have a shop and cafe at each end makes sense, stock can be shared reducing overhead. Hopefully they will have Miles Coffee as at the Turntable.

 

Just so long as we don't see a 'heritage' Costa (fortune) Coffee...

 

That comment is very dated. The armchair voyeurs who for whatever reasons of their own continue to find it necessary to visit & comment on this thread have clearly got little idea of just how much progress towards "one railway" has already been made & is continuing.

 

Building on the point I made just a few hours ago. I'm sure I will be told that if I actually visit the railway I will learn this isn't the case. Well, if I'm visiting the railway as a member of the public, I don't expect to hear anything about politics or such, good or bad. I visited a couple of times when everyone agreed there were definitely real problems, but on the surface the railway thankfully carried on and I had a couple of great visits. So my and others' who aren't actually volunteers or closely associated with the railway perception of the behind the scenes politics, even if we visit say once a year, will still be largely based on what is said here.

 

Maybe it is, maybe it is not.
For some while now (anyone with time on their hands could trawl through this and other WSR threads to verify) we have been told how much has been achieved and how rosy it all was in West Somerset. Recent events cause many to question those comments. I believe the struggle to raise funds for some appeals reflect this very well. The only speedy success was the ill fated 4110 Group appeal.

 

I've been thinking about this particular change a bit, purely because it's relevant to my particular interests. The only thing I can conclude is: as outsiders, we cannot see what the original issue was.

Clearly, the ORR made a criticism, and the WSR's response was to split a role and promote an existing signalling inspector into the new role. However, from the outside, we don't know what the criticism was. Maybe it was that that role should be split; more likely, there was some other underlying issue highlighted and the railway felt that a structural change was the best first step towards addressing it, with a new post-holder having a new mandate.

It's true that on the face of it the WSR is not a large organisation. However, I would have thought there would be 50+ signalmen and 50+ guards on the books - keeping track of the staff records and training needs of that many people is not exactly a trivial job.

 

I do think it was old man Steptoe referring to his WW1 experiences .

 

Probably right but could also be based on the real thing.

 

It is believed to have been used in a letter from the front during the Crimean war. Similar phrases go back many years quoting lions, deer and sheep. Google is your friend.