West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Who will be providing the buses.............

 

Apologies if I've missed something here, but what was ORR's final verdict, and what is the extent of the remedial work required?

 

It's fantastic news that the WSR is to reopen but I was under the impression that the WSR made the decision to close the railway and not by the order of the ORR.

''The ORR inspectors were very impressed by all of the massive progress across the board that we have made during a relatively short period, and I'm delighted they gave us a clean bill of health to re-open this coming weekend''.

 

A little snippet from something that did make it into the public domain, how 'long standing' and how 'urgent' one wonders. But it does give an idea on the amount of time that it would take to generate the required paper trail for more than 200 job sheets

 

At Swanage we recently had an all grades MIC with guest speakers from amongst others the ORR and RSSB.

Forgive my paraphrasing but one of the messages clearly delivered from the regulator was that it's not enough to say you are up to standard or even be up to standard, you now have to prove you are up to standard.

They also said that the Heritage railway sector has been recognised as needing more oversight and has been allocated more ORR inspector resource so we can expect to see more of each other going forward.

Nobody likes paperwork but its an unfortunate fact of the regulatory environment that we need paperwork.

Its also worth pointing out that although we all know that a Railway can be a dangerous environment a full derailment at line speed has the potential to cause a level of havoc not so far experienced in the sector. The P-way is therefore increasingly a focus area.

BTW another snippet from the excellent presentations that I liked was the assessment that Heritage railways are offering;
"A 1950's (insert appropriate decade) experience with 2020s standards of service and safety"

@granmaree I'm not sure what point the author of the attachment is trying to make by comparing 6 man days of BR trackmen with 100 man days of volunteer effort? Is there any more context here?

 

Well you've just given me an idea for my ones next year. We hold them annually and this would make it really different!

 

I've noticed that the WSR plc website has a 'Stakeholders News' column, but on opening it I saw the latest item was 30th November last. Although only a small shareholder and not wanting to moan, I do feel a bit out of the loop, not having been able to attend the meeting on 2nd March.

 

The thing is about paperwork is that once you've got the system set up and running, then it takes very little effort to keep it going to the required standard - so long as you stick to a routine.

 

The SVR has just announced the award of an £850+K award for the repair of Falling Sands viaduct, showing once again how badly the WSR are missing out by continuing with their current corporate structure, which would appear to preclude the opportunity of applying to HLF. Perhaps they should note what I understand the South Devon Railway are doing prior to starting to fundraise for further developments at Ashburton. (the Company being converted to a society registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014)

 

I read the image attached by @granmaree as suggesting that the paper trail for the class 115 DMU should have been 6 days work following the BR manual, but that it took 100 because the preparation of the paper trail identified so many issues. The point seems to be about the cost of not doing it by the book, and not specifically about the track issues.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I am not sure what is happening at Ashburton, No recent facts on the SDR web site - what is there is nearly five years old and is now outdated by events as far as I understand.. Developers have been granted permissions for the old Ashburton site, but that may not include retention of buildings. I believe the famous overall roof is not affected.
The friends suggest a heritage style centre but I thought there was already one at Buckfastleigh? Does the line need two?
Whilst plans of the railway returning - if ever - would be very many years distant, the people of Ashburton I know want progress now, not a hope of something way off in time.

 

The grant has been awarded to the Severn Valley Railway Charitable Trust

 

Err, shouldn't this be in the South Devon Railway thread?

 

It should but the initial comment is in this one. This thread is notable for thread drift and detraction; it eases the pain many on the WSR feel with some posts.

 

Positive WSR news on the wsr.org site

WSR hosts Royal Train for overnight stay

 

People often comment on the complexity of the WSR organisation but if anything the SVR is more complex - there is the PLC who operate the line, the Guarantee Company which is the membership organisation, and the Charitable Trust which is, well, the charity part of things, with a fundraising and educational remit.

The Falling Sands grant was to the Charitable Trust and part of it is for community education, but its primary purpose is to fund repairs to the PLC-owned viaduct.

 

The difference is though, that the 3 SVR organisations are mutually supportive rather than mutually antagonistic.

 

If anyone was hoping that the following charter train would still be running:

''Mendip Goods” – West Somerset Railway.
Friday, 12th April 2019
BR Black Somerset & Dorset 7F 2-8-0 No. 53808 with mixed goods train.

''CANCELLED – due to operational difficulties at WSR''.

<BJ>

 

The equivalent WSR organisations are now supportive and working in unison for the overall good of the railway as is being currently demonstrated.

 

Missed a trick there. Her Majesty could have been asked to re-open the line whilst she was down Somerset way.