West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Did you regard the comment I was answering to be a balanced one?

 

Nobody is suggesting censorship, but we are presumably all here because we like railways, most of us with a preference for steam. While constructive criticism has a place, let's try to accentuate the positive because there is a lot of that on the WSR. The WSR has gone through crises before, but has fought back, and is well worth saving.

 

If you are classifying me as a voyeur from far away, please go ahead. But I don’t wish to knock a railway I am very fond of. But when the reaction is to bristle, I may just be tempted to observe how it looks from outside.


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Partially, but still you are focused on keeping only WSR members allowed to comment.
In this day and age comments will come from everywhere and you will have to accept that fact, whether you approve or not.
It is a reality of the world we live in.

Any comments I make are not for slagging off other railways, but are generally about things that interest me as an outsider or as an interested party.

 

Absolutely - but you may or may not agree with me that unless comment is reasonably well thought out and therefore hopefully rather balanced then these threads become frankly worthless. I could list quite a number of folk associated with the two railways on which I volunteer who no longer look at Nat Pres because they now see it as worse than time wasting.

 

I think the words, physician arise and heal thyself are highly appropriate here. You manage to miss the point spectacularly. What are YOU doing? Here's what YOU are doing. When someone challenges the WSR about the way in which the WSR to a potential volunteer is seen you attack the observer. Which is neither pleasant nor sensible.

And guess what, I would have every reason to want to volunteer at the WSR, but when I see the attitudes of those involved in the WSR, I think - not worth my while. Far from actually encouraging those on the sidelines to get involved, those involved with the WSR do an excellent job of shooting themselves in the foot and putting people off.

BTW All that rank pulling really is a bit pointless and not very impressive.

But there you go, you make the choice as to how you engage with those on the sidelines and you take the consequences of your actions. Anyway, I've said what I wanted to say, and I hope that one day things change and the WSR will become a line where I'd like to volunteer. But at the moment it isn't.

 

I’m not a WSR member or volunteer, but this thread always seems to be compulsive viewing, partly because it always seems to be at re top of this sub-folder.

The issues that are aired on this thread are relevant to many more heritage railways than you might think. Matters of finance, locos,passenger numbers and internal politics are present on many railways to a degree, it is how these issues are managed and controlled that determine how successful a railway can be. I agree the WSR issues have been publically aired (and not just on this forum), note even ORR have mentioned the WSR as a case in point to all heritage railways.

The current situation of the WSR is a lesson to us all, from that point view this thread can be seen in an entirely posative light. All power to the WSR for recognising the need for change and taking action.

 

It is about time the mods introduced a dislike button on this board. A lack of likes doesn't tell us enough.

 

I have just seen a maroon coach in the train just arriving at Blue Anchor and it was not a buffet. Is this a second maroon coach in traffic?

 

That is simply your loss.

 

I spent quite a while on a now-defunct site related to my locale of origin. It had such a feature (effectively, one could add or subtract from the 'like' count), and IMO it was not healthy, and IMO the single worst feature of the site. (Admittedly, the fact that dis-likes were anonymous probably made it worse; it led nasty disputes of the form 'Why did you dis-like me? Whoa, it wasn't me!') If you think this thread is full of negativity now...

If you don't like a post, just make one of your own saying so. That would also address one of my complaints about the 'negative' button; it gave one no information at all about why someone had a problem with one's post. It's hard to change one's posting style to be less problematic when one has no idea what aspect people don't like.

Noel

 

On the more positive side:

 

The maroon buffet is a converted TSO so it is probably that vehicle (4247?)

 

My mistake, a glint hid "buffet".

From WSR.org, courtesy Webcams, a moment ago, "buffet" visible live.

 

I hesitate to step into this quagmire, but speaking as someone who really has no dog in this fight and lives a long way away, but just spends a lot of time reading about and travelling on heritage railways and wants them *all* to succeed, I feel like I need to urgently make a couple of trips on the WSR in 2019 because I'm not confident it will still be running in 2020 the way things are going, not even specifically due to the recent issues, but mainly because the overall financial situation combined with the other issues may not be sustainable . I really hope I'm wrong, but this thread gives me a very bad feeling.

I hope I won't get flamed for this; I'm just trying to express an (outsider) opinion which *might* be representative of *some* non-local HR aficionados. And as I say I'm going to contribute to the railway when I can in the hope that it will help, but with the fear that it might be my last chance. This thread may well be very unrepresentative of the true situation, so apologies in advance if I'm not getting it.

I really don't want to be negative; I'm posting more in hope (that someone who sees this post might be influenced) than despair.

 

Silly question maybe but isn't the railway insured against this kind of thing happening?

 

My y but a big cxcess.

 

Family moved to SW England a couple of years ago, I went to visit them and paid a visit to the WSR, it was that good I went again with parents and family. I must add they are non-enthusiasts and enjoyed it so much they plan to visit again this year as do I.

As mentioned I have not been active on this forum long but the WSR is always at the top and has so many pages its unbelievable, it is clear there are some real in-house politics amongst enthusiasts/members regarding the line - behind all that I found it truly splendid.

A plan to visit the North Yorkshire Moors, which if you include running to Whitby is longer than the WSR, and am interested to see how it compares....

Other lines I have visited include:

East Lancs Railway
Lakside and Haverthwaite Railway
Mid Hants 'Watercress' line

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway

 

I'm afraid that this post just serves to highlight the problem but not in the way you intend. It seems obvious to me that you have your head buried in the sand with regard to the scale of the problems facing the WSR and you are/were not alone in this respect, which is why there has had to be the sea-change that is happening.

 

I've no knowledge of what the railway's insurance policies cover, or under what circumstances the insurer would pay out.
But are you suggesting that the railway should have just claimed on the insurance and not asked its supporters for help?
The speed with which the appeal total was achieved and exceeded suggests that the railway's supporters were very willing to contribute, potential insurance claim or no insurance claim.