West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Was I the only WSR plc shareholder to read the 'IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR SHAREHOLDERS' letter posted to shareholders during May 2019?

The letter in question notified postponement of the 2019 AGM until 21st September and had 2019 Travel Vouchers enclosed. The third paragraph was headed in bold capitals E-MAIL ADDRESSES and conveyed this message:

The PLC would very much like to forward information and literature to you by electronic mail. This will enable the PLC to communicate more efficiently and save costs.

If you would like to receive communication by-e-mail please could you e-mail your email address to the Share Registrar at (share registrar's email address) stating that you are a Shareholder.

I didn't realise there was only one copy of this letter and that I was supposed to forward it to the next shareholder!

 

I really want to be positive and to that end I have used the shuttle on two of the three weekends it has run and intend to do so again but there is a problem. Travelling Minehead to Taunton return it's Hobson's choice. 10.05 from Minehead returning at 15.37 from Taunton to catch the 16.20 from BL. On both occasions the 16.20 has been held over at Williton for half an hour sitting in the station doing diddly squat waiting for an up train and a charter to pass. Even allowing for some remarkably keen 25mph running after Williton this still means an arrival at Minehead of 18.30. Almost 3 hours after leaving Taunton, an average speed of less than 9 mph. Incidentally, on neither occasion were we as passengers pre-warned of the known delay, on the first occasion we were advised on arrival at Williton that we could get out because we were going to be here for some time and today we got the same message having already sat there for a quarter of an hour. If the shuttle is to work, and I really want it to, this conflict needs sorting.

 

Me next please, Barrie!

Is there any reason not to publish the Share Registrar's email address? It's nowhere on the Plc website as far as I can tell.

Edited later to add: It just occurred to me that the PLC must already have a ton of email addresses, subscribers to the Online newsletter which, admittedly, has not been published for a long while. I also note that the web site facility to change My Preferences appears not to be working.

 

It's safety coal, reduces the risk of fire.


Chris

 

(Professional hat on) That does sound like a rather poorly-designed plan. There's nothing to stop Mr Bob Malicious, who hears about this scheme (because it's been posted here) emailing the PLC and saying "Hi there, I'm Alice Shareholder, this is my email address." If Alice never emails the PLC won't know that Bob has hijacked her communications channel.

Far more sensible to distribute forms, and say "fill your email address in here and post it back to us." It doesn't take much to think this sort of thing through properly.

 

I had a great day out today; the shuttle from Taunton worked well (10.28 from Taunton, and 16.09 back from BL), with good connections to and from MD. The shuttle trains weren't full, but had a decent number of pax, similarly the steam trains that my friend and I rode. We came back to BL to see the Duchess arrive, and ended the day having had haulage by 7752, dmu, 7822 and 7828 in that order. Swapping trains at BA and WN was easy and stress-free. All in all, a great railway and well worth saving. The day ended with some swift purchases in the WSRA shop at BL, where there were some great bargains.

 

Which is why I didn't publish the specific and dedicated reply address, as it is already available to shareholders and not published elsewhere.

 

Thanks. That's re-assuring!
Robin L.

 

I do NOT recall receiving that Communication and it was stated at the EGM the AGM will now be held in December.

 

This certainly gives a very good impression of a quality heritage railway.....long may it continue!

 

As with any organisation it is up to the individual to ensure that the organisation has their up to date contact details on file. This is not something unique to the WSR. if you hold share in ANY company it is your responsibility to notify the registrar of your contact details. I suspect the problem is that because the WSR shares are in effect a gift of money then people sometimes forget that this needs to happen.
Of course if the railway had a single supporters database then it would make the task far less difficult as one e-mail would take care of everything. (... and yes we are working on it but it's not high on the list of things to do at the moment.)

 

They are not close enough to be a problem, an illusion by the camera ......

 

And, of course, the grid power supplier in that area has been and inspected to check for minimum clearance above the rail head for whatever voltage the power lines are carrying and they will have complied with their statutory duty of installing information signage under the power lines which will give the maximum safe working height under the power lines for any crane (or Hiab) working. So there is no guesswork... if it's been done...

 

Until some moron of a photographer who does not like bright shiny signs messing up their shot takes a swing at it and breaks it off.
This is from seeing it happen.

 

The power line in question is judging by its construction, will be owned by National Gri.d, probably 400kV .There sre defined clearances under overhead lines . The clearance height is temperature and load dependant. In normal operation a supergrid power line will probably be carying 50 to 60% of full load so there is capacityshould a fault occur. When called to carry full load the temperature of the conducttors may reach as high as 70deg C and the conductors will expand and sag.Astatistical calcculation is done so that there is little likelyhood of statuttory clearances being infringed at full load in average air temperature.

 

Love it when WSR run trains with headboards

 

And no CO2, either!

Noel

 

Robin.
No such luck. They would just select another unfortunate recipient for their expert knowledge and advice. But miracles do happen, and they might be so lost with nothing to do that they might go off and actually help to manage a railway somewhere.
Bob

 

At last. The real West Somerset, not the Nat Pres version of it?

 

Nowt new there folks. The Swiss were at it 75 years ago.

(Image from reddit.com)