West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Don't tempt fate @Sidmouth!

 

i dont really go with the Forth Bridge analogy. if we had just one person weeding, then it would take years and never get done. If a million people turned up and each one pulled one weed, then the whole line could be done in a few seconds. Clearly there is a happy medium! Break the line into half mile sections (say 40 of those given that the stations are done) and allocate 10 people to each section, then its all done in a day. Just need to find 400 volunteers available on one day to do it and someone to organise them. The people are out there, they just need to know we need them and to be available....
Ian Coleby

 

Go back to end of January, and you find that the thread went silent for over a week!

https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/west-somerset-railway-operations.508987/page-1157

 

IIRC, the press release alluded to taking a paid job which in the current climate was an understandable move, a rare opportunity etc. etc. ? Perhaps it should have read "has gone to work for another steam railway".

 

I doubt whether many have seen this, but inside the local rag today the West Somerset Free Press are reporting that Airbnb is ranking Minehead 3rd in its top 10 trending UK resorts right now. Beaten only by Colwyn Bay and Bridlington in the Airbnb rankings, it looks as if the surge in staycationers explains just why the town is so packed at the moment. A further lost opportunity for WSR if the living museum events are not repeated might be the fact that Airbnb is commissioning a series of online postcards reflecting the popularity of these `new' resorts. Strongly doubt that there will be steam train on the Minehead version, but I do hope I`m wrong.

 

If the WSR had gone along a 'Forth Bridge' approach then maybe the infrastructure would not have deteriorated to the extent it seems to have done and there would not have been a need for the ORR to have concerns over it or an appeal to help put it back into decent shape.

 

With continental holidays now being just to risky, not to mention the additional 14 days quarantine, people will be choosing to stay in the uk, Most of the railways that are open, with suitable distancing, should hopefully do ok, as holiday destinations become more popular, and people want to have some enjoyment, The WSR, stands to lose money it can't afford to lose if it still decides it can't run anything this side of christmas .
Would a shuttle from BL To BA with a bus link to minehead, might be an option?

 

Indeed, far too late to be starting planning anything for the summer now. Earliest you could probably hope for would be October, at which point it's probably not worth it, so then Christmas.

 

I'm assuming it was written by somebody who hasn't been to Colwyn Bay then?!

 

Huge numbers of people are going on holiday in the UK this year instead of foreign holidays, so railways in tourist areas in particular are crazy if they don't open in what is peak season with great weather.
The WSR should assess the minimum required to get trains running again and then come up with a plan to get it done asap. Even things like weeding can be done after you open.

If you don't set a date for everyone to work towards then there is no urgency with anything. What is to stop them saying, right we will open 3 or 4 weeks from now and then that sets a deadline to get everything ready. If staff/volunteers know that xxx has to be finished by the end of the week they will work towards that but with no deadline it wont happen. Even if they just ran over part of the line to begin with then that would be a start.

 

How interesting, so do we know if there are to be any more 'open weekends' or are we going to ignore this opportunity?

 

This was indeed how it worked back in '76

 

As I have said previously friends of mine who worked on the main line were extremely complimentary about the permanent way, but sadly it was back in the early 2000's and it was not sustained (maintained)!

 

A friend has just returned from his second home near Alicante and he and his wife had to wear masks for 9 hours continuously - something no one would want to do for their holidays - I have trouble wearing one for the ten minutes I spend in the shops!

 

I agree, they should have done, but it's too late now. I fear you underestimate how long it takes for these things to be arranged, at best if you worked flat out I suspect you'd be well into September if you started planning now, at which point it's too late. Remember plenty of the WSR staff are still on furlough, I don't know how many of those might ordinarily be involved in making such arrangements.

In other news, remember that survey about the WSR re-opening? On the now closed Facebook group there was this from the chairman: "Today I signed off the PO for the results and to help regular questionnaire campaigns so we can learn more as we go on, we have been overwhelmed by the numbers that took part."

PO - Purchase order? They paid for that survey!? (Happy to be corrected if I misinterpreted that!) And they plan to have more. To what end? They've already decided that there won't be any running until Christmas at the earliest, at which point who knows what the situation will be, so surveys don't seem terribly helpful for that unknown. I'm really struggling to understand the board's strategy here, if indeed it has one. It feels a bit like trying to sustain jam tomorrow indefinitely to me.

PS - I only quote from that private Facebook group as it is an officer of the railway, not a private individual. Just because it is now "closed" does not make it "private", it is still open to any member of the public who cares to join.

 

Apparently 'yes', but as the info came out via HOPS I'm not going to say any more here in case it upsets someone in MD Towers

 

But has the WSR like the Gloucester Warwicks maintained close contact with its volunteers.

Does it even know how many it has left?

 

Remember it well John with trying not to set light to the banks on the way to Blue Anchor with dear old Victor!!

 

If the survey cost who benefited from it?