West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Try travelling with small children. And on a line the length of the WSR, especially with the quality of facilities at BL, I’d say they’re essential.


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It's another reason for moderation in journey length. Ten or a dozen miles at 25m.p.h. ought to be sufficient for anyone.

 

the problem though Paul is that not every line falls into the 10-12 mile length, take the NYMR for example, what part do you not run? you can't you have to provide a service to both ends, otherwise the public, will just go elsewhere

 

Minehead to Watchet

 

Beware of the old "more is better" and "public transport function" arguments beloved of gricers. Most people travel as an entertainment and little more. It will be interesting to see what lessons are learned as a result of the pandemic.

The N.Y,M,R, is unusual as there is no location part way along which would commend itself as a terminus.

 

They should wear whatever the local risk assessment for the Works says they should wear... and I wonder just how few railways have any details in their Safe Systems of Work in a section marked "Hand weeding of the trackbed"?

In my experience trackbed materials were all considered to be contaminated waste. Whether that was contaminated by lubricating oils, fuel oils, ash, asbestos, human 'deposits' or whatever so this should have been part of the local risk assessment. (Would be interesting to know if this is still the case as, if it is, Norton should be registered as a waste transfer station and processing site...)

This is practical Health & Safety (i.e. The stuff that's actually useful), not the sort you so often see where someone is sat in a remote office spouting generic regulations from a book. One disappointing item, easily seen in some of the photographs, was the fact that the volunteers had to provide their own kneeling pads or other knee protection. They may be volunteers but they are working on the WSR and it is the WSR Plc who is responsible for their H&S and for supplying them with the correct and sufficient PPE to carry out the Works - so if the track is contaminated then the contaminated PPE (e.g. kneeling pads) stays on the railway and does not get taken back to individual homes.

Now I wonder just how many vacant looks I got when I said "...local risk assessment..."?

Just because the railway is not running it does not mean that all other legal or mandatory requirements have also been shut down.

P.S. And amazingly, this is written by an engineer not a H&S jobsworth. Yes, I'm finally admitting that some of it, sometimes, is actually worth the paper it's written on...

 

Let it lie, Paul. There are good reasons on the NYMR, as the WSR, to travel the longer distances that have nothing to do with the ability to position the termini at an “optimum” distance. And on my trips to both, I’ve never noticed the length of trip as a deterrent to visiting for a day out.

This has nothing to do with a “longer is better” ethos; I can love both Minute Waltz and Ring Cycle, and appreciate both fully.


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The buck has to stop with someone. Presumably whoever is in charge of the weeding gang has considered the H&S of his workers - paid or volunteer.

 

I'm sue the circles we're going round in are getting ever smaller, either that or we're going round them increasingly faster...

 

Well Rossini said something to the effect that the Ring cycle had exhilarating moments but interminable half hours. I know enthusiasts who consider both the N.Y.M.R. and W.S.R. have their share of "interminable". I could name another couple that qualify as well.

 

So females look down to the floor as well, i thought it was just men.

 

Paul - everyone is not the same. I find football pretty dull, but it doesn’t alter the fact that millions of people pay good money to watch it, either in person or on TV. Railway travel is the same: every visitor will have different things they wish to get out of a day.

The longer lines undoubtedly have issues with higher operating cost that can only be partly offset by increased carrying capacity and fares. But that doesn’t make them invalid as attractions: the fact that you may not like a journey of more than a few minutes at a time doesn’t mean that the same is inevitably true for everyone else.

There have been comparisons on the thread to the Severn Valley, a line of 16 miles length. That line is seemingly very successful in comparison to the WSR, which can’t be in relation to length. Perhaps it is in the quality of management and direction over the years, but I think a major factor behind most successful lines is an active and engaged membership body, which acts a source of volunteers, finance, ideas, scrutiny, promotion (marketing) and so on. The weakness of the WSR over a long period (more than just the last two years) I would suggest lies in having a (for the size of line) relatively small membership association, coupled with a structure that seems not to understand why it even has such a body at all. If the members aren’t fully engaged in the running of the railway, it maybe shouldn’t be a major surprise when they aren’t fully engaged in helping out in its hour of need.

Tom

 

They do. But not so long as to be that major a deterrent for tourists, while there’s many with a taste for more than a 3 minute single.


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I agree utterly about football, quite apart from its tribalistic overtones. It is not such a simple matter as length of journey as such. For example, a 1 hour trip on the F.R. is splendid, whereas a similar journey on a nameless standard gauge line cannot end quick enough to me.

 

And I know plenty of people who think the IoW is too short. Different people have different opinions, there is no universal right answer. In any case, even with the "optimal length" of 10-12 miles you quoted earlier, toilets are still highly desirable IMO as a TTI, and in the opinion of virtually everyone on NatPres who's posted on the matter who have children.

 

Can you not see how that is entirely your personal preference though?

 

All this discussion about length and how long they go for.

Waits for someone to announce they can do a dozen round trips a day.

 

Of course but not "just" mine.

 

No, but rarely are others posted in quite such absolutist fashion


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