West Somerset Railway General Discussion

It would be interesting to know what involvement the Acting Chairman of the WSHRT had in the review process, given his obvious conflict of interest and the risk of both perceived and actual prejudice that would be associated.

 

Precisely why I ask the question. Fairness matters; when a director of the company that is responsible for addressing the complaint is also the complainant, acting in his capacity as Acting Chair of another organisation, questions of fairness become paramount.

I prefer my kangaroo rare, as steak; not as a court.

 

Playing Devil's Advocate here...

As you say, none of the above constitutes anything other than democracy at work.

It might therefore reasonably be assumed by some that the parties involved also engaged in some extremely dubious practices in connection with the electioneering.

Maybe bribing or threatening potential voters?

Now let me be clear. I don't for one moment think any of the above is even remotely likely. What troubles me is that the actions instigated by the Trust or taken by the plc leave questions like this open and many folk will add two and two and arrive at five. Yet another example of what is wrong in deepest Somerset.

 

Strangely enough, RSP Rail have left the 'leave it in our yard for two plus years for no very good reason' stage out of their account...

Can't imagine why.

Robin

 

Everybody can see the post. Just cause it's on facebook doesn't mean those without an account cannot see it.

 

Who cares if 53808 can do it on it's own or not. So could 6960 or 3850. That was not the point of the post. The point was some people thought no way could the WSR have 100% loco availability. Proved the doubters wrong yet again.

 

Well the PLC should care. Why steam 2 locos when you could steam one? Especially when you have the begging bowl out, looking for £1m+
It makes no sense to get rid of your most useful loco and have to pay for 2 to replace it.

 

What I am struggling to understand at the moment is how the wider preservation movement view the WSR. If certain contributers on NP are to be believed then they are certainly persona non grata but then I see details of an incoming special this weekend - although I don't know how well the tickets have sold - and plenty of contract work (from e.g. Pontypool and Blaenarven, Bodmin and Wenford and the Great Western Society) - even Tornado was briefly in the platform at Bishops Lydeard last week.

I guess that all of this is contributing much needed revenue to the WSR funds and presumably all of the above could have chosen to take their business elsewhere - but they didn't. Hence my confusion.

 

The two states of affairs aren't mutually incompatible. Virtually everyone in the movement knows that the WSR is in a bit of a mess. Most people can work out that it's mired in internal politics, even if they don't have the first idea what the issues are, who the personalities are, or what side they might support. But equally, there's not a huge choice in contractors for that kind of thing, and if those railways reckoned they got a good deal, can they really afford to "take the moral high ground" even if they know what it is? You'd have to be a lot closer to what was going on, following this thread for example, to be outraged enough such that you'd consider taking your business elsewhere I'd suggest. But that doesn't mean the WSR doesn't have a poor reputation right now.

And for what it's worth, everyone I've spoken to who is vaguely aware thinks it's a crying shame that it's going the way it is, and often remark that volunteers on the ground were still perfectly friendly etc. if they visited recently.

 

In some ways this is one of the ironies. Whereas LLR got in trouble because of the quality of the work done by the engineering side, the WSR is well known for the quality of its engineering work, however, there are major doubts about the quality of the railway's senior management.

And so it goes, just as I wouldn't have sent an engine to LLR engineering under the old management because I wouldn't trust they will do a good job, I wouldn't give the current WSR management a donation because I don't trust they will do a good job with the money. Not donating money to be spent on using HR consultants to harass volunteers etc

 

More efficient for a railway struggling for funds.
To use one loco not two, you would have thought.

 

Which reminds me of the late (unlamented?) Dan Air. Rubbish airline, but a first rate workshop at Lasham, which outlasted its parent by several years. Indeed, I once knew an apprentice there, who got an interview at Hurn (and the job) purely because he served his time there.
Pat

 

For clarity tomorrows through working requires two locos for operational reasons. Double headed 78xx locos might be attractive to some?

 

What, worse than the present chaos?

 

You mean like the operational reasons that forced an S&D 2-8-0 off the railway that could have handled it easily.

Operational reasons....
Mean there's two manors let's show off....

 

May I recommend wsr.org.uk - over 2000 people open its home page each day. They will have seen on 7 July a news item covering the RSP online article complete with link. If folks here are desperate for "actual news about the crossing works", or a ton of other stuff about the WSR, just add wsr.org.uk to their bookmarks. Just do it. Hope this helps.

Steve
wsr.org.uk

 

Perhaps they wanted to wait until it had that special 'heritage' weathered look?

And something for all the S&T world out there. Re-signalling Dartford to 3/4 aspect coloured light signals in 1970. It's a fraction under an hour long but worth the effort I think for all the horrendous manual handling, navvies with what looks like 2nd degree sunburn on their backs and much much more! If you can spare the time have a look and try not to cringe or say Whaaat???? too often.

 

Apologies Steve, didn't realise you already had this.
Must try to do better.