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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    No one is pretending it's anything more than pub-talk though? No one's seriously suggesting it should happen on X date, bring the braziers and the placards.
    The fact that that is the only option anyone can think of, apart from @Steve Edge 's suggestions of writing a polite letter and hoping for a sudden change of mind, merely highlights the bleakness of the situation to me, not that it should be done. I think you're taking things a bit too literally here...
     
  2. jimbrettell

    jimbrettell New Member

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  3. jimbrettell

    jimbrettell New Member

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    Hello again - it's that 'relatively ordinary member of the public' back again some 18 months since my last contribution, but now an active volunteer with a railway heritage outfit up here in Yorkshire and involved in a new project. I'm continuing to learn a lot and like many, I suspect am enjoying things beginning to get back to something like normal as we hopefully emerge from the pandemic. But what do I find re-visiting the sad, sad saga of the WSR? More arguing, point-scoring, recriminating, threats, pleas, etc etc. It just goes on and on and on. The fact of the matter is that an organisation, a 'family' cannot prosper and indeed does not deserve to if it is still indulging in internecine warfare, and that's exactly how it looks to the all important onlookers, the potential travellers, benefactors, funders, investors, legators, volunteers and politicians. I doubt any observer, myself included, is in the slightest bit interested any more as to where the rights and wrongs lie. They just make a mental note, shake head in disbelief and walk away, ever mindful of similar tragic tales from other heritage lines. Gentlemen, and it is invariably men of a certain age and disposition, I remain of the view there is only one way to avoid collapse and ignominy and that is mediation.
     
  4. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    I suspect that WSR volunteers, having some idea how things are presently, are more concerned with 'getting on with the job' than concerning themselves with railway politics. Maybe that is for the future.
     
  5. Lineisclear

    Lineisclear Member

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    Quite agree! One underlying cause is that , unless they are PLC shareholders, volunteers are not members of the body that owns and operates the railway they support. Such membership would normally provide a safety valve. In its absence pressure can rise to dangerous levels.
     
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  6. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    And I agree with that! Shall we call it a day while the going is good? :D
     
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  7. Lenny

    Lenny New Member

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    Could someone not start a petition on change.org website just to test the waters?
     
  8. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    They could, but I suspect that would be far too ostentatious. Quiet words between individuals behind mess room doors would I imagine be the order of the day.
     
  9. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    #1 - No. bit of a chicken and egg but why would I offer to help an organisation that has dealt so badly with good friends of mine
    #2 - you seem to have me down as de facto leader of a rebellion . Whilst I am flattered by the illusion I was merely outlining a scenario that were it to be adopted could be a solution . The drive for change needs to come from within and no , I do not command any number of volunteers

    so since I have given an answer can you come up with a better way
     
  10. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

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    But surely, even Plc shareholders do not 'own' the railway, the SCC does?
    And hence, perhaps, by derivation the good tax-payers of Somerset.
     
  11. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    There was no advantage to surprise and I would have thought that was pretty obvious from the word "go".
     
  12. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    with the perilous state as minuted , I'd maybe suggest that they may wish to focus a little harder otherwise they may have a lot more time on their hands . perhaps a llangollen volunteer could share what not having a railway is like
     
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  13. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

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    And what would that have achieved? Two very frustrated folk who resigned during their first year, no doubt.

    I have been providing my labour elsewhere today - here's a clue - and have come to this thread in the cool of the evening. and what a maelstrom!

    The currect WSR position is, to my certain knowledge, heamoraging support for the Railway. A senior BR ex-collegue of mine retired early this year and rang me to say that whilst they had heard everything I was saying to try to persuade them to (early) retire to West Somerset, the S&DRT debacle means that they are in the process of buying a house alongside another heritage railway who are likely, next year to have a modest personage (and their partner) both of vast railway operational and business experience, volunteering for them.

    But crack on, the current regime may indeed hold a sacred flame that I cannot see.

    Robin

    979EF8FB-BEAD-4EA0-A064-F7F4EDB3CD32.jpeg
     
  14. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    One would hope not. Rome wasn't built in a day. It would have meant that, by the next AGM, there would be two reformists already elected and two who, unless they had been sent to Coventry for an entire year, and I don't think even the trustees of the WSRHT are quite as petty as that, had spent that year talking to the other trustees and, with luck doing a little preparation of the ground. Better to be inside the tent p*ssing out than outside p*ssing in.
    My father compared such situations to trying to move a huge ball of dough. If you attack it with great vigour, all that happens is that you get stuck in it and frustrated. If, however, you keep giving it little nudges, after a bit you will find that it's all dented in one side and bulged out the other and has begun to move.
     
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  15. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately, "as little as possible time" turned out to be ample time, something else that should have been forseen.
    It is not the reaction from the Plc and their supporters that might have been different if the candidates had played their cards differently, it is the reaction of the WSSRT members when they came to vote.
     
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  16. Lineisclear

    Lineisclear Member

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    Fair point but it depends how you interpret "railway". I think most people assume it's more than the residual freehold interest in the trackbed which I believe is all the SCC can definitely lay claim to. I understand it may be that SCC also leased the original track to the PLC but how that works in respect of ownership of its replacement over the years seems raises some interesting questions.
     
  17. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    I am not sure that such drastic action would be necessary. All it would take would be enough key volunteers (signallers, drivers and the like) to announce their candidature for directorship of the Plc board or trusteeship on the WSHRT and the Plc board would be faced with either dismissing them and causing the railway to grind to a halt, giving them hell so that they left with the same result, or gritting their teeth and letting them run for election.
     
  18. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    Genius , love that one . best suggestion in the last 2000 pages
     
  19. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

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    You are quite right, of course.

    Silly of us not to predict the WSSRT 'Trustees' would act outside their own articles or the Railway's policies on the use of social media. Playing by the rules is a bit old-fashioned in Brexit Britain.

    But over to you for the next move?

    Robin
     
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  20. 62440

    62440 New Member

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    I believe (someone correct me if wrong) that the voting by the Trust membership was, in round numbers, 150 to 50 against the “10”, so a decisive, even heavy, defeat.

    In the outside world, that would make the losing protagonists ask themselves what might they have done wrong. Not much evidence of that on here!
     

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