West Somerset Railway General Discussion

If there is some spare money to spend that’s not been needed then a good ide would be to put up some great western things at Norton fizwarren as in a signal box and station buildings as because at the moment it doesn’t look that great a station. Building up on another idea of mine is an area where goods trains could be unloaded as a demonstrations

 

Spare money that’s not needed?

 

Because at the moment it is NOT a station, simply a platform which is used on odd occasions.
With no road access, and no passenger trains passing on a regular basis, who would see such items anyway?

 

The best unloading demonstration I have witnessed was from a passenger train at a passenger station during a weekend event. The train arrived, the Guard opened the door of the luggage compartment, picked up a sealed cardboard box that was plastered all over with "fragile" labels on all surfaces, and when it was safe to do so, threw the box onto the platform shouting to alert a porter that there is a package on the platform needing his attention. The box was empty, apart from a quantity of cutlery loaned from the catering dept.

It went down extremely well with all the nearby visitors, both young and old. And to us old-timers, it brought back memories of rail travel by British Railways back in the 1950s/1960s!

 

There was a lot of parcel throwing/moving!! at the recent "Railways at work" event on the GCR recently - some videos on-line. Have there been any demonstration goods trains scheduled to run on the WSR recently?

 

There's been a few real ones...

Steve
wsr.org.uk

 

On the WSR they prefer throwing out volunteers rather than parcels.

Anyone seen an appeal update?

 

STOP PRESS: WSR Plc launches new Appeal, for news about its old Appeal now deemed 'missing in (in)Action'

 

What an odd and irrelevant reply. But then...

Steve
wsr.org.uk

 

I looked at WSR.ORG today. Some very nice photo's of the line and locos but I was surprised at the size and modernity of the Williton Shed'

 

You are getting paranoid again.

The real freight trains (that you were bigging up) that have used the WSR don't really lend themselves to demonstrations for the public which was what the original post and response was about.

 

Just pointing out the WSR has recently had real ones rather than any recent demo goods trains on the WSR as in the original question. And the real ones continue. Each one is a "live" demo of what the line was built for - moving stuff by rail. It is a positive for the WSR and I'd hope you fellas might see it that way. But then...

Steve
wsr.org.uk

 

It is good but not really relevant as an answer to the question about whether any demonstration heritage goods trains have run recently. The more relevant thing would be to flag up and promote the work of the WSR Wagon group after all, their FB cover photo is a fine looking demonstration freight train.

 

To be fair, Steve has already done that on his website and the social media attached to his website, and others have done so here. Although I think the majority view on NatPres does not align with Steve's, sometimes it is worth reminding people he is still one of the "good guys", believes in change etc. (and has done for a lot longer than many others from my recollections here).

 

Well I think my original reply was relevant to the question and added to the topic of goods trains, whilst reminding folks that these trains continue to run. If you see that as irrelevant then so be it. The response from @Sidmouth painted an irrelevant and frankly nonsensical picture. Odd, in fact.

As for the WSR Wagon Group, well, you just have so thanks for that. It adds to my news item of 19 August which flagged up and promoted the work of the Wagon Group.

And I'm always open to other ideas to promote the WSR - just drop me a line.

Steve
wsr.org.uk

 

I'm not sure that demonstrations of loading and unloading freight will ever be that viable on preserved railways. Our coalman's dad, (who used to be the coalman, as did his father and grandfather) used to work from the sidings at Limpley Stoke. You had two days to get a BR wagon unloaded , which had not been a problem for his dad with his six private owner wagons. Getting a couple of ten ton trucks shovelled out in two days whilst keeping up with deliveries etc was hard graft- would volunteers really want to do this for no reason? And what is ten tons of coal costing, just to be a prop?
I also recall Gerald telling how they got a truckload of beet in as cattle feed in the winter of 63, delivered to Green Park yard which is about 6 miles from the farm where he worked. So 6 miles down on icy roads in freezing weather on a 35hp Massey with a 2 ton trailer. The beet had frozen into a block in the truck, so it had to be chopped apart and shovelled into the trailer, then drive the 6 miles back up to Cold Ashton to tip and return. Two loads in a day was the best they could manage.
Or how about getting a few trucks of lime? (You need at least 2 tons per acre or its not worth doing) Can we also find a few tip-carts and horses ( I could lay my hands on 1) at least 3 or 4, and a half dozen farm labourers. A farmer would throw all hands at the job rather than pay demurrage. It would be interesting to do, once, but not as a regular thing.
Beef, beer, coal and grain were the steady earners for the railways- because shifting them was every day hard graft. Shifting them now, just for a demonstration , will still be hard graft.

 

Kingswear Castles coal is still taken in a wagon to Kingswear where she is coaled by hand