West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I'm a simple soul. I read the table in post 41315 as showing a loss of £55K. I'd have thought an ongoing loss shows a worsening situation - i.e the hole they are in is getting deeper, mitigated only by raiding station funds and the seemingly one-off CRF grant

 

Meanwhile the WSRA makes progress.

https://wsra.org.uk/wsra-station-signs-project-moves-forward/

 

I have three simple questions for the WSR family.

(1) Do you accept the proposition, put forward by Martin Brown when he was a WSR plc Director, that investment of £1M per year is required for the future of the WSR to be secured?

(2) How is that to be generated?

(3) If it is NOT generated, what is the future of the WSR?

I see no sign of this being faced (let alone tackled) in the recent PDG minutes or elsewhere.

Happy New Year.

 

Perhaps there are better places to direct these questions, rather than simply stir up pro/anti-WSR feelings from the usual suspects in this forum?

 

Maybe, but if we're discussing whether news is good or bad, doing so in the context of what's previously been said about how good and bad might be defined isn't a bad thing.

 

The CRF3 application date was 30 September so Christmas services' financial performance might not have been the governing factor. The WSR was at the time though publicising its figures to the end of July (£149k loss) as being £268k ahead of budget, but I've no idea if that had any bearing either.

As intimated in the meeting minutes the Emergency Resource Support programme has been reopened for Expressions of Interest until 18 January 2022 (minutes say 22nd). Those invited to apply will have until noon 3 February to submit a full application. The total budget for the reopened strand though will only be £5m https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/culture-recovery-fund-emergency-resource.

 

These are the unanswered and unadressed questions.

It woudl be perfectly possible for those in a position to do so to address them but they have elected not to do so.

The WSR MAY be viable in the short term but I see no plan to make it so in the long term.

While I like the length of run the WSR offers I now have a Swanage Railway season ticket and am very much enjoying my visits to Swanage, a line I think will survive

 

Well, the problem as I see it is that if the WSR needs £1M/year in grant money that is going to be a tall order to maintain, given that there are very few bodies outside HLF with that level of funding power. A lot will depend, too, on the creativity of their grant writing team in making their projects appear as though they are delivering what the grant awarding body wants delivered but whilst it isn't hard to think of projects, it is a lot harder to think of funders Moreover, HLF, for example, are not inclined to award money for some infrastructure renewal (e.g. track) although as the NYMR has demonstrated, they will help with major civil engineering projects such as bridges. There is some hope for the WSR that they might be able to get a carriage shed but I cannot see them getting money for routine relaying of track and that's what their most urgent need seems to be if they are to return to "red route" status. But if the track remains suitable for engines of lower weight, it is hardly arguable that lack of immediate replacement will be an existential threat.

 

Just thought it might be nice to acknowledge that the very useful surplus on the Christmas events - Santas and Moving Lights- owes much to the hard work put in by both the paid staff and a large number of volunteers. Well done to all those involved.

 

Does the WSR have many paid staff I thought it was announced some time back that most if not all had been made redundant?

 

Your base figures are reasonable but I fear you need a new calculator. 19 days @ £500/day is £9,500 according to my pencil and paper and coal @ £200/tonne and 3 tonnes/day is £11,400, giving a grand total of £20,900 operating cost.

 

Worth also noting that the Winterlights operation was handled exclusively by 7828 and 9351 which are WSR owned locomotives so there are no external costs to pay in this regard. I'll await comments about budgeting for future maintenance/overhauls which are valid but there are no fees to be paid to any external parties and the money stays within the organisation.

Also, three tonnes of coal a day for what is essentially 8 miles of work plus steam heating ?! You can easily half the original estimate.

 

I raised my eyebrow at the three tons of coal as well.

Did the WSR run one train per day, or two? Also, had the loco run earlier in the day - eg on Santas - or was the lights train the only thing?

Tom

 

I’m obviously used to 3 tons/ day. Didn’t think it out of the ordinary.

 

There were various combinations of trains run depending on the date:
1. Two Santa trains 40 miles,
2. Two Winterlights trains 16 miles,
3. Three Winterlights trains 24 miles,
4. Two Santas and two Winterlights 56 miles,
5. Two Santas and three Winterlights 64 miles.

However, one day's running was covered by just one loco in steam, although of course the Winterlights were hauled uphill by the steam and back downhill by the Class 33 diesel so the steam loco was not powering on the downhill section, and there would have been hire fees payable for the diesel.

 

Progress on tender T2061

Much of the work done on our tender during December was rather uninteresting visually, it composed mostly of such tasks as seam welding, measuring and preparing CAD drawings, dressing off welds and drilling holes.

Since then things have hotted up, material has been delivered and visual progress is evident so it's time for a few more photographs. We have also invited tenders for the internal shot blasting and coating of the tank. After all the effort to make a tender it would be a shame to let the work go to rust over the next couple of decades so we have prepared a rather strict specification for surface preparation and coating. Quotes received from reputable contractors are in line with our budget.

One difficulty yet to be overcome is the supply of the profiled beading that runs around the edge of the tank. The genuine GWR beading is of a particular profile not normally available to the exact size, unfortunately even profiles that look similar are not available although lots of companies list them in their catalogues. At present we are exploring the possibility of having a batch of the correct section rolled, either in the UK or further afield. We have interest from other tender constructors which helps. The section involved is called "square edge convex bar" sized 1.25" x 0.5".

Any way back to progress. We have finished all of the internal baffles except for the very front section of the longitudinal baffle which has to match the sloping coal space plate. The top plates are being made starting from the back and working forwards, those at the very back will be riveted, those within the coal space will be welded. there will also be rivets in the area of the footplate and toolboxes. The sloping coal space floor plate has been fabricated and trial fitted, this allows us to determine the exact size of the front section of the longitudinal baffle. The original dome fixing holes have been drilled along with the holes for the filler flange. The filler will be all new apart from the lid.

Planning the work has suddenly become much more important to ensure that we do not forget some critical internal item that becomes difficult to access later. The operating shaft for the water level indicator is 8' 4" long and not easy to get in & out even with the top plate off so this has to be all made and proven prior to final fix of the top sheets.

Andy.

 

As a retired engineer I can appreciate the skill and hard work given to this project. Well done. <BJ>