West Somerset Railway General Discussion

OK .... with you now. Know what? Just decided I'm just going to leave this thread to it's own devices, kick back and remember the line as I knew it in the mid 1970s.

 

But was that for the benefit of the passengers or the bus company?

 

Did they ever publish the new five year plan or business strategy or whatever you want to call it?

 

Here's a thought, the WSR cuts a deal with the freeholder, SCC, to close the line from Watchet to Minehead, so that SCC can sell off the land, in particular Minehead station site, for development, with the WSR getting a cut of the proceeds for surrendering the lease on that part of the line. West Somerset still has a heritage line and steam trains, but no longer has any dodgy civil engineering to worry about, it has a stock of rail from the closed section for renewals and it has a shorter line that still ends somewhere at the seaside.

 

Can you imagine how many pages this thread would run to ...

(I seem too recall, about 10 years ago, that the WSR thread basically went thermonuclear on NatPres when there were plans by the then WSRA trustees to buy the freehold, with the rumour being that at heart was a plan to sell off part of the land for development. The rests as they say, is history ...)

Tom

 

I don't feel this comment is fair or justified. The front line volunteers and staff on the ground do a fantastic job of keeping trains moving. I am not aware of any passenger trains being cancelled this season.

 

I'm genuinely sorry if I've caused offence to you Seb (and Aberdare) or any other volunteer. It was not meant in the context of day to day operations, but rather the viability of the whole concern due mostly to factors outside anyone's control.

Many people were waiting for it fail back then and thankfully it didn't. Hopefully we'll be as lucky this time round.

 

I’m guessing you meant it as in the context of the IMR was sometimes referred to as ‘It Might Run’ during the late 1960’s early ‘70s?

 

Indeed, but if the choice is that or closure, with the whole line becoming a cycle track? Once the Plc goes bust, there is unlikely to be a comeback. I once visited a heritage railway in Austria, a nice little narrow gauge line that still had one of its original steam locos. That went bust and now the line is gone completely.

 

+1

 

Someone asked about the Fare split.

For many years it has been stable in a ratio of 3:1:1. With ‘3’ being fares from BL, ‘1’ being fares from Minehead and the other ‘1’ being fares from all other stations added together, predominantly Watchet.


Robin

 

Sorry to disagree but the statistics which Hein Burger (and later myself) compiled for many years showed the split as 40% Bishops Lydeard, 30% Minehead, 30% rest. The figures were very similar for both passenger numbers and revenue. These figures were arrived at after allocating to a station the passengers/sales on-line and by TTIs (which could be any starting point) Another exercise showed that footfall at Minehead far outweighed any other location. This data is, of course, pre-Covid but should be considered in any decisions.

 

Sorry what does "footfall at Minehead" mean in this context, the number of people you pass through the station? I would have though if so then that is a self fulfilling prophecy.

 

I have wondered for a long time how the WSR became a Red route when a preserved railway. My understanding is that the line was a Blue route under both the GWR and BR(W) until closure. Did the WSR undertake significant civil engineering and permanent way improvements not considered cost effective under previous owners or was it at the stroke of a pen? If the reduced maximum speed of 25 MPH under preservation is to be quoted, then the line would have been a Dotted Red route in the first place and even this imposed a 20 MPH speed limit on Red route engines. In passing I note that the majority of the SVR was a Dotted Blue route and that the SDR was a Blue route and, as I further understand, has disposed of 4920 Dumbleton Hall, a Red route engine.

 

The disposal of 4920 had nothing to do with the SDR route colour.

 

It could also simply be a case of modern engineering opinion differing to older, perhaps more cautious assessments with less understanding of potential failure modes compared to now. I think it was Robin that said the paperwork relating to the upgrading has disappeared, it may just have been lots of calculations that showed a certain axle weight at a certain speed was actually ok, without any physical work being done.

On the 'dotted red' point, would anyone in GWR days have bothered to assess whether it could have been dotted red if there wasn't a need for it to be?

 

Good question. Although apparently always classed a blue route, no one has ever adequately explained (as far as I'm aware) how the Western Region came to run Hymeks (red) over it. When D7017 arrived in the preserved era, despite the BR-era precedent it was was deemed overweight - only on one axle I think, and not by much, but nevertheless it was only allowed to commence regular operation once the steam heat boiler had been removed which was enough to get it under weight IIRC.

 

Hymeks were also permitted on the Carms to Aber line which was ostensibly a Blue route in steam days.

 

Didn't they handle freight over just a portion of the line?

 

If it resulted in sufficient money for long term viability, and if the lost traffic as a result was not too great. Pretty big IFs to be fair.