West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I'm writing this both as a member of Minehead station staff who has been on duty at the beer festival, and also as someone who, when not on duty participates at it.

I really must take exception to this and the previous posting (Hundreds of beardies on the platform just trying to get p*****d on as many as strong brews as possible. How long before a few of them fall off the platform and try to sue the WSR?).

I don't know if either of these people have ever been to any beer festival, let alone the one on Minehead station, but strange as it may seem there is almost zero (I wouldn't try to say none) drunkenness at beer festivals. As for them being populated by beardies, there have always been more family groups , some with children, some with picnics, listening to the music, some of them even dancing. Some of us think that the Sunday of the beer festival has been the best day of the year on the railway.

I'm not trying to suggest that there are no problems. It is a very tiring event for staff - the last Saturday I worked it I didn't finish till 23:30, and despite what someone from CAMRA has said about the numbers attending not having grown, there has been a feeling for a couple of years that the event has outgrown Minehead station platform, although extra measures were taken this year to try to avoid anyone coming to grief on the track.

I think what has caused the apparent breakdown of relations between CAMRA and the WSR was initially what appears to have been high-handedness on the part of a couple of the CAMRA people, leading to some friction with station staff. As tends to occur with these things, it escalated, leading to the cancellation of the 2016 event. I don't think that the alternative of a marquee in the car park would have worked;perhaps making it ticket only might, but I could still foresee problems with that.

Unfortunately, I can't see any way that the 2016 event can be resurrected, as planning has now started for another event on the station on what would have been the beer festival Saturday.

 

Never having attended a CAMRA event, I didn't know what to expect. I did wonder if it would be full of blokes wearing arran-knitted jumpers drinking odd concoctions full of leaves and twigs. How wrong I was. The platform was one giant picnic. The loco department had set up a small encampment and were happily engaged in munching their way through carrot sticks and taramasalata. The chat was flowing freely, everyone was smiling and pints of Coleby were being admired. I was also struck by how different the public were to the normal mix. It was a great advertisement for the railway and I wonder how many customers will come back and try other events ? I sincerely hope that the situation can be turned around for 2017.

 

Really? Could we have a breakdown of the costs please!
Also how many 'drunken beardies' have fallen off the platform during the years the festival has been running?

 

Due to overrunning engineering work at Crowcombe, there are some changes to the departure times from Bishops Lydeard.

Friday 4 Dec: The Quantock Belle will now leave at 5.30pm (and will not now wait, and will not be overtaken, at Crowcombe )
Saturday 5 Dec: the 3.45pm will now leave at 4pm; the 4.15pm will now leave at 4.20pm.

I think that's right...

Steve

 

That is correct, Steve. All through trains will be using the up loop at Crowcombe - ie wrong line working when travelling towards MD. The Bishops Lydeard - Crowcombe Santa Special trains operating on Sunday 6th December will be stopping at the down platform, which can only be accessed from the BL end due to the late running works. This means that the children and adults visiting Santa will have to cross the foot crossing to the up platform, where Santa's grotto is located. Also the trains themselves will be "top and tailed" with a steam loco at the MD end, and a diesel loco at the BL end.

 

So it isn't only NR who have these problems then with over running engineering work.

 

To be fair we do seem to have one of the worst Novembers for years with the amount of rain that has fallen.

 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November rain fall for near Hillfarance was only 48 mm with Nov 2012 191 mm and an average of 77 mm. This year so far just over half the rain for last year. We need 505 mm (approx 20") to get up to this total.

 

The two newly repainted coaches in blood and custard stand out very well against the coaches in chocolate and cream in the same rank. Even at a distance from the BL bypass when passing by. It will be good when a complete rank is repainted to match.

 

And a nice touch noted whilst on duty on Friday evening - the authentic BR logo has been applied, a welcome move forward indeed.

 

At the Stakeholder Meeting a month or so ago, Andy Forster said the only reason they put a BR logo on was because the only WSR ones in stock have a brown background!

 

Hopefully then others might comment favourably & the WSR ones can be consigned to history. The next thing then (rolling stock livery wise) will be for the new WSRA trustees to more faithfully reflect historically authentic liveries on the QB set.

 

Stick the brown backed ones in the shop to flog them on, and use the correct BR ones.

 

Or don't stick any logos on, as they never had them in blood and custard.

 

I have attended hundreds of beer festivals but the best ones were in the 70's/ 80's. Seen only one minor bit of trouble in all those years.

Farnham (Surrey) has been running one continuously in aid of the local Lions. It sells out months in advance but in the early days the entertainment was fantastic. Great bands, sing songs that would shame a rugby match or even the proms and young ladies climbing up 'castles' of men before removing certain clothing, much to the appreciation of the crowd! Then elf & safety got involved and those days are history.

It will be a great shame if your event becomes history.

 

Surely the logos came in after the switch away from blood and custard?

 

Pics of progress with nos 44422 and 53808:


No 44422 - http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?h=Snapshot&p=2015/12/017


No 53808 - http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?h=Snapshot&p=2015/12/060

Thanks to Andy Forster, Chris Jeffries and Steve Jervis for pics.

Steve

 

I might just stir my bones to come up and see 88 when she is operational. I am sure she will look superb.

 

I was unaware that there were already two MK1s in Crimson & Cream livery. I knew that the WSR were starting to do a rake of coaches (dual braked) in this livery, but thought it would take a while. I know that the first coach done was TSO 5030, but which coach is the second one treated please? Also which coaches are other candidates for Crimson & Cream please? I know that the plan is for dual braked ones to be done, but I am not sure which MK1s have dual brakes.

One problem I can see with having two liveries in use on the main service fleet of coaches, is that the coaches will have to be formed into (and stay in) fixed sets (reducing operational flexibility) to prevent the two liveries being mixed up (granted there will be a period where one set of coaches will be mixed until enough coaches are in Crimson & Cream). I know other railways (Gloucester Warwickshire for example) do run their coaches in fixed sets, but the advantage of having all the coaches in the same livery is that vehicles can be added/ removed/ swapped around as required and still have matching formations.

 

Hello,
Can anyone help me date this photographs?
More on my Flickr page


NIck