West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Best to leave something for you to get your teeth into.....!

Robin

 

The true meaning of "canape" in French is actually "sofa". Very odd. Does this mean we may expect platform sofas as part of the general upgrade?

PH

 

I have visited HLF on a number of occasions to gain advice whilst composing various applications (some successful, others not) so I have some experience. As has someone else has pointed out, the goal posts for what they will or will not fund tend to drift, and can move whilst an application is being prepared. So first of all you need to find where they currently stand and then mould your application to suit. What I do think will currently find favour is a visitor centre-based project. Part of that might be justification for a carriage shed that allows the carriage fleet to be maintained in better condition, enhancing the visitor experience.

 

I resisted further word play when the subject of toilets came up, which may have needed to start with 'Said in a Scot's Accent - if there are no toilets, your can'a......' - best leave it there!

Steven

 

Where did the name for this grandiose project come from? Wrong kind of green. If we can't preserve what we have then do we really wan't to do anything like what is proposed for BL? Certainly the facilities need improving but the poor state of the existing toilet block has been caused by the civic neglect of the local Council. The first thing a visitor encounters on arrival in the car park is the sight of peeling paint on the toilet block. The first impression could be greatly improved by asking the owner if RAMS, or volunteers could paint it. This was asked for two years ago but no action has been taken.

 

Nothing wrong with the Mens' as far as I can see unless they need a new bucket ?

 

Where's the notice saying 'please wash your hands after putting out a fire'

Must help the grass grow back quickly though

 

Please PM me more details or send your thought to:- southerngateway@wsra.org.uk

 

Thanks for taking the time to give some positive and useful information, although its not much to do with me (being a Volunteer on the WSR not directly involved with this project other than some opinions) its this sort of advice that as a railway we desperately need to ensure we can move forward successfully with whatever form (or name!!) the project takes, Thanks.

 

You have a PM.

 

Not to take anything away from your post but assume you meant restoring Ditcheat Manor. Dinmore Manor is fully operational on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire line and is due to visit the West Somerset for the main season from June to October.

 

Oops - mea culpa. Yes, you are right.

Tom

 

I see at least 5 potential Can o pees.

 

Interesting debate. In my mind, I think you have to be careful that "mould your application to suit" doesn't drift into "design an application in order to access funds". In other words, a starting point needs to be "what do we (the railway, collectively) really want to achieve?" If you are clear on that, then there may be scope to make adaptations that would increase the likelihood of funding being available. But you need to be careful that the funding tail is not wagging the project dog.

A good follow-up question to ask, having decided what you really want to deliver, is "if we do not get HLF (or other funding), would we still strive to deliver this project substantially as written?" If the answer to that is yes, all well and good. If the answer is no, it ought to ring alarm bells.

Of recent HLF-supported projects on railways that I am familiar with, one of the best to my eyes is "Train Story" at the Isle of Wight. As a storage facility, it clearly has a transformational impact on the long-term survivability of both service stock and stock awaiting restoration, and a major positive impact on maintenance requirement; it has delivered another attraction at the railway that increases the attractiveness to visitors, maybe turning a half-day attraction towards a whole-day attraction; it delivers on the kinds of things the HLF likes by giving much enhanced access to the collection of rolling stock and good interpretative facilities; but given the layout of the site, the interpretation and access parts of the project, while certainly costing additional money, have not to my eyes had a significant impact on how much storage "bang for the buck" that the railway was able to achieve within the physical constraints of the site. I'd also be reasonably willing to wager that, had HLF funding not been available, something similar would nonetheless have been delivered - maybe more slowly, but the logic of the attraction is compelling enough that it would have been done.

Tom

 

Latest WSR headlines from wsr.org.uk

Long term security for Steam Trust under new agreement 16 Mar 2017
Summertime 'Maybach Memories' heritage diesel haulage announced 16 Mar 2017
The latest draft minutes from the Partnership Development Group 15 Mar 2016
Steam Trust submit Heritage Lottery Fund grant application 14 Mar 2017
The Association looking for volunteers during Spring Steam Gala 13 Mar 2017
Rebuilding of Auto Coach no 169 making good progress 13 Mar 2017
Join the WSRA Fifty Fifty Club 12 Mar 2017
A new WSR Journal Editor is required 12 Mar 2017
The March WSR 'Online' newsletter now available 9 Mar 2017

Plenty of reading in that lot.

Steve

 

Brilliant news regarding diesel turns, so is this in addition to the normal diesel running days?

 

One of the questions asked by HLF in considering a project is essentially: What would happen if we declined to give you a grant. " We would continue with the project anyway" is decidedly the wrong answer. HLF will happily tell you that you simply won't get the grant.

 

Something along the lines "We would continue with a scaled-down project over a longer time scale" would seem reasonable.

 

The Maybach Memories trains are all extras to the published timetable.
It is hoped they will be limited stop services calling at the crossing points only.
There will also be the usual DMU replacement services to enable the DMU to be stopped for maintenance or to strengthen the service when required.
These are booked on 14 days so far and hopefully the dates will be put on the DEPG website.

Ian R