West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Who's counting ?

 

There is absolutely no need for anyone to be so rude .

Paul . K

 

I've certainly never had a problem gaining access to a WSR signal box , except Minrhead for obvious reasons , staff in the signal boxes have always been obliging , of course I did ask nicely . If it became a bit busy that's when I said thank you very much and departed , no I didn't have a camera in my hand it was just my interest in the workings of signal boxes and the signal men were always happy to explain .

Paul . K

 

So where are the top two?

 

Ha! Ha! I wondered who would ask.

Silver medal - Corfe Castle, that view of the castle.

Gold - Penzance, the view of the bay on a sunny day.

But others might have a different opinion.

Robin

 

Makes you wonder why it was considered worthwhile demolishing it all, same at your home station - presumably, when it was done, the expectation was that the branch would remain open and hence the disused buildings, so close to the running line, would become a liability?

Steven

 

Yes, that was it.

When I was Traffic Manager at Bristol in 1989/90 the basement of Bristol and Exeter House contained the old files of the Bristol Divisional Office. There was quite s lots of correspondence about the need to demolish redundant buildings.

With hindsight, indecent haste.

We have some priceless heritage here in Somerset which we don't make the best of -Dunster Goods Shed / Yard being buried in P.Way materials, for example....

Robin

 

Rightly or wrongly regarding LSPs, I really find this hard to believe. Whenever folk are criticising management on any heritage railway, I think they tend to forget that directors are also just normal volunteers, and in many cases do "normal" volunteer work too. So by all means criticise the decision, but don't have this daft vision of the directors being in ivory towers, they rarely are.

 

That is grossly offensive. The management are not destroying anything; they are doing their best to secure the future of our superb Railway. If issuing lineside passes is going to compromise safety and insurance cover, then it is necessary to stop issuing LSPs. The Railway does not exist purely for lineside photographers. From your comment, anyone would think the management was banning photography and preparing to close the line. Sense of proportion, please!

John

 

Some before and after shots from Swanage would be fantastic, posted elsewhere on nat pres of course.

 

Agreed! It sounds like something written by the author of the infamous WSRA History site.

 

Latest on the LSP from the PLC and looks like some of the holders are getting hot under their collars as well. http://wsr.org.uk/lsp31mar2017.pdf

 

I'm curious about the trespass problems mentioned. Are these trespassers LSP holders who are going where they shouldn't, or folk who don't have LSPs at all going lineside? If it's the former, then I can totally understand the rationale for that; "don't play by our rules, don't play at all" fair enough. If it's the latter though, how is that going to help?

 

It is time we got behind the WSR PLC management and stopped trying to second guess them. They have far greater knowledge of the situation than we do. Pardon the pun but the bottom line is we all want the WSR to be generally successful and in particular the FS visit. If that upsets a few short sighted whingers then so be it.

 

Irrespective of whether LSP holders are involved or not, it seems to me that given the issues mentioned that there are some compelling reasons why management are seeking to remove all 'non staff' authorised access.

 

Potentially there is the risk that somebody will see an LSP-holder setting off along the cess and assume that, because the LSP-holder is there, that it's acceptable for anyone to do that. Having some people taking cameras lineside, even if they are all in orange, normalises that behaviour.

I know some railways take steps to try to minimise this, for example by not permitting LSP-holders to access the issues by walking off platform ends, and by instructing them to remove their LSP hi-vis when not lineside, but it is still an increased risk.

 

I'd add that the WSR management also have the ultimate responsibility to run a safe railway, even if that means allowing lineside access only to staff for railway work purposes. The Plc decision now prevents my own WSR lineside photography activities but I'd rather have the WSR management putting safety first and I'm confident I can still enjoy photographing the WSR.

Steve

 

Well said.
As a member of footplate crew I can assure everybody that it's very hard to stop a train. In this modern world there is increased reporting to loco crews of track workings in section and much enhanced protection for all work-sites along the line. This is the correct way to operate the railway and in fact the only way if we want to see it continue to operate in the future.
My own thought is for the really keen photographer that organised visits e.g. photo charters will be the way of things in the future. This is almost the only way that proper protection of those line-side can be assured. Those familiar with the WSR rule book will note that the definition of a place of safety has recently been revised as well with an increase in clearance distance.

 

Any comment on the lamp position in the 1961 picture?

 

It chimes very much with my recollection of being a "freeloader", as some of the contributors here so charmingly put it, many years ago; there's always one idiot who spoils it for everyone else.

I've just looked through the latest Journal and, out of around thirty photographs from many and varied viewpoints, there are only about six that look like they were taken from the lineside and those six are all the same: three-quarter front view of the locomotive. That's a format that's fine if you want to build up a record archive of steam locomotives in action, but they don't really qualify as photographic art in the way that the long-distance views do. The end result of LSP holders wanting to get a different shot from Joe Public is that they end up with the same shot as every other LSP holder, thanks to the restrictive narrowness of the railway estate.