West Somerset Railway General Discussion

You'll be OK at the gala then. Did the HoME get 5199 in just for you?

 

Paul
Thanks for putting these up, I was the Fireman on 44422 on the afternoon turn so its great to see it from the other side of the camera, I hope you enjoyed your couple of days there.

 

Are you being rude about my house?

Robin

 

How about using the miscreants as hardcore under your new path??

 

Would I dare?

 

You offering full board? Way too generous.

 

Go on then, you tell us where the WSR's going wrong, and then with all your years of ops experience you put it right, once you do that fancy a job as a timetable planner at NR?

 

Hardcore what - Zider drinkers?........ be right up Robins street!

 

What was the reason for the delays today out of interest?

Apart from a gobby TTI on the first train from Washford to Minehead today trying to claim I was hiding from paying.... Asked what my age was (im 26 BTW) I tried having a laugh going "two kids please. Im only 12.. (even a blind man would of seen I wasn't) and all I got back was im lying and I WILL be charged an adult! ....sorry but ill go elsewhere to spend my money now

and the 20 minutes of late running for no apparent reason apart from a poor display of driving , it wasn't too bad today.

Only criticism I have is I paid £24 for two adult returns from Washford to Minehead today... Thought it such a nice day ill get two returns from Washford to BL and they wantted another 35 quid! Why couldn't I get charged the difference of my original ticket to make it into a day rover?

 

The late running was due to signalling problems at Williton affecting up and down services at the start of the day....

 

Sorry you were not happy with your experience with the TTI - from personal experience (as a TTI) I can confirm it is sometimes difficult to tell when someone is having a joke at the staff's expense - perhaps the question about age was due to the WSR having raised the age for half price (child/young person) to 17 last year and "maybe" the TTI thought you looked young enough to perhaps fall into that category - in your words, "a blind man would of seen you wasn't 12" but perhaps you could have looked 17 so the question was not inappropriate - your answer may not have helped!

As well a signalling problem early in the day we also had a small mechanical problem on one loco that had to be fixed - the cause of the delay was explained to all the passengers on the train that I was on.

The instructions to TTIs do allow the upgrading of tickets so you could have upgraded your Washford/Minehead returns to Day Rovers for £16 - perhaps you asked the wrong question.

Of course, the WSR will always strive to give an enjoyable experience to all passengers and I will ensure your comments are brought to the attention of the TTI manger

 

To be fair I really don't know what you expected after you said you were 12?, you really do have to bear in mind there are a lot of travellers who travel with carers who say all sorts of things, how was he supposed to know, I'm sure TTI's aren't required to be physic just yet

 

Not but they are required to shut up long enough to let the guy with the money in hand talk to the guy who wants to take my money.

He thought I was trying to fare evade as I got on at the back of the train at Washford (as we had run up the steps from the road stright into the rear carriage) and started walking towards the front looking for a seat. There wasn't any (not a problem) so stood by a window. To have him shout "ive found them" isn't my idea of good customer service no matter what his thoughts are of my mental state.

To say that he treated me like it because he thought I was mentally disabled is even more of a reason to be pissed off at him.

Either way. I wont be spending money down there any time soon. ill go elsewhere

 

Well I'm sure they'll cope

 

You were lucky, as you have already noted, the train was running (20 mins) late.

If it had been on time, you would have missed the train.

J

 

I'd take it as a compliment that a TTI could think that I might be eligible for child fare! And a train being 20 minutes late shouldn't spoil your day, either. Yes, you should have been given an upgrade, but I don't know how you put it when you said that you wanted to go to BL.

Let's lighten up and be grateful; there are many worse places to be than West Somerset on a sunny day.

 

Wasn't to bothered, nice surprise to be fair as I just walked around Washford once back from Minehead instead of before going.

 

Here's another WSR 'then and now', this time at Dunster looking from the level crossing east toward the station in 1951 and 2017.

Robin

1951



2017

 

Plus ca change?

 

Hi, Robin.

Can you identify the names on the PO wagons?

It is a shame there is so much clutter here. If the goods yard reinterpretation mentioned in the Southern Gateway document were to come to fruition, this yard should be a destination for goods trains and therefore ought to be restored to how it appeared in 1951. A passing loop would also help.