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GWSR General Discussion and Operations

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by michaelh, Aug 25, 2013.

  1. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    You put in all the effort, I just turned up and had a natter with people! Was good to have a brief chat with you as well. :)
     
  2. Great Western Steam

    Great Western Steam New Member

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    Well done to the GWSR for a brilliant fair, I went and I now have definite intentions of volunteering.

    Also nice to see it so busy:

     
  3. 46118

    46118 Part of the furniture

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    Just as a matter of curiosity, does the GWSR have any plans for a footbridge at Cheltenham Racecourse station now that platform two is taking shape? Or indeed do you have one in mind ex-NR for instance, like the HIA bridge for Broadway?

    Thanks

    46118
     
  4. Southernman99

    Southernman99 Member Friend

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    What about Stratford Upon Avon? Now NR have erected their monstrosity, Surely the original GW footbridge is surplus to requirements.
     
  5. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I believe there are plans for a footbridge at CRC, but not immediately - as P2 will only be used at special events crossing monitors can be employed to get from one to the other in the meantime.
     
  6. Great Western Steam

    Great Western Steam New Member

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    I know this is a bit off topic but does anyone know why the class 47 and 26 were double headed a few weeks back:

     
  7. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I believe they were testing one of them after repairs? Apparently there were a number of diesel people wearing overalls on the train, presumably keeping an eye on everything.
     
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  8. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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  9. Great Western Steam

    Great Western Steam New Member

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  10. The Dainton Banker

    The Dainton Banker Well-Known Member

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    :D I like the deer playing "chicken" at 4.41/4

    Mike
     
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  11. Great Western Steam

    Great Western Steam New Member

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    :D:D:D Yeah!!

    I was very surprised when that happened- nearly dropped the camera!!
     
  12. Great Western Steam

    Great Western Steam New Member

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  13. GWSRBlogger

    GWSRBlogger New Member

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    I haven't read this thread before so there a number of issues raised that I don't feel have been dealt with. Alex has had a good go tho!

    1 we shorten the trains to 6 carriages for galas to allow for double heading. The loops as stated will only take 7 + 1 loco so its 6+2 locos.
    2 many people have speculated that when Broadway is reached we will have to run 3 trains a day. This is not the case look at other lines of equal length or longer they still only run 2 trains. We actually run 2+the DMU so we run more trains already. We may run more but we don't have too.
    3 Yes a footbridge is planned for CRC but due to the nature of the location it will also provides access to the race course from their own car park. So it is almost certainly going to be a special and none standard in any way. When in use it will have a very high footfall! There is also a case for it carrying a footpath to the adjacent road which doesn't have one and is very dangerous.
    4 reaching Broadway does not increase our track by 50%. Its roughly 2.5 miles on top of 12.5. 20% increase. As for increased passenger numbers nobody knows. Any figures appear to be pure speculation at the moment. Various number have been suggested.
    5 As Alex has said we have asked for some shabby/derelict coaches to be removed. Although they are the old heritage coaches so many rave that we should be running not Mk1's.

    Mk'1 are we should remember actually heritage vehicles in their own right at 50-60 years old.
    As for the line of carriages at Winchcombe yard if you visit often enough you will realise they are moving quite frequently these days. They are the future rolling stock of the railway, the phantom 4th rake. You have to grab them when you can. That is when they become available. They are not on a shelf waiting until you need them and there are no new ones available. They have to be stored somewhere and any still developing railway has them. In the last 2 years we have been able to acquire 4 more. A full scrap up rebuild takes us about a year, down from 15 months and with the new facilities we can do other things at the same time. Even so it takes time to work through the stock.
    What was an unseen scrap carriage previously known as the upholstery department is now the gleaming new Discovery carriage in the Platform 1 bay at Winchcombe and we are already working on two of the recent 'new' coaches.

    C&W is total volunteer run with currently 90-100 days effort contributed by the volunteers each week.

    As for the railways blogs they are NOT organised by the railway. They are run by enthusiastic volunteers who express their own opinions and not railway policy. As are these comments. Thus occasionally you get some axes being ground. The fact that they are linked from the main web site reflects the openness of the board.

    For the kind comments about the C&W blog; Thanks as I, with help from others, write it.

    Peter
     
    Last edited: May 15, 2015
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  14. 45076

    45076 Member

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    I know many are not interested in which loco hauls their train, but for some of us a loco roster dictates where we will visit. Yes I know things can go wrong at short notice but that is the risk we live with.

    I would like to praise the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway for what I consider to be the best, most accurate and frequently updated loco roster.
     
  15. Ruston906

    Ruston906 Member

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    I see the railway had a celebrity visitor yesterday david Hasslehoff all publicity is good publicity I guess
     
  16. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

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    Took my 3-year-old children for a ride on the GWSR today.

    "Steam trains are filthy!" said one after touching the side of a carriage. "They filth your hands." Indeed, the slightest touch was enough to give one soot-grey fingertips.

    "Look, a broken train! Are they mending it?" was also a frequent refrain, especially near the broad expanse of rusting, overgrown stock which graces the eye at Winchcombe. And the least said about the quality of the food offering at Toddington the better I think; I'm always slightly suspicious of a "tea room" that has glass-topped tables, chips with everything, and a bigger choice of bottled beers than food dishes. I have to admit that we didn't stop to try eating any of it.
     
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  17. Kinghambranch

    Kinghambranch Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like you had a great day out then.
    Of course steam trains are filthy. Welcome 3 year olds to the fantastic world of steam traction.
    I can't comment about the food as I haven't sampled it recently but, in the past, I've always found it to be good.
    I presume your post is a wind up polemic. The resident NP polemicist seems to have favoured it anyway. Did you voice your concerns to any of the volunteers on duty? Constructive criticism is always welcome.
     
  18. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    As @Kinghambranch says, steam trains are filthy, but we love them anyway! I've just spent half an hour in the shower trying to get ash out of my hair after a fabulous day at the MHR. But our coaches are cleaned once a week on Mondays by a select band of volunteers, they can usually only do the one side of a rake on the outside per week because of platform positioning. The main object is for them to *look* clean, which I think, by and large, they do. (And any that don't, you can bet a few of us in C+W when we watch them go past will be itching to get it in the paintshop for a quick repaint!)

    As for Winchcombe. On the Malvern side the front siding houses our third rake, which hides most of the detritus on that side. As for the opposite, I admit that it's looking the worst it has done in a while. I think it was last year I remarked that we'd managed to hide most of the worst of it behind the workshops out of public view. Due to workshop and shunting requirements things have unfortunately shuffled around a bit since then, but to answer your children, yes we are mending it! The ones you probably saw for eg the green TSO or maroon SO will probably take us around 15-18 months or so each and they'll be as beautiful as the choc n cream FO sat in the yard about to become the 8th coach in our first rake.

    I can't comment on the food quality at Toddington either, but the food served on our trains and in the coffeepot at Winchcombe is very nice indeed, I'd thoroughly recommend it!

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
     
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  19. D6969

    D6969 New Member

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    I'd hardly call the Pway train (or what's left of it) detritus!

    Anyway the GWSR Pway gang have been working hard (again) to get to Broadway, today (yesterday 01/07/17) 7 panels of track put in and clipped up, we are now 6 panels south of Childswickham bridge, sleepers have all been laid to bridge. We now await another 20 panels of new rail in on Monday 3rd July to get us to the south turnout for the station which is 4 panels short of Station road bridge. The target is well in sight!!!!!!!
     
  20. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Mea culpa! :D Sadly there are some other bits and pieces round there that would be an eyesore, notwithstanding the Pway train which doesn't look *too* shabby!

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
     

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