West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I have to admit, when I first saw the top of that image, my instantaneous reaction was 'what on earth connection does Warren B have with the WSR'?

Noel

 

Maybe so as not to be confused with Cafe Rene.

 

The Crompton duly worked our down QB as planned. We, and our 72 passengers, were delighted to return to BL with a faultless run behind Dinmore Manor.

Barrie

 

Que?

 

Perhaps more steam locos required ?

 

Anyone ever fancied living in a Station Master's house?

The Bishops Lydeard house is up for let. Prospective occupiers need to be comfortable with trains very close by......

Robin

 

But you are too late http://www.gth.net/lettings/bishops lydeard/1/results/property/address/inst-5799 as it is let.

 

The delight of the passengers was most evident as we put Dinmore on the front of the train and answered many questions from the passengers, it was lovely that they were so understanding of the issues and openly showed their appreciation for all of the effort that had been put in by ourselves and the WSR steam department staff to ensure 7820 was able to work their return journey, their comments certainly were appreciated. We were of course embarrassed to have contributed to the WSR's motive power shortage last week, the issue, a defective IR band in the loco brake cylinder which suddenly decided to disintegrate after only 3 years work sending fragments of rubber throughout the system creating further issues, just one of those things.... Now on the roster to be in use daily up to and inclusive of the 11th of July then it's time for a washout.

Mike Solloway

DMLL

 

Well done! It illustrates the first principle of dealing with the public inasmuch as honesty almost always wins. Most reasonable people will tolerate inconvenience if they get an apology and an explanation. Some organisations do the opposite and deserve the adverse consequences.

 

One side effect of our revised Sunday morning arrangements (ECS to NF, turn loco (if required) to run chimney-first to MD, arrive in BL platform 1 30+ minutes before advertised departure time) is that ALL our passengers get to view the motive power, because they are obliged to use the BL board crossing to access the QB. It's fair to say that some of them (most certainly not all) took against the Crompton on Sunday but we did our level best to explain the circumstances that led to diesel substitution for the down journey and, above all, the considerable effort several folk were putting in to try and provide steam traction for the return leg. Clearly the message got through and thankfully Mechanical Engineering Department did the business. The next morning we received some wonderful customer feedback (via our GM).

The QB team were kept fully informed and up to date with developments. We were therefore able to advise our passengers accordingly. Hence the 'welcoming committee' when 7820 backed on to the set.

Barrie

 

Pleased to report the brakes are much better than last week. The MD lads (assisted by Mike) had to do a little bit of adjusting yesterday when we ran in, but we were still away pretty much right time.
Looking forward to more turns on this fine machine.

 

Shock horror Minehead Shed are caught on camera putting a Derby boiler on a GWR Loco !!!

 

More Progress
Jeff

 

Yes we will hopefully get the wheels under 9351 tomorrow, today was getting it ready to lift with the 100 ton jacks.

 

Now this is great to see, lovely to see all you guys and your hard effort paying off and finally getting 9351 back on her wheels! Look forward to seeing it rolling again, best of luck tomorrow!

Ben

 

Just had a week away and there are 5 pages. Just returning to real money at Beamish there is a school which when I visited had a sum on it £ S d & farthings multiplied by a number. I got the answer right, but there again I worked in a shop on sats and hols when we used real money

 

Looks like a vast improvement to me. .................

 

That is good news , I plan to visit WSR when my favourite loco is back working . Some may think it strange that a GWR fan like myself would like the WSR " hybrid " . IMHO it s best suited to the Minehead branch except for the heaviest trains , I've seen it perform well with 7 on and with the extra water capacity as I said well suited .

Paul . K

 

Now , wash your mouth out .