West Somerset Railway General Discussion

The turntable made it to Minehead today (by road) - a bit of a tight squeeze in places !
See Latest Pictures at http://www.wsr.org.uk

David

 

Great to see! Video of it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgLUiGVdlok

Incidentally, are there any track/site plans for the new layout at Minehaed online?

 

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A picture from http://www.wsr.org.uk © WSR

Altho it shows the now-removed offices, stores and hedge, it seems to be quite near to the final arrangements, altho it is definitely not to scale.

WSW

 

Out of interest where was the site of the previous turntable in relation to the new one?

 

Exactly the same place I believe, if not spot on for location then very close

 

The previous (45ft) turntable was just slightly to the left and down a bit in the above diagram, fairly close to the boundary fence which appears on the left hand side of the drawing. Then there was an earlier small turntable which was at the buffer stop end of the bay platform, with a cut out in the platform face to accomodate it. The GWR had planned to replace the 45ft table with a 65ft more or less on the same site, but this was cancelled at the start of WW2, so the 45ft table remained in use until the end of steam in the 1960s.

David

 

Thanks David (& Rlangham). I didn't think it would have been quite so close to the platforms as the WSR appears to have lost the headshunt now for the run-round loop at that platform.

I have seen a photo of a 43xx on the old turntable with extension rails.

 

Looks like it's in judging by this picture or was that just a test fitting.

A picture from http://www.wsr.org.uk © Martyn Snell

 

Yes , I gather there were some constraints about how far away from the platform it could be located. Also I think the short headshunt on the run-round loop (shown in the diagram above) has now been deleted entirely and a water tower and crane is to be erected in its place, serving both the platform road and the turntable approach road.

The extension rails on the old turntable always looked a bit precarious to me. It was normal to reverse the tender onto the extension, but there is a well known tale of a driver who decided to put the smokebox end of his Bulldog on the extension ... and it got stuck with the front drivers clear of the rails ! Another engine had to be used to drag it off the turntable.

David

 

That looks very nice, will look forward to seeing it next time I'm down there. I've often thought it a shame that we have to make do with a Southern one at Didcot - oh well!

 

Looking forward to seeing it at the Gala. Looks quite nice in light chocolate and cream...

 

A better picture has been posted on there site:

A picture from http://www.wsr.org.uk © Andy Wray

 

Anyone see Points West? (Local News if you not local). The WSR had a feature on needing more volunteers.

It is viewable on the site at the moment, but will probably be gone later tomorrow. Well worth a look.

Link for program (a bit iffy) http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/chec ... m=1&bbwm=1

Link for main website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/pointswest/index.shtml

Starts at 10 minutes in.

 

There was also a short film on ITV West this evening about the arrival of the turntable at Minehead.

 

Is the turntable likely to be in use on the gala weekend??

 

I think that was the original intention. *However, given the time left and much still to do, I would suggest it'd be a close run thing. I am unaware of a recent official statement on your question - I will find out

Steve (WSW)
* a personal comment

 

WSR has trains running this weekend, so at least one can go and see the TT, without contributing to global warming! Mix of diesel unit and steam, I think, but phone WSR to check before making a long journey!

 

http://wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/tt.cgi?t=ends2008

WSW

 

Some fantastic new photos up on the WSR site, might have a day out to Minehead in a couple of weeks of time, quite cheap from Paddington in advance