West Somerset Railway General Discussion

The quick answer is "both". If it were possible, it would be done.

 

This was discussed on this thread way back in May, at post#4881! It's a combination of both really, leading to unequal weight distribution.

 

Would that be " it must be your round " ?

 

Many years ago my family spent a happy holiday in Watchet and back then the car park alongside the railway was a lorry park for the docks and in places we could see the tops of some of the rails for the old sidings.

 

West Somerset Railway - Then and Now #56

Watchet 1871 / 2017

We are going to stay looking out at the town, harbour and Railway from Watchet 'Pleasure Gardens' for a few shots. If these efforts turn into a publication, it may be that multiple views from here will be presented.

Any of us who have taken more than a few Loco pictures will recognise the frustration of finding s tree growing out of the chimney and the like. Here is an early example. The object appears to have been to record the very long excursion train, but the loco hides behind a wagon as it shunts the train.

For the 'now' shot the reference points are the harbour, the chapel and the white house(s) above the station.

Robin

1871


2017

 

For anybody who likes to see or photograph black/grey smoke coming from hard working engines the WSR could be a must during the Flying Scotsman visit from now until next Tuesday. We have switched to hard coal for FS’s time with us and this also means that the home fleet is using it, a big change from our usual cleaning burning Welsh stuff.


I was firing the 7F, 53808 yesterday morning and seeing it working hard with 7 coaches on up hill with lots of black/grey smoke was a new experience for me as I’ve only ever been used to the clean burning Welsh coal. I would say that there would be some great shots to be taken lineside (from the right side of the fence of course) especially in the Williton – Bishops Lydeard sections or coming up Washford bank.


Of course you can also see Flying Scotsman and Ravingham Hall but the 7F is the star of the show as far as I’m concerned !!!!. Plenty of parking available in farmers’ fields in the area and lineside viewing from those fields in a nice safe environment, £5 for both parking and viewing or £2 for platform tickets at intermediate stations.

Not trying to take the limelight of off FS but if we did a photo charter with 53808 & 44422 with the same coal that would produce some great photos.

If anybody was around taking photos yesterday morning (Tuesday) and got one of the 7F I would love a copy.

 

You probably noticed it disappears a lot quicker than soft coal (if its the Russian stuff we use at the Bluebell)... I found it needs a fair bit of secondary air when going well to get the best out of it, unlike Welsh coal.

 

Everyone calls it Russian for some reason, but the Bluebell's current stuff comes from Northumberland. I have come to quite like it, except that it does burn away quickly so you have to work more to keep the grate covered (was quite a job on Flying Scotsman!) Plus as you say, more secondary air. It doesn't seem to form clinker which is a positive advantage - the reason we have changed to using it is because it seems to be more fire bar friendly, though depending on your locos and the capacity of their ash pans, you may find you have to clean the ash pan mid way through the day as it generates more ash than the Welsh coal.

Tom

 

Apparently it’s from the UK somewhere so I’ll just say somewhere north of Bristol! It’s in smaller lumps and nearly like slate to touch.

Yes it disappeared quicker as the welsh takes up to 20 minutes to burn so I had to change timings and fire a little more on the hills. It was in my opinion much easier to use as it is much more instant heat wise when you need it and I wouldn’t say I used any more than normal just fired differently, but the 7F was of course designed for this stuff and it steamed well on it so it will be interesting to see how the GWR engines operate with it.

Secondary air didn’t seem to make much difference either stood still with the doors open or moving with the doors cracked open, but then I’m used to little or no smoke so I’m sure I would control that better with practice.

 

Yes, when I last went to the Bluebell it was being used on 847 and it smoked like b*****y. It reminded me strongly of the infamous Daw Mill about which you heard the same arguments in favour. The unspoken reason was that it was "cheap"(er).

PH

 

Not the case with the current stuff.

Tom

 

Innovation at Stogumber.

Each group eating a cream tea now get a free postcard to send!

David, David and Margaret of Tiverton enjoying theirs on 6 September.

 

A good cheap marketing idea and I hope it works well.

 

Hi Robin I always like your then and now pictures but here you are not positioned well. The reference is in the 1871 picture the photographer is standing a lot lower and further to the right and the goods shed is end on centre of the picture. St Decuman's church tower is beside the chapel roof and very close to it relatively. As a youngster I regularly visited WT as my grandparents lived there. The goods yard was still in use and the ubiquitus open barn type building covered the coal yard just in front of the goods shed. The main cargo outgoing was Bedford vans with a kit of parts for 1 van in 2 crates and occupying a 21 ton mineral open. Firemen and drivers would always explain it was a very difficult yard to get out of and invariably the loco came out of the yard with the blower hard on. As the loco required a significant amount of regulator to climb up the slope and then braked quite hard when joining the running line the chimney could stop under the footbridge which could , and often did, without the blower encourage a blowback into the cab.

 

Re the then & now. The interesting thing that always strikes me in these photos is how much the trees & vegitation has grown up, not a critisism as I like trees . But they must have been trimming & cutting all the time? Witness all the wood on the dock in all the photos of Watchet. That said, the country & lineside looks more neat & looked after than in the now pics.

 

We had to start an entire thread on Cream Teas a couple of years ago!
I believe the GWR way is indeed jam first, cream on top.

I'm still waiting for Stogumber to provide international mail-order. PayPal OK?

 

I've seen the BG loco on the turntable photo many times before. I had always considered it to show the tt down at harbour level. Not so!
The rail in the bottom left corner is the north rail of the head shunt. The main line is south of that again.
The path to Doniford is behind the loco.
Behind that is a 15' +/- bank, dropping down to the harbour / quay-side level. The perspective is a little misleading.

It's not a very high level photo; I think a re-creation might be possible from half way up the embankment on the south side of the main line.
The big shed in the boat yard has gone, so once the leaves are off the trees............................ over to you, Robin!

 

Shouldn't that be chocolate & cream?