West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I've been following the signs saga (if I can call it that) carefully and it occurs to me that perhaps the PLC have put up the new-look signs because they think people will take more notice of them. I wonder if when people see a heritage style sign there could be an element of them thinking that it's there as part of the 'atmosphere' of the station, much like the enamel advertising boards that advertise products that are no longer available, and fail to realise the sign is there to warn of a very real danger.
I might have got on the wrong train of thought here, but I (er) thought I mention it.

 

I wish I hadn't mentioned train protection now!

My point was that the current Network Rail rule book for many years has restricted clearance signs as mandatory, which I can see the necessity of. The old 1950 BR rule book did not cater for same, and I doubt whether many preserved railways apply the modern signs for this purpose, and I can envisage circumstances where they would be applicable on a preserved line.

Cheers,
Julian

 

Dragon Handler makes some very valid points here. I suggest the new signs are the direct result of an inspection and safety assessment by the person appointed by the PLC to carry out such things.

 

Dont be sorry, the discussion has been very good, and uncovered a number detail differences to rulebooks, which I find fascinating.

Restricted clearance signs long pre-date Network Rail or indeed Railtrack, and you can find red and white "battenberg" cake signs in a number of places on many heritage railways. I don't know when this style of sign to indicate restricted clearance was introduced, but even back into the 1950s I imagine there was some equivalent signage, though probably not as widely applied.

 

The auction website says that the hammer price was £1100 - with BP + VAT on the BP (total 12%) that comes to £1232.

If the guy put it into another auction, he'd have to pay sellers commission.

You are being conned at £1400.

 

Ultimately, what an item is worth is what a buyer is willing to sell for, and what a purchaser is willing to pay.

He owns it, we would like it, and we are trundling along nicely towards to raising the funds for it.

So I would not use such an unpleasant description.

But perhaps you have another example to offer?

Robin

 

West Somerset Railway - Then and Now #72

Williton 1877 / 2017

The station is not wearing badly after 140 years! This is a well known shot of the flooded broad gauge station, with muchbto look at including the 'dinky' train and the comic crowd on the platform end by the signal box.

A comparison shows that the box window has been enlarged over the years, and it would be some years before the footbridge needed the central 'prop' visible in yesterday's photo.

1877


2017

 

The footbridge is totally different but I don't see any prop.

 

You need to look at #71

Robin

 

Were the platforms wooden in the "before" photo?

Tom

 

All this hoo-haa over an over-priced sign when they should be looking for one that says "DUNSTER SIGNAL BOX AT MINEHEAD"

DJB.

 

You must wonder why they are so keen to sell it as quickly as possible. Possibly before the "other half" finds out how much was spent ?

 

Remember the up platform had only been there 3 years. It was wooden until later rebuilt.

Robin

 

I think it is a valid exercise for a railway to wish to collect articles of historic interest - there ought to be more to being a heritage railway than simply running trains up and down. And it is in the nature of such things that if you wish to acquire items of genuine relevance to a specific line, the opportunities to do so may be few and far between - if the opportunity to acquire this sign is not taken now, who knows when it may become available again? Maybe next week, but maybe not for fifty years. The point being that this is a specific sign from a signal box on the line, not just an attempt to collect a typical example of a signal box sign.

Of course, it has to be within a context of available funds and also ideally a collections policy for the museum so that you don't just chase anything of even tangential relevance.

Tom

 

Was the WSR 'Community' even aware it was up for sale?

I suggest that he might have wished to secure it for the WSR

 

I can only speak for myself. I don't spend my life reading auction catalogues.

I was alerted by a series of e-mails from folk when it was placed on e-bay and contacted the owner then.

Had I been alerted to the auction, it is likely I would have taken action then, but I was not.

Over the years I have secured a few items for the Railway and I believe it was known that I would act, hence folk e-mailing me, I suppose.

I relatively recently passed on to the WSSRT a unique collection of original quad royal timetable / fare table posters from the last 5 years of the line's existence. Not glamorous but probably unique, and certainly uniquely historical valuable as a collection.

Robin

P.S.

Pledges coming in steadily, but still some way to go. I would ask all WSR supporters to think if they might be able to contribute even a little (or perhaps a bigger little!)

As @Jamessquared has said, we could not know if the opportunity will come again.

 

I doubt he'd have listed it on eBay if that were the case!

 

As a general matter of interest, does Railwayana always come with an original "Bill of Sale"?
Judging by the opportunistic removal of items at Barry and elsewhere, I'd think perhaps it is not always the case.
It's worth a reminder ...."nemo dat quod non habit" (which states that the buyer acquires no better title to the goods than the seller had).
Robin L.

 

I don't think that the WSR could establish it has a legal right to the sign simply because it was removed from an asset they now own either though. Railwayana does not always have clear provenance because of the way some of it was acquired (legitimately but without detailed records). Some of it undoubtedly was acquired in "questionable" circumstances, but with passage of time that matters little now.

 

For me the aquisition for that sort of sum, knowing it's not going to be put back where it belongs is not attractive. I regard walls in museums covered with nameplates only mildly interesting, I would rather put the money into something to improve the railway as a working entity, such as the 4110 fund. It's really only an old bit of tat, who knows if it's the original or a recent casting "weathered".

Rob