West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Or if you tend to wear a lot of Green, SM is a Sergeant Major.

 

Given the context

and that post #9928, which started the hare here on NatPres*, was quoting from the WSR Staff site, I surmised at first that it stood for "Staff Management".

* Abbreviation acceptable?

But regardless of all that, Happy Christmas to all.

 

Noted re the WSRA. Unfortunately a number of people cannot distinguish between the two. It is very unfortunate that it had to be made public but there seemed no alternative. It was not a step taken lightly by me, or those who passed the information to me because they had been effectively gagged. I am glad that the Chairman is takiung steps to rectify the situation that was not of his making. Let us give him a chance to do so. The full details and reasons may emerge in due course but not from me.

 

Just for clarification I am not a volunteer though I have been in the past. The people who passed the information to me had sought a solution but none was forthcoming. See post 10023.

 

A Prayer for Peace and Unity on the West Somerset Railway 2018

Dear God of this Wonderful Railway
Hallowed be thy customers
For they art King
May all who serve thee
On thy little Minehead branch
Be they paid or volunteer
Chairman or cleaner
Let that not be forgotten.

And as 2018 doth beckon
Let us proceed
In a spirit of unity and common purpose
Of optimism and determination.

Let us recognise and face the challenges ahead
Let us not shy away
From difficult discussions
From difficult truths
From difficult decisions
From the reality of our situation
Let us be not like an ostrich
With head in the sand.

But let us deal with this positively
Cast aside our grinding axes
Let us speak not of shareholder revolt
Let us leapeth not to conclusions
Before checking the facts
For this is the path not of righteousness
But of destruction.

May management possess the grace
To listen
To learn
To heareth bright ideas
To spend time with their staff
And their volunteers
In a spirit of openness and honesty.

May management recognise
That volunteers giveth their time for free
And might not always do what you want
But generally meaneth well
And haveth much to offer
And giveth their all
Thank them much
Encourage them in their ways
Understand their potential
Promote their achievements.

Yet may volunteers possess the grace
To listen
To learn
To heareth bright ideas
To recognise that management is but human
And haveth a railway to run
With multiple pressures
Which may not be widely understood
Yet generally they meaneth well
And haveth much to offer
And giveth their all too.

And may volunteers recognise
That the management team is new
And inexperienced in the ways of thy Minehead branch
Yet bringeth with them new ideas
From the outside world
Some of which might be of value
Sullied not by Association
With the ancient tribes of war
Steer them from perilous rocks
Yet giveth them chance to succeed
For Rome was not built in a day.

And if differences exist
Let us discuss these openly
And in person
Be not paranoid
For the stick may be held at the wrong end
Cast away the chains of e-mail
Plot Not
Make it not personal
Remember where we be
It is only a railway in West Somerset
For God's sake
And not a Shakespearean Tragedy
Think twice, nay thrice, about airing thy grievances on NatPres
Or the Book of Face
Though it may be very tempting
But it causeth bad blood
And wasteth much time.

May we be conscious of thy Book of Policies
(Which hath existed for a good few years now)
(And may be found on the Staff Services Website)
And may we all as staff and volunteers
In our wish to be treated as equals
Hath respect for thy policies
And if we hath trouble with thy policies
Let us seek first a resolution quietly and without fanfare.

So God of this Wonderful Railway
In conclusion
Let us work together
Let us all have respect for one another
Paid or volunteer
For together we prosper
But divided we fall.

Amen.

(with apologies to any professional poets, or clergy)

 

Train times on West Somerset Railway for 27 & 28 & 31 December 2017 and 1 January 2018

and train times for 29 & 30 December 2017

See wsr.org.uk/times for more details

Steve

 

Does anyone know which way the engines will be facing for the Winter Steam Festival? Photos on WSR.ORG suggest they may all be facing Minehead. Thanks.

 

lochness8,

A very eloquent and gracious way of putting what a lot of folk will be thinking. I wish I had such a way with words.

 

But spoilt for me by the inclusion of the "-th" ending in various inappropriate places.

 

Moving away from the posts about social media, which I assume have some big background history for those at the railway, I was wondering why the DMU was being used as a replacement for the failed 53809 during the Winter Steam Up. The WSR has some excellent and rare mainline diesel locos, are these all winterised or just too expensive to operate?
I had planned to drive over from Swanage one day to have a ride behind the Manor and 53809, both of which I have little mileage behind. Not sure I will now bother now it is only the Manor of the two that will be operating, although a Hymek for example would have been a good substitute for the 7F. Of course a small amount of the white stuff having fallen may change my mind.

 

No method of heating the coaches I believe.

 

The stock is steam heated - the diesels cannot provide the steam. The DMU comes with its own heating

But do come over anyway. Good day out - and a big plus - there's good food aboard the Quantock Belle services - no need to book but do be early!

Steve

 

That would make sense many thanks gwalkeriow.

 

I assume there is some technical reason that prevents Ryan Pope’s loco from providing steam on the move behind a diesel.

 

It's all very well suggesting Ryan's loco, but does it have steam heat and vac brake pipework fitted, is it able to run at line speed and is its lubrication up to a full round trip at that speed?

 

Which is exactly why I asked the question. I don’t have the technical knowledge so I hoped somebody would explain.

 

Having had involvement with an RSH 040 industrial those were the questions that sprang to mind. Thinking back i seem to recall one of the WSR industrials has been on carriage warming duty, so vac brakes and steam heat sound like they are covered. With regards to speed and lubrication industrials are generally quite small wheeled for low speed tractive effort and lubtication is quite rudimentary due to the short distances involved in shunting work, although in preservation some are up rated to cope with longer runs.

 

If only the eth cables hadn't been removed....

 

It's rather more complicated than that. Please read the detailed post from Mr Aberdare.

 

So: ETH removed, unlikely to come back any time soon as per previous comments.

Perhaps it’s time to invest in a ‘steam heating’ boiler fitted coach or retro fit a CCT? If the Irish version worked well in the past, I can’t see why a modern day equivalent couldn’t be produced?

You’d then just take the vehicle with you, save dragging a steam engine around. Et voila: Diesel hauled winter trains!