West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I think this misses the point about 'one railway' and seems to perpetuate the 'them and us' which we are trying hard to smooth out. The WSR is made up of several different organisations each with a different focus but all contributing to the whole. To the outsider, the junctions between those organisations should be seamless and transparent. It doesn't really matter who does what as long as it is focussed and coordinated. The PLC simple cannot do it all, it does need input from others, one example being the WSRA fundraising activities. The WSSRT is the heritage body on the railway, that's what it was set up to do in 1972. It makes sense for the Trust to take on a full role in that area and to be the heritage watchdogs and champions. Discussions are continuing!
Ian Coleby

 

The EU decided this was a matter best left to individual states, rather than have an EU-wide rule. So @GWR Man. ’s concerns are unfounded since UK law hasn’t changed. Furthermore the abandoned EU proposal was to extend freedom of panorama, not restrict it.

 

The WSSRT was set up to run the summer steam trains (hence its name) as extras to the all-year diesel service which was the original purpose of the WSR plc, not as heritage guardian. Now the WSR plc run the summer steam but it is for the whole season!

The danger of not giving Heritage a seat at the top table is that, as we have seen recently, day-to-day expediency can become the driver and we forget why we are here.

As the only person to spend more than a few days as a member of the Trust, plc and WSRA Boards at the same time, and the originator of the ‘One Railway’ expression, I don’t need lessons in that.

I look forward to continued progress in that direction.

Robin

 

To have the Trust lead on heritage seems a very interesting and promising move. I hope the Trust will accept the proposal. It sheds the Plc of leadership of an area which is rather too far down its list of priorities and it leaves the Plc better placed/resourced to manage the safe running of our Railway along with designing and marketing the right products. It is also a sign that the Plc does not see itself as 'lord and master' of all things WSR.

Steve

 

That's fine, as long as all parties agree how decisions will be made when heritage considerations conflict with operational needs. The new arrangement rather suggests that operations trumps heritage, being closer to the top table. If so, we can expect what happened with the signage to become the norm.

 

Quite.

Robin

 

I seems logical for operational needs to be paramount to heritage considerations: no railway operations would make any 'heritage' immaterial. Put another way a chocolate box without chocolates is usually discarded.

 

A call to arms and one for the Heritage Committee whoever runs it!

It would appear that our Grade 2 listed Dunster station has been vandalised. One of our most complete and original stations that serves an historic village has been 'modernised' in a very cheap and nasty way. The open air gents has been given a transparent multiwall polycarbonate sheeting roof. Who on earth thought that was a good idea? Amazingly it appears that the so called 'Friends' of Dunster station are sponsoring it.

https://www.facebook.com/WSRInfra/photos/pcb.141672019833633/141670966500405/?type=3&theater

Surely this has to be reversed otherwise we are a heritage railway in name only. The roof must go!

 

And how on earth have 15 people LIKED it

 

So after all that what does AIW stand for?
Also QEGS? At a guess Queen Ethelburga's Grammer school which is situated just NW of York

 

Alice In Wonderland. A reference to Robin's use of the word "curious".

 

Well off topic...

Sorry. It is (or rather it was) Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (founded 1496) at Wimborne Minster.

Despite its history, it had little success on this little yokel from the far flung fields upstream. By then, it was the 1960s and it was a very different school to that described here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/7038477875/in/album-72157629719625025/
and by no means up to Sexey standard

Steve

 

Good evening Colleagues of WSR on Nat Pres, I hope the admins allows a begging letter but if not please delete. You may have heard that the WSR is hoping to run an authentic military train throughtout the Spring Steam Gala using an S160 USTC loco. So now we need everyone's help to have 2 tarpaulins to cover our open wagons. We hope to make these from genuine 16 oz Cotten Duck canvas with sisal ropes. The the help of the West Somerset Railway Association who have set up a crowd funding site and underwritten the tarpaulin purchase we are off to a flying start with the first donation already pledged. So we would ask you to go to https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/westsomersetrailwayassociation/heritagewagons to help us to make these wagons really look the part. Thank you in anticipation.
Ken Davidge, Team B Wagon Restoration.

 

Sorry,but is this a wind-up? Assuming it is'nt, presumably the Friends took the entirely sensible view that an "open-air" gents is possibly not a great attraction (particularly at this time of year!) and that customers might appreciate having a roof, which is a commodity not exactly unknown even in buildings a lot older. Given that, by the nature of the facility, patrons are unlikely to spend more than a minute or 2 in it, does it matter what the roof is made of? I imagine the material was chosen for the practical reason that it let the light in.

I don't visit the WSR often, but I have wandered round Dunster station on several occasions, and to say it has been "vandalised" is just absurd.

 

Who is winding up who?

Would this work get Listed Building Consent?

 

Blue Anchor refurbished their gents a few years ago and put a roof with a window set in ....
Washford often mention doing something but ....

 

Sorry folks I forgot to mention that as the WSRA is running this as it is restoration of a heritage vehicle it qualifies for Gift Aid. If you OK the Gift Aid bow for every pound you give 25p is added by the tax man, now that is a bit like getting your own back for all that tax you have paid. Donations show we are now at 8% with the gift aid so lets donate a pound or two and get this done. Many Thanks
Ken

 

Unlikely.

This is why Heritage needs to be ‘core’.

Stations need help to know what to do and what not. I have been working with all WSR stations over GWR Benches over the past three years and we are close to the end of that process.

I have been working with Stogumber Station over the same period and the folk have been making gentle but marked heritage progress.

In the same period the WSR plc contributed sign-Gate, failed to spot the Crowcombe Goods Office had the wrong roof line, roof edges and window construction.

We need an effective heritage structure to promote understanding and help get issues like this right.

Robin

 

Sadly it apparently does have planning approval - https://www.westsomerset.gov.uk/onl...o?activeTab=documents&keyVal=_WSC_DCAPR_27281

It appears that the application was made in March of last year.

Here are some quotes from the railway's 'heritage statement'

The gentlemen’s lavatory at Dunster railway station were constructed at the same time as the main building, between 1871 and 1874
As far as it is possible to tell it has never had a flat roof.
In this day and age the urinals are unusual in being open to the air.

 

Would this be the same Dunster as that place which now has a roof over its mens urinal? Most will not take much notice of it and other appreciate it in cold and inclement weather.