West Somerset Railway General Discussion

It's coming up to 3 months since the WSRA have had a board meeting!

DJB.

 

Before "blocks" or "pineapple chunks" as they are sometimes nicknamed, I believe "Jeyes fluid" or similar was liberally used.

 

Far from it. The conservation officers and planners well know that there has to be some compromise between practicality and preservation. That is why the Turntable Cafe at Minehead is a complete contrast to the historic parts of mInehead Station rather than a an old style pastiche. You can see similar buiildings at the Louvre in Paris and the British Museaum in Lnndon. If you want to see an excellent adaptation take a look at the disabled toilet on Minehead station that is just as good as any in a modern building. Whatever you want to call it the WSR, Just like other preserved railway the WSR is totally dependent on the general public to survive and they, quite reasonably, expect modern catering and toilet facilities.

 

Colloquially known as 'rock candy' when I was at school!

 

Shame then that we didn't take the opportunity to put a bus shelter on Doniford Halt when it was built ......

 

Totally agree. Modern building should never try to iminate the past particularly when built along side historic building, but be proud of their modern design pedigree and compare and contrast. ‘Yorkshire’ has listed some good examples.

 

There seem to be conflicting claims here about whether there was originally a slate roof or no roof on the toilets.

My personal view is that if there was no roof originally, maintaining that situation does have a certain period charm, and given this would only be over the urinals you're not going to get much wetter than you did walking along the platform to the toilet.

 

Well you could always catch Eurostar and enjoy yourself in France.

Failing that why not remove the roof and re-name the station Clochmerle! Now there is history/heritage for you.

 

This was before the work - https://www.westsomerset.gov.uk/onl...FDE6F483E9A8/pdf/3_10_17_001-PHOTO-149169.pdf

As stated above it was always possible to use the loo without standing in the rain.

 

I am sure that there would have been a lot of cribbing if 90% of Flying Scotsman had been replaced with parts that it hadn't carried originally or the windows on the WSR replaced with uPVC. Better to keep your straw for other uses than stuffing manikins.
I fail to see how NOT removing the original slate roof and simply putting another roof over it or next to it would have cost more. Nor would it have cost any more to get Crowcombe goods office looking right. There is no point in building a replica goods office to show what was there if it doesn't show what was there.

 

Dunster is not the only railway to have roofless Gents . Last time I visited the Mid-Hants Railway the Gents at Alton Station , at least the Heritage part of the station did not have a roof on the Gents . As for 'modernised ' pubs ' now having covered Gents they aren't playing the Heritage card whereas the WSR do .

 

Toiletgate!

 

I believe the most recent WSRA board meeting was held on Friday 19th January. An informative synopsis usually appears in the documents section of the WSRA website a few days later, so must be imminent.

 

Deleted

 

Francophobes needn't cross their legs during the Eurostar crossing. From an unknown Flickr site, a Severn Valley gem:


..... and this website's moniker alone justifies inclusion of it's url: http://www.urinal.net/seven_valley_railway/

 

Does that SVR structure has a roof? Is it highly aromatic?

 

There was a completely automatic system for dealing with the flush, and the associated odours.

Low maintenance, always available, I really don't know what the fuss was about. It is beautiful in its simplicity.

 

WSR Heritage

Let’s try some propositions we should all agree with.

(1) GOOD that this subject has generated interest.

(2) GOOD that putting a structure in place to deal with that is on the agenda.

(3) The structure must be effective.

This requires:

(3A) it is staffed by folks who know something about GWR /. BR(W) Heritage.

(3B) it can influence WSR plc activities.

(3C) it can reach out to, engage with and support and inform volunteer groups such as Station groups.

(4) proposed structures can be tested against the above by asking if it would have prevented the Heritage ‘fails’ associated with Crowcombe Goods Office and the crossing signage.

Let’s see.

Robin

 

Apart from our halt I think that it would be illegal to operate a drone in the vicinity of all of the other stations. Are staff briefed on the action to be taken should a drone be operated in the vicinity of the stations or a train?