West Somerset Railway General Discussion

As I said earlier, I received no such request. I think maybe some of us are seeing footprints in the snow, footprints possibly made by a woozle

Steve

 

One of the organizations I belong to and support is a well established transport museum. It holds many events on site and trips to other similar events. In their monthly news bulletin (available in print or electronically) I am informed about and invited to these events. I also see how vehicle restorations and the other vital maintenance are progressing and of particular interest to me are those vehicles that I help support and wish to see running again. Not a PLC but a charitable trust but fortunately it lacks the infighting, recriminations and haemorrhage of money that many heritage railway organizations seem to suffer from.

 

Well I'd say there's pretty stiff competition! But yes, the WSR does come across as still arguing between each other despite the old trustees being kicked out 2 years ago, and it would probably be worthwhile taking a step back and thinking about how they're perceived on here at the very least because of that.

 

What happens to the Rally money? Swallowed up in costs so my source at Williton tells me.

 

What’s a woozle?

Are they found on Somerset or only in Darzet, Steve?

 

Hampshire. A.A.Milne

 

You should ignore alligators.

 

Well put. The way thing's were going at Minehead during the 6+1 spleen venting episode was cringemakingly embarrassing to me as an outsider and I felt deeply for the sane 99% of WSR/WSRA members who must have been mortified at the way in which a small contingent of purblind egomaniacs seemed to be doing their best to turn that wonderful line into a public laughing stock by choosing to completely ignore the seriously debiitating and utterly unneccessary effect their behaviour was having. When matters hit the mainstream media, it began to reflect not merely on the wider WSR, which was bad enough, but threatened to tarnish the entire heritage railway movement in the eyes of the very public on whose essential goodwill it relies in order to survive, let alone thrive.

The self-evident fact that some are clearly incapable of learning from that sad debacle speaks volumes about their skewed priorities. Strongly held views on a line's direction are one thing, as is robust debate, which is fine and always to be ecouraged IMO, but (and in this instance, to hell with my usual diplomatic approach) ..... there are some folks who seriously need to get a grip PDQ, before kicking it all off again and making us all look like a sad bunch of self-centred obsessive lunatics. To put it bluntly, the heritage movement doesn't need it .... or the people who cause it. The patience shown by many towards the guilty parties is a finite resource, which was wantonly squandered in full measure last time around.

Here endeth the rant. I'm going to put the kettle on. Peace!

Howard aka 30854 (who this time, was very close to Effingham!)

 

Wrong. Just a few ill-informed malcontents who constantly snipe just to satify their own egos. The problem is if the same falsehoods are repeated enough times people begin to believe them. Hence the need for them to be challeneged.

 

Tunbridge Wells, surely.

But the point is well made.

Robin

 

I'm sure it's only a small % of people doing the arguing, but I'm talking about the perception. Check out equivalent threads for most other lines and you might see what I mean.

 

Ashdown Forest. Details here, but your geography was better than mine!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poohsticks

 

Meanwhile the crowfund for the £400.00 to pay for the tarpaulins for the military train went past its total in about 2 days with £430.00 + £67.50 gift aid.

 

I'm not that angry Robin!

 

That's a first Robin, you don't know what a woozle is? How are you on Heffalumps?

 

Cold but sunny today so Team B have made a start on the second open wagon. Off to the tarpaulin factory tomorrow to place the order. Planning on finishing both wagons by the end of February.

 

Gosh! A scale!

In those far-off days when I managed a bit of the Railway in Kent, Headcorn and Staplehurst were among my Stations. I would go out there when we had a difficult evening (yep, I know, management out among the trouble - unusual).

Headcorn had the stockbrokers living nearby. Mrs Stockbroker would be waiting in a Volvo estate to collect hubby. I’d explain the difficulty and they would thank me and return to listening to ‘The Archers’.

But Staplehurst had the new housing and the stockbrokers clerks, still making their name. Same explanation but different response. Far more angry, threats of letters to MP’s, requests for my name etc etc.

Sigh! Happy Days.

Robin

 

I suspect that the toxic 6 episode attracted a number of voyeurs to this site, many have no connection with the WSR but for whatever reason are still here
Most other lines have their issues but deal with them off social media.

 

Maybe your last line has a message for you?
If you object to non WSR/WSRA people posting in this thread then maybe NP should close it. You can then set up your own Forum on the WSRA web site and have the opportunity to delete the posts you do not like.

 

As one of the small band of heritage railway lawyers, I am regularly asked to advise on organisational and employment difficulties across the heritage railway sector, to assist with investigations and to advise on policy issues. I average one or two requests every week. Those matters are, necessarily, confidential.

Not since the difficulties the Mid Hants faced some years ago has their been such difficulties from such an intransigent group who would not listen to help and advice. There were those who persisted until quite late with the ‘X6’ on brlievimg that talk was going to sort matters out. It was, regrettably, obvious, from early on, that that was not so. Regrettably, the time necessary to build a consensus amongst the ‘opposition’ allowed matters to occur such as the X6 frittering away the WSRA’s hard-won reserves and improperly disposing of the 4160 shares.

Unfortunately also, it was necessary to use social media and other public methods to build the coalition that led, eventually to the 1628 to 70 (IIRC) vote that ended that part of the problem. There was no other way to achieve that without washing a fair amount of dirty linen in public.

Fault was by no means wholly with the WSRA originally. The WSR plc (a long time ago now) acted in a way which was a significant contributor to the difficulties. The WSR structure tends to promote the likelihood of those difficulties occurring and requires an ‘inclusive’ approach to make things work together. That has to be in actuality not just in name, and poses management tasks of considerable difficulty and complexity which require ability and application to solve, within the highly specialist, regulated and unusual environment that is a volunteer-worked heritage railway.

The ability to draw on the skills of those who can contribute to such tasks will determine success or failure. That also requires a large dose of the ‘inclusive’ approach set out above, especially when difficult decisions have to be made.

I would commend the Coombes Report (still available on the WSRA website I believe) to anyone who has to deal with such matters elsewhere.

Robin