West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Most things are possible, and it’s not unusual for a railway with a relative surplus to hire out a loco to a railway with a relative dearth.

However for a straight swap - each loco move could easily run into four figures; more if it is a tender loco (double the cost). So if railways A and B swap locos for a year, the total cost just of the moves alone could easily run into five figures. It’s one thing to bear that transport cost when the alternative is not running a service at all; quite another when you already have the locos to cover your requirement but just want to shake things up a bit.

So each partner has got to be really sure of the appeal of what they are getting to make it work.

Tom

 

What I have noticed is the ' normals ' do notice the names of locos and some don't understand why unnamed locos are that way .

 

Sent that man to the naughty corner!!!!

(Southern Steve is my other moniker)

 

Ah! but a good many, mums, dads, uncles, aunts and grandparents have delight in reading and informing their young charges with a name, particularly one the young folks cannot see or read.
Children do know the names of the characters in those books - it does not necessarily mean that they are able to read nameplates . I guess there are still some people who can tear themselves away from tv and computers to read books to their children/grandchildren.

 

Locos with tenders frequently get moved around for just a five day gala. I can imagine that for example the S&D 2-8-0 in Cumbria with a Fairburn 2-6-4T in Somerset would certainly be value for money especially as one of the road vehicles could work a return trip.

 

I'm well aware of that, and I'm not saying it is impossible; merely that you would have to be really sure of your figures to incur that sort of cost unnecessarily. Ironically, I suspect it may be easier to bear at a gala when you can create a real buzz for a few days, rather than spread over a year. And if you have been reading the forum for any length of time, you'd be aware that there is at least a train of thought amongst more than a few that questions whether even many galas are really directly cost effective. (They probably have certain indirect benefits, of course).

Tom

 

As i see it, the only way swapping locos can work if its spread between several railways, for instance, if Swanage , Bluebell and Midhants did a tripartide deal i'm not sure what loco's etc, or for how long, what if say 76017 went to the bluebell, 73082 went to Swanage, and 34053 Came to ropley, and after 4 months, each engine, moved to the next railway, and so on, each are capable of working any train each railway would wish to haul, and the costs of the transport were split 3 ways, ?

 

Locos do get moved around for galas and a lot of people question whether this is truly a cost effective thing to do. Moving an S&D 2-8-0 from Somerset to Cumbria would probably leave little change out of £5K as it requires two low loaders and a crew of two for each move. If it requires a police escort for some of the journey, that will add hundreds. It's then got to come back, again. Backloading doesn't save much.

 

Could we please keep this thread for just WSR Operations. The last few pages could apply to numerous other railways, could the mods move them to a separate thread please.

 

I think that there are 2 more factors to be considered here. The first is Mums want nay demand nice clean loos. This is their most important consideration when the subject of a repeat visit is raised. Secondly normals and gricers are not the only people in the equation, there are the volunteers. I am no expert not having been directly involved in preservation for 40 years but I suspect that they are keen on visiting engines and some approximation to originality. The SDR is, I believe, a pretty commercial operation so will adjust their policies to suit but for an operation with a higher proportion of volunteers contributing to the overall success then a few visiting locomotives and a more intensive service (also known as a gala) funded by gricers is always a good fillip.

 

I don't think the standards are sufficiently different to make an impact plus the three railways are quite close so it's relatively easy to travel to see these locos on their own railway. If however three locos is a good idea then you could add in the Schools from NYMR. With the Fairburn and the S&D 2-8-0 you then have three distinctive locos which are not normally represented at the other two and would therefore be a significant attraction.

 

I feel a need to confess to lococentricity.

I now realise it's a filthy perversion and I should be ashamed. I suppose I just kept telling myself an interest in steam locomotives was a harmless hobby. I'm sorry.

 

All this talk of swapping engines around is lunacy. Where is the business case, especially for the proposed shuffle between the SR, BR and MHR?? Moving things for a gala has a defined cost for a forecast-able outcome. Start shuffling things between railways for no other reason than to "ring the change" is a crackpot way of spending the sort of money that could pay for the repaint of a carriage or more. Most importantly though, it would have no payback, because the majority of customers would not care, only the enthusiasts, and they are more than adequately served by galas, and many of those are not nearly as profitable as I think many enthusiasts would like to believe, due to the high costs of transport. Finally, the real nail in the coffin of so many moves that I know should have taken place is the will / decisions / prejudices (take your pick and apply as required) of the locomotive owners, who are often not the railway, and in the example given I think none of the locos are owned by the railway on which they are based.

 

Equally not unusual for a railway to keep hiring in locos, but struggle to keep their promises to return the favour.

 

And just to complete my "rant" on this subject ... there is an implicit assumption that the maintenance standards between all the railways are the same, and the water quality is equal as well, otherwise there is a hidden cost. As it happens I think the SR, BR and MHR are all pretty much in the same place on these points, and help each other out anyway (Ask where significant lumps of Sheffield Park's Schools are at present, or note the boiler fittings on certain of our engines that have been kindly lent by others) but the water question is possibly different (our water chemistry is a bit different - though all quite good) and the level of cooperation and consistency of approach that the three mentioned have to engineering at least may not apply to all railways. ..... and then there is operation of the locos, and spending 50% of the day climbing at 1 in 60 and 50% braking down the same is very different to the operational cycle of other railways. That has been known to create many challenges, that are usually not an issue over a gala, but might well be so over the course of an extended series of "round robin" exchanges.

I apologise to the WSR guys for the hijacked thread I promise to behave myself from now on.

 

The advantage of swapping over galas is that there is no hire cost, transport cost is shared and the payback comes over a complete season. I may be completely out of touch but I believe that many contributors to these columns would go out of their way to see a Fairburn or Schools on the WSR. I was also under the impression that my examples were all owned by their respective railways, if not there will be others.

Of course the example is just that and compatibility would need to be sorted as would availability, but each railway would gain the advantage of something fresh for those who have "been there, done that".

 

So if it cost say £12k to do the engine swap and the engine did 7 months work that will only need approx 3 extra full price tickets a day to be sold for people who would come to the railway because this engine is visiting the railway.

 

That only works if the visiting loco is working every day non stop for 7 months though!

 

Here here!

Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using Tapatalk

 

Here, here, here?

Robin
(This morning.)