West Somerset Railway General Discussion

As a semi-interested complete outsider I have to say that If you wish to deny these people the oxygen of publicity you collectively need to stop referring to them on this site. I had almost completely forgotten about it until it was mentioned and inevitably just went there to see what all the talk is about. In doing so I have added to the hit counter and this in some small way can only further encourage them.

Its all complete b@//0(£s of course and not worth the keystrokes to visit. Its 60s of my life I will never get back. but if I am representative of the average viewer of this thread, it's creating a significant amount of traffic to them and compounding the problems you are trying to avoid.

The best measure is for anyone with the WSR interests at heart who has directly or indirectly referred to 'it' to delete all reference to 'it' and forget about 'it'. I'll check back later and do the same. If there is legal action that can prevent any libelous statements then this would be an avenue but discussing it on here only serves their cause.

 

Meanwhile, is there any news about the litigation concerning the shares? I am of course not seeking any detail, but just some indication of whether the case is progressing, heading towards a conclusion, temporarily delayed or what.

 

The WSRA annual report and AGM minutes said very little but it is ongoing.

 

Just love it , " but you started it , no I didn't , yes you did when you invaded Poland " ha , ha !

 

From reading the well constructed and perfectly sensible post, it's fairly obvious why it was raised.
Yesterday someone raised the issue of a website. This poster has suggested that people cease doing that. What's not to understand?

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There are fairly regular updates in the WSRA board minutes - published on their website. It’s slowly progressing.

 

Every time it is mentioned the site get more hits. The sort of stupidity shown by the site thrives on the oxygen of publicity. That is why it is best to totally ignore the issue.

 

I'm looking for people willing to spend a couple of hours delivering 'Volunteering on the WSR' leaflets to properties in villages and towns along the route of the WSR. You can do a specific street or area or you can do a whole town - the choice is yours. We need to have the leaflets out ASAP as we are short of volunteers on the Railway and this could be your chance to help. Please contact rodney.greenway@wsrail.net and we can arrange for the leaflets to be delivered to you. We are hoping that targeted drops will help to bolster the volunteers at stations and departments along the line.

 

Its called free speech........and it allows people to look at all info available and come up with their own views/opinions.

 

Love to help but what with ferries and suchlike not possible .

 

Whatever the 'History' web site contains - true or false, take your pick - I cannot agree with the censorship advocated by some who do not agree with its comments, particularly as the censors are not those actually mentioned in the texts.

 

How do you know the site gets more hits?
Are you logged on to it yourself ?

 

well we know what camp your in!

 

Actually I am in no 'camp' as you put it. I just believe that there are always two sides to a coin. Your post does support my view however that any criticism in this tread instantly causes some to pull up the drawbridge and rush to the battlements.

 

well I am quite confident that you are well informed of the history of the ex six and stand by my previous post

 

Bill anyone who has been a reader of this thread for any length of time knows all about the recent history of the WSRA (and I don't mean anything on that other web site) -and its protagonists. I am not acquainted with anyone with WSR connections, past or present. Many here have a sadness that so much money has been wasted and believe it still is haemorrhaging. Even non-WSR folk look forward to certain locomotives being back in service, but unless people - as usual - dig deep into their pockets that will not happen for years. I am unlikely to see them in steam.
Thankfully the PLC now seem to have an idea to go it alone with 4110.

 

well it seems we do agree on something and I too am pretty ancient and will donate to a fund for said loco even though will probably not see it running

 

If the PLC "goes it alone" on 4110, they would appear to be in danger of tearing up the agreement which was reported in the latest WSRA annual report https://www.wsra.org.uk/wp-content/...rset-Railway-Association-31-December-2017.pdf (p.3). I am sure there are some in the WSRA who would see this as confirmation of their long-held belief of the plc's perfidy, but equally the plc may be wondering when 4561 will be completed as, as of September last year (https://www.wsra.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Locomotive-4561-presentation..pdf), it needed another £210,000 last year to remedy previous work and complete, and there is only £39,000 in the kitty, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Changing the subject slightly, I think the WSR does pretty well overall, as they seem more than usually reliant on commercial revenue and have no captive charity chugging in substantial sums of cash each year. For my own edification, but it might be of interest to others, I prepared the attached summary of performance for the past five years. This is based on the Statements of Cash Flows but re-jigged slightly to make it (IMHO) more informative. The level of information provided in the PLC accounts is not bad, which makes it a simpler exercise than for some other railways.

For those not so familiar with Statements of Cash Flows, this is perhaps the most informative of the three components of the accounts (balance sheet, P&L and SCF), and essentially it reconciles the financial performance for the year to the net effect on cash balances, and thus ignores non-cash movements (or accounting hocus pocus if you prefer). I have also re-stated the starting profit before tax to exclude donations. Donations are included in PBT by accounting convention, and there is an argument that this is regular enough to be a legitimate budgeted expectation, but I prefer to start with the profit from commercial operations and then treat donations as a financing source. This treatment also corresponds with my view that a preserved railway’s management makes an unwritten contract with its supporters, that in return for providing an operation which the supporters approve of (presumably) both as to scale and nature, the supporters agree to fund the shortfall, although that does not always happen of course. For 2016, I have ignored the £309,000 accounting profit consequent on a change in treatment of loco overhaul provisions, which rather distorts the headline PBT figure.

The adjustments below Adjusted PBT are to reflect non-cash movements and the change in working capital (e.g. an increase in debtors or stock, or a reduction in creditors, requires a corresponding application of cash). This area is quite volatile year on year. The provision for loco repair also comes in here as it is not per se a movement of cash. Deducting the Capex (purchase of fixed assets) then gives the total amount provided by, or more usually, absorbed by operations. This then has to be funded by issue of shares, loans, donations (adopting my paradigm), and drawing on cash balances.

There are limitations of course on what the financials will illuminate for a not-for-profit supported by volunteers, and it is possible that if say the WSST was picking up the costs of a member of staff, this may not show up in the accounts of the plc at all.

There are one or two things I do not entirely understand e.g. in the latest “Strategic Report”, it is stated that £186,000 was spent on track, and later the figure of £250,000 is given (perhaps including some spend in 2016?), whereas the figure in the accounts is £367,000 (which admittedly includes signalling). Although it does not concern my analysis, rentals under operating leases for rolling stock are in the accounts at £264,000, whereas a figure of £369,000 is quoted for “stock hire” in the Strategic Report, although this may include other types of contractual payment.

I think what is revealed is not such a bad performance when measured against its peers, but expenditure on the permanent way looks to have been a bit on the low side historically for such a long railway, it has been living on its fat recently (the cash balance has reduced by £726,000 in the last three years), and the railway (like its peer group railways) needs a larger, and reliable year in year out, external source of funding from one or more supporting bodies (in 2017, there is only mention of a grant from the WSST of £7,336, which is tucked away in the Transactions with Directors note). Plenty of challenges for the board!

 

6046 had yet another unreliable day today, causing significant timetable changes and delays. Struggling on slopes, and feeling like its being driven like a car with the handbrake on. Great to look at when it goes, but surely time to cut losses and get rid of it, its a liability.