West Somerset Railway - Removal of the PLC Chairman and related matters

I once attempted to date a girl whose father was at School with Arthur C Clarke, does that qualify me as intelligent life?

What about an 'Arthur C Clarke' special event?

 

Arthur’s brother, Fred Clarke, was an active volunteer in the early days of the line.

There were, allegedly, some less savoury aspects to Arthur, which probably makes this not the best idea. Besides, we have plenty of extra-terrestrials already...

Robin
(Originally from Mars, and now a Venusian)

 

Should I reply ? Damned if I do, damned if I do not.

My posting beginning "Not quite the whole story" has been taken down as is the Moderators right.

Why "consuming cash ?"

The Rally in 2017 net of ALL costs generated £47K
Similarly 50/50 club and raffle £7K
Aggregate Sales £5K
Other income ( donations to the loco fund) £24K
Equipment sales £21K
ie £104K

Additionally the shop generated net of bought out costs £119K . There are salaries to be taken off this
but certainly £60K net of all costs.

The Membership subscription one reasonably assumes should pay the Association's running
costs (other Heritage Railways manage to generate contributions to their Railways from
Membership fees alone)

Any Promotions profit ( effectively as dividends) accrues to the Association free of tax.

(The business plan submitted to the Membership at the 2016 AGM concentrated on two areas,
Membership growth and Fund Raising.)

The Rally, 50/50 Club, other income (donations), sale of MK1 FO (money to be put towards the
loco fund I was told) and arguably net of costs aggregate sales are all fundraising activities ie
well in excess of £100K yet the cash during the year has only risen by £48K. ( only £300
was paid out in grants)

There were in 2017 significant spending on legal costs, but less than £20K

The shops 'profits' were presumably used to support Promotions, specifically Williton ?

As I said before if the Shop and the Rally ( both well managed stand alone activities )
operated separately they would generate for the Railway, even allowing for a £10K
additional admin costs £100K.

I suggest the WSRA is 'consuming cash' , the acceptance of expenditure on legal costs I
guess depends whether you think the pursuance of the 4160 issue is a good use of scarce
resources. The apparent financial support to the trading subsidiary would appear
to be inappropriate,

(I agree with every thing you say wrt the Plc, I have been bemoaning the fall in cash reserves
for the last three years including at the AGMs.

The Plc has a new Board, I am sure they are well aware of the challenges.)

I will not be posting further on this issue many will be pleased to hear.

Michael Rowe

 

By contrast, the finances of the WSRA appear to be fair game which is all the more surprising given the earlier statements that there are no personal grudges or angles with the ousting of the plc Chairman.

When will the current board, or their unofficial spokesman, get around to issuing a statement to shareholders and stakeholders that explains the recent action ?

 

Maybe a little off topic, but perhaps relevant to the discussion on WSRA finances.

I notice in the current issue of Railway Magazine that there is a full page on the proposed restoration of Thornbury Castle at Tyseley. What happened to the plan that was announced with a great fanfare a while back that this work was to be done at Williton?

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My perception is that your assertion that the PLC seeks to be in total charge is unfair. In recent times PDG ( Partnership Development Group ) was formed. Not only are all the component parts of the WSR represented but it also includes local councils. SCC have undertaken that should the F/H become available it will be the PDG that negotiates on behalf of WSR. The present chair is the WSRA chair. This is not , I would suggest, a sign that the PLc is in total charge.

You may well feel this is a fig leaf to cover the real issue but I hope that this structure can bring the various components of the railway closer and clarify their individual roles. We shall see.

( from a static caravan 199 yards from WSR)

 

At its AGM last weekend, the NYMR announced that it has secured around 75% of the funding for its "Yorkshire's Magnificent Journey" project. This follows on from major grants from the Coastal Communities fund (new platform at Whitby) and HLF (Pickering Station refurbishment and roof which in turn are on top of the £1M or so it generates in capital investment each year. which has seen 12.5% of the line relaid in new materials in the last two years. It's not just the NYMR, other railways are generating big investment too

The real nub of the WSR problem seems to me that it relies almost solely on its revenue for its investment and we never hear of significant amounts of external funding being generated. I don't believe that it can continue to meet its investment needs without outside sources, and it seems to me that the real priority should be for all parties to sit around a table and agree how to achieve that!

 

Roger, there is some information about Williton in the History web site. Maybe this might explain why the loco is at Tyseley. I have no idea of the accuracy regarding the renting part to a private company that is mentioned - folk would have to decide for themselves.

 

I am not sure I agree with your implication that other, even comparable, organisations would have been fulsome with their explanations (if any) following board or personnel changes. Perhaps @flying-scotsman123 could remind us what was said publicly when Alan Bielby abruptly stepped down as chairman at the GWSR? I have not seen any explanation. Changes in personnel have happened at the GCR in the recent past without any timely announcement or explanation, I am sure there are other examples. The WSR plc also (as far as I am aware) said little or nothing(?) when their previous finance director stepped down, even though resignation from that office is normally considered significant, but that did not seem to provoke any comments. I agree that prima facie it seems a strange situation that demands immediate removal of the chairman but permits keeping him on the board, and an explanation would be helpful. One suspects that it might be difficult to avoid commentary on personalities, although that perhaps should have been taken into account when the decision was made. BTW, if you are looking for a new chairman, ex-ambassadors are pretty good value - they are usually totally lacking in self consciousness, can open doors, especially if they have a title, know a lot of people, are good at cocktail parties, and lack the technical knowledge to interfere in people's jobs. Unfortunately they probably all retire to the home counties these days.

 

I believe Alan resigned due to personal reasons unknown. I was away at university at the time and didn't get back for some time afterwards, that was all I extracted from a chat with someone later, I rather got the impression that was all anyone knew. I was pleased to see Alan on crossing keeper duty earlier this year though, so clearly not gone completely. I'm pretty certain I'd have heard if there was anything more to it than that, as with Alan's predecessor.

 

I thought I read that what was wonderful about the deal , bringing local employment to Williton ?

 

I'd also thought it had gone to Tyseley, however I was surprised to see Thornbury in a scrap yard in Dorset about 2 weeks ago.

 

According to the RM article, it was on display at the Great Dorset Steam Fair before moving to Tyseley.

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Ok, the scrap yard was in the middle of the Great Dorset Steam Fair, they did a brilliant job of mocking up a complete scrap yard with around 50 old traction engines, trucks and old cranes surrounded by rusty tin over quite a large area and Thornbury in pride of place. On a more serious note it would be great to see Thornbury and Kinlet back on the WSR with a home and as a part of the scene here.

 

Again according to the article, JJP is quoted as saying he hopes that both Thornbury and Kinlet will be available to work on the WSR for maybe two or three months each year when not required for Vintage Trains mainline operations.

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I am not sure the WSR P.Way Department share the enthusiasm for a Castle in regular use on a ‘blue’ route.

Robin

 

Don't you want it on the WSR then Robin?

What is the difference between a Castle and Scotsman I wonder and we wanted Scotsman didn't we?

 

When I worked for the ‘big railway’ I was trained to deal with and worked often to deal with exceptional movements. There is a world of difference between the occasional passage of an overweight item, with restrictions such as speed over particular underline structures, and ‘regular’ use of a significantly overweight locomotive.

Robin

 

It's the difference between a gala visitor running a very limited mileage sold at a premium price, and a day-in, day-out loco running a big mileage at normal prices.

Infrastructure renewal is the big worrying cost for a heritage railway, because it is hard to raise money for, but if you have no infrastructure, you have no railway. If you have a loco shortage, you can hire in, for a cost - not ideal, but possible. You can't hire in a replacement bridge ...

Tom