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

So Tom I assume you do not want Thornbury based on the WSR then?

If we want it we must accommodate it, surely?

Otherwise I suggest we tell him to take it somewhere else!

 

Whether Tom wants it based on the WSR or not is pretty irrelevant. He was pointing out the infrastructure costs of regularly running a heavy locomotive on the line - particularly as said line would appear (according to posts on here) to have a backlog of infrastructure repairs and renewals anyway.

 

Tom can speak for himself, and although he is (almost) a west countryman, he is usually to be found on a footplate in Sussex.

Castles and Kings are magnificent beasts but if we are to see them with any regularity on the WSR, there is a significant infrastructure cost to be engaged with, and if such a sum were available for investment in our Railway, I suspect that opinions would be divided as to how that should be spent.

Robin

 

WHOOPS ! Looks like we have slipped into " Operations " .

 

From the little I have seen of tbe permanent way, there is a huge amount lf work wbich would be necessary to run a castle regularly.
J

 

Well, there is, believe or not, a Thornbury Castle thread.
https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/7027-thornbury-castle.421075/
It is suggested that once completed running in trials would be on the WSR. Also it is intended for hire and main line work. This is news from earlier in the year so may have changed.

 

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Got to agree Robin , after all The Minehead Line never had such locos running on it and to see these fine passenger expresses lurching around at 25 mph , to me it just too painful to watch , especially Flying Scotsman needing to be rescued by a Manor . Long live 4-6-0s

 

Motive power policy for the WSR is down to the stakeholders of the line - just make sure you go into it with eyes wide open as to the actual costs. Coal is the least of your worries.

Tom

 

Operational realism seems absent from that announcement, IMHO.

We now hear that the work is to be done at Tyseley, I believe, and I wish Thornbury’s owner the very best in his ownership. I know he has the drive and enthusiasm to bring his loco ‘back from the dead’. I am sure that there is more than one ‘red route’ line available for necessary running in. On the present WSR that would be limited to Norton to Bishops Lydeard (no significant underline structures) and that would be a real shame.

Robin

 

What 'Red' routes are avalible?

Kingswear is obviously a Double Red, the GCR is as well, I presume.

Mid Hants?

 

Isn't Raveningham Hall a 'Red' Loco?

 

I have an acquaintance who was a High Commissioner for the UK. I don't know whether he was ever an ambassador. I'm not certain where he lives but I think it's somewhere Bristol way.

 

I think you could be correct about that. The Dartmouth line is well engineered and maintained of course.

 

According to my book:

Manor: 17-5
GWR Hall: 18-19
Modified Hall: 19-4
Castle: 19-14
King: 22-10

Robin

 

My reference:
http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_hal.htm
but of course that was, presumably, the GWR nomenclature.

 

Thank you for the link .

 

I'm happy to watch magnificent express passenger locos trundling along at 25 mph if it means I get the opportunity to see and photograph them in action and ride behind them. Seeing them thunder through a station at 75 mph is great, but they're through and gone before you can really appreciate them, and main line tour tickets are a bit outside my budget.

 

GWSR ought to be able to accommodate it.

 

Castles can, and have run on the Mid-Hants and 6024 also in fact.

I thought the plan for Thornbury was for it to join the Vintage Trains fleet, so presumably the "red route" it will mostly run on is the one to Stratford-upon-Avon?

 

Thread drift in the extreme, but Infrastructure should be worry #1 followed by carriages and then locomotives. Not easy to hire in carriages.