West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Two ways:

(1) If you have a friend who does use Facebook, they could transfer for you, or

(2) E-mail me and I will pass your pledge on to the WSRA Manager, Jacquie Green who will be in touch. For anyone on Nat Pres who doesn’t have my e-mail, PM me.

Plenty of opportunity to donate as we need 4 x £800 !

Robin

 

slightly off this subject,a few posts ago you mentioned the shares in 4160 and that the assoc.hoped to retrieve them .If you are successful what if anything will change since i believe that said engine is no longer on the railway?yours graham

 

Looks like just a mere sprinkling to me.Nothing to be worried about.

 

The recovery of those shares is a matter which may require litigation and the Trustees have decided that, for now, no public statements will be made about that, for obvious reasons.

Robin

 

I'm not sure that's the right way to go with the railway itself in such dire straights, surely the money would be better spent trying to keep the railway open or at least wait until it's back on it's feet.

DJB.

 

We are a heritage railway. If we do not continue to work on heritage, then we are just a fairground ride. Would you suggest the WSSRT stop work on GWR BCK 6705? Or station groups stop their work? Or I not cut the signwriting mask for a wagon tomorrow? Or...

The (very favourable) deal we have with the foundry is time limited.

I am pleased to say that we have already had some very generous offers this evening on this.

Of course, what you choose to support is a matter of personal choice. The important thing is TO support some part of the Railway in its various parts. It is always easy to find reasons not to do things.

Robin

 

A mask?!

 

You might call it a stencil. Pictures to follow.

Robin

 

DJB
The Association as a Charity can only work within the legal framework of the WSRA Articles of Association. This does not extend to contributing to operating expenses.
See:

https://www.wsra.org.uk/wp-content/...ssociation-Articles-of-Association-170930.pdf


Thread drift: Does anyone know who won the 100,000GBP (plus VAT?) lottery today?

 

What's the point in having resplendent stations with no operating railway, cart before the horse.

DJB.

 

Dennis

You can’t have a horse and cart without both the horse and the cart.

Not so very long ago we had a group of WSRA Trustees who wanted to run both the horse and cart. We now have organisations working hard to run their respective parts of the overall picture competently and co-operatively, not competitively.

Any part will be grateful for your support.

Robin

 

When the GWSR had two major landslips cutting the railway in three we didn't stop all other work just to raise money for repairs; indeed there was still a band of volunteers working at Broadway station site whilst we still needed a million pounds, and planning had begun for C+W's paintshop.

 

Is there any major WSR infrastructure funding going on though? It does seem a bit like re-arranging the deck chairs at the moment.

 

Tons of work going on - re-furbishment, maintenance, updating - plenty to do - scroll back through these photos...

http://cgibin.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?h=Latest+pictures&t=pics

 

Likewise at the SVR back in 1993 and and 2007.

 

That’s activity now, but I think the question was about funding for the future renewal work. The WSR appears to be waking up to the fact that, in common with most other railways, revenue doesn’t keep pace with maintaining the condition of the infrastructure and rolling stock in the long term, i.e. a revenue-only business model is unsustainable, even if it can be made to work for tens of years while the residual life is gradually used up in the assets. Eventually the residual life is all gone and the supply of cheap second-hand replacements dries up, at which point you have to fund renewal, i.e. making existing assets like new again. Few railways seem able to do that renewal work purely from revenue.

You can have an interesting discussion about whether renewing life-expired material is an “operating expense” or not. To take a loco example, coal and oil are clearly operating expenses. Most places would consider consumables like brake blocks or fire bars also as operating. Doing a once-in-forty-years replacement of an inner firebox is arguably not operating, and most people seem to have no difficulty accepting that a charity can fund such expenditure to the ultimate benefit of the associated company - albeit that it also meets the charity objective by preserving the condition and function of the locomotive.

Now apply the same logic to infrastructure - replacing a few sleepers is operational maintenance. But if you have to rebuild an entire bridge that is at the end of its 150 year design life, that’s akin to a new loco firebox, and could probably be considered reasonable for a charity to support. That’s a debate that the WSR urgently needs to be having with its stakeholders, because I get the sense that as a whole, the railway hasn’t really thought through collectively (rather than just as isolated individuals) where they feel that line can comfortably be drawn.

Tom

 

Seems like weekly asks for donations for something or other.

How long till there’s a fundraiser to bring a gala guest loco to the railway?

 

Er - how many 250 seat venues with OK car parks do we have to chose from ?

 

The SVR Charitable Trust actively supports the annual Permanent Way re-lay programme and seeks donations for that purpose. Hard to see why the WSRA can't do the same.

https://www.svrtrust.org.uk/index.php?page=Permanent Way

 

Re Bristol and Exeter Signs

Have you got enough yet?