West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Censorship alive and well in West Somerset it seems. That seems a fact (see quote) rather than speculation.

 

Is it something in the water in Somerset.... All that should really matter is extracting the WSR from the apparently (if SR is to be believed) rather substantial hole its has dropped itself into) if (and its a hopeful if) the ship can be stabilised then is the time for a huge amount of much needed honest review as the whole line and its plethora of groups just seems to career from one disaster to another.

 

Outside the bubble of railway preservation, there are quite a few TOC's who would love to have that sort of reliability for rolling stock/traction provision....

Cheers, Neil

 

But if you mothball half the line, you still have to maintain it. Your suggestion would save a bit on movement costs, at the expense of less revenue. After the 2 to 5 years the company would have to decide on reopening the mothballed line, and if it hadn't been maintained properly the cost of reinstatement could only too easily lead to permanent closure.

I sincerely hope that your suggestion isn't considered seriously by the WSR Board.

 

Wanderer seems more apt.

 

I am really saddened by the loss of 4110 and the sorry saga behind it.

Fundraising on the WSR and the Association seems haphazard at best. The websites are put to shame by Mr. Edge's site.

One success they should look at is the Lynton & Barnstaples Lynformation campaign, and yes I contributed, my mother's farm was close by.

The reason it was successful, and still is, is that they engaged with people, understanding that there is an unwritten covenent between the viewer of the website and the wembaster / content providers.

Connect with them and cash will follow.

 

Both organisations are taking active steps to address this issue.

 

So I can see from your profile pic I always check the timetable before visiting, but have been snookered a few times, particularly on last steam services back from Whitby to Pickering. Glad to here from @Steve that things have improved.

 

I have been known to complain that the WSR Plc often seem to communicate poorly with their supporters.

Many of us were disappointed that it was necessary for them to postpone last Saturday's stakeholder/shareholder meeting, although it was the sensible thing to do in the circumstances.

However, I thought the situation was handled splendidly. News of the postponement appeared on the pages of this forum and statements appeared on both the WSR website and Steve Edge's unofficial website. In addition, I received an e-mail.

So, credit where credit's due, and I think maybe we should thank @FrankC of this parish and Kerry Noble in particular.

Stef.

 

About a fortnight ago I contacted the Friends of Minehead Station asking if they were interested in second hand books as Hestercombe Gardens had their 28 day giant book sale on and any unsold books at the end were going for recycling and, gave them the name of the person to contact which I knew they did. Today was the packing up day after the book sale (about 4.5 K books sold) which I was helping to do, two of them came and picked up books until their car was full and decided to take all the unsold books and will be using the railway van to pick them up tomorrow, so the book stand at Minehead will have plenty of books to sell and both sides are happy at the outcome and will be working together again in the future.

 

The interesting thing is both organizations have paid staff who should attend to this lack of information - Chairmen can only do so much, but ultimately take responsibility, although the cancellation of the plc meeting on Saturday was very well handled.

 

The Friends of Minehead Station are a beacon of light in a sea of mediocrity. I have brought many hundreds of books to them, all received with delight, and they have raised funds that put the WSRA to shame. A smallish group on enthusiasts who have done untold good on the railway, no grandiose schemes, just hard work and visible benefits. We should have sold 4110 to them, they'd have got it fixed.
Rob

 

Whilst I can see why you might say that there are a number of other friends groups at the other stations who also do an excellent job. Likewise the WSSRT and DEPG. The Bishops Lydeard crew do a particularly fine job with their flowers. They also provide a great display at Taunton mainline station. Not to mention all the hard working idvidual volunteers across the railway. Thanks to you all.

 

The Railway could look to moving close to the Gloucester and Warwick operating model running less often smaller running fleet and only a few paid staff

 

The GWR 813 Fund has completed one £100k restoration and a £250k overhaul by mainly the Funds Sale Stand. How?
Dedication, reaching and reacting to peoples requirement and a lot of hard work by the Administrator and other helpers.
All monies made go towards an ageing Steam Locomotive, built 1901 and 100 mainly GWR wagons and carriages.
Sales stand.....not Rocket Science! Hard Work, oh yes!

 

I would echo those comments after what we have achieved in York Area Group of the NYMR over the last 40 years by our recycling efforts.
Most of the Civils fleet of wagons, Cranes, Tampers and Ballast Regulator.
2 road 45 metre shed, numerous times we have funded projects on the NYMR that were worthy of support but were struggling.
1/2 the purchase price of 80135, a number of coaches the list goes on.
Not sure about currently but we have in the past been the owner of the most vehicles on the NYMR apart from the Railway itself.

 

Speaking as someone who always has a good look at the books on the 813 sales stand and often has a lighter wallet afterwards: I suspect your turnover is partly down to the high quality of the stock, which I am sure takes a lot of effort to maintain; very few other booksale stands anywhere (not just on railways!) seem to have such a consistent approach to stock quality. Taking a bulk load of random unsold stock from another second-hand booksale is I suspect unlikely to generate the same level of income.

 

It would be censorship if he was a mod deleting posts because we're not allowed to discuss what a hypothetical Mr X did to blacken his (or her, hypothetically) name before arriving on a hypothetical railway.

What he's doing is more like sticking his fingers in his ears and saying "well obviously everything is going perfectly and I am always right - *I* certainly can't hear otherwise!"

 

I do remember thinking when I read the WSR/WSRA statement, back in those far-off days of *checks notes* last month, that it sounded a bit high-handed, a little bit impolitic, and probably wouldn't go down very well.

The bit I mean was the very blunt statement at the end that all funds pledged should be sent to the WSRA instead of their pledged destination. Maybe it wasn't meant to sound as blunt and heavy-handed as it did, but it certainly came out that way. The fact that 4110 Ltd were not apparently involved in writing the statement did not help at all with the tone. It came across as something of a crude attempt to take advantage of a grass roots group's momentum in a slightly grubby way

 

Indeed, in many cases it's a combination of what you say and how you say it.