West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I have seen two or three of these short British Transport Films and they are quite interesting and do show some of the places that once had a railway serving them and some of the infrastructure that was once there. Like so much on Freeview they are repeated.

 

The 40th Anniversary Weekend - 8 and 9 June 2019 - Looking like great event.

2 Manors, 2 panniers, a 7F and hymek and tractor.

 

Many thanks for your post. You've provided a logical explanation for something that I had thought might just be a figment of my imagination - namely the impression that, among the carriages on heritage railway, maroon ones are more likely than other vehicles to look faded and tatty. My alternative explanation was that, because the GWR has so many fans, chocolate and cream carriages benefited from more generous supplies of volunteer elbow-grease to keep them looking smart.

I wonder whether the red colour might have worked better when derived from natural pigments and applied to the wooden-bodied carriages of the Midland, North-Eastern and other past railways.

I seem to recall reading somewhere - possibly on this forum - that there are also wearing issues with blood & custard and that BR dumped the livery in 1956 for that reason. Unfortunately, for many heritage railways in LMS and LNER territory, maroon and blood & custard will often be the only historically authentic livery options for Mk1 stock.

Getting back to the topic of WSR, one of the advantages of the WSR chocolate and cream rakes is that they harmonize well with locos in just about any colour - black, red, blue or various shades of green. That seems a big advantage for gala events. If the WSR transitions to carriage rakes in different colours, it will need to be careful over pairings at galas, as it would be all too easy to generate angry complaints from photographers, outraged if a loco is paired with a carriage set different to the one that they wanted.

 

Individual coaches can be urned on a turntable. Turning on the triangle would be OK if radios available for the propelling moves

 

Is that a reference to the groups of photographers in adjacent fields, who during galas do not pay to travel or photograph?? If they want specific pairings, then let them pay for a photoshoot or remain silent.
Robin L.

 

House!

I think that's the only recurring NatPres argument that hasn't featured in this thread so far, congrats!

 

Thanks. Noted. I said it partly in jest.

 

Both methods have been used to turn rolling stock on the WSR.

Steve

 

Thank you Robin for taking the time at the gala to interview each photographer in the adjacent fields and ask if they were travelling on the trains or contributing financially.

If I were asked I would have been pleased to inform you that I always buy a gala ticket as do many others.

I prefer to travel on WSR services when the trains are not so packed so a gala is the perfect time to photograph the various visiting engines from the adjacent fields. <BJ>

 

One gala last year cost me in the region of £180, none on travel but going field to field with stations in between. Teas, pasties, sandwiches, cold drink and cakes, books, models, loose change in the churns. Spread over 7 stations was that less valuable to the railway as a whole or would one rover ticket have been more beneficial?

 

Nope, it was a lot more than the cost of travel, but you didn't have a piece of paper in your hand allowing you to travel and in the minds of quite a few of the usual suspects that marks you down as a freeloader. Its a strange old world.

 

It would be lovely to have this topic debated away from this thread

Steve

 

Why, this thread covers the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Although it has yet to answer the question why the WSR fell into such a state of disrepair before someone put their hand up and said we need to do something.

To quote the Chairman (from memory so may be slightly wrong) "I'd love to know what they discussed at the board meetings before I was elected". Perhaps some who were there could enlighten us?

 

Surely he will have access to past Board minutes?

If the answer is no then any of the possible reasons would be extremely troubling.

 

But would they answer any questions as to the quality of what was discussed?

 

I suspect that the real question isnt what was discussed but what wasnt, and of course this applies to many organisations.

The real question is often '...OK so you must have known............ but why wasnt it discussed...'

 

Quite, that's what I took him to mean.

 

I have sat in many many meeting where comments were prefaced "This is not for the Minutes"

 

Not sure of the WSR but my experience of asking for the minutes of previous board meetings, usually ends up in I can't find that, more so if I am trying to find out an answer to a question that certain people don't want answered.

 

So would be about 15000 of the posts on this thread not relating to WSR operations.