West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Before 'Anthony Trains 2017' asks , the class 73s rostered for the diesel gala are 73.107 and 73.136.

They have just departed Tonbridge for Bishops Lydeard. http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/R02924/2019/06/19/advanced

The weather for the gala look to be very good, especially tomorrow. <BJ>

 

Normally sprung.

Robin

 

thank u. So just 73s alone or something bringing them. Wasn’t there mentioned of a 50 bringing them and sitting in sidings.

 

http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/snap.cgi?h=Snapshot&p=2019/06/209

Welcome back Foxcote Manor.

 

On their own. The 50 was going to bring the 31 and 46.

 

Only by your good self. <BJ>

 

The discussion about the crossing all makes perfect sense except

Are there indeed such crossings on NR, and if so what makes the difference?
(This is a bit of thread drift, but easier to ask here than to start a new thread.)

 

Plenty of 50s sitting in sidings at Kidderminster ,no need for them to go to WSR to do that .

 

The one I was thinking of was an AHB crossing, on I think a TCB line. The crossing was immediately at the platform end, with the station in rear of the crossing for Down trains. There was also a Down signal on the platform. I used the crossing most days on my way to and from work, and on a number of occasions, I drove across the crossing and noticed a Down train standing in the platform.

I assume the crossing and signal were fitted with stop/nonstop controls, so that for fast trains the crossing barriers would descend before the train approached, whereas for stopping trains the signal would be held at red until the barriers were down.

There are a great number of locations with signals very close to crossing gates, and historically there were even more, but without interlocking charts it is difficult to tell whether the same locking as applies now at Blue Anchor applied in those locations.

 

Again I’m not an expert but my understanding is it’s all about risk mitigation. The ORR and its predecessors no doubt have to weigh up many things to decide on each location on every line, including all crossings and restricted sighting situations (which is their role not that of the railway concerned).

In the case of Blue Anchor the train is coming down hill for the last nearly 2 miles at a maximum of 1 in 65 and the station itself is on a falling gradient toward the crossing of 1 in 229. It’s also in a cutting on a left hand bend meaning you can’t see signal 3 just in front of the gates until you are part way down the platform as the cutting and then the building canopy gets in the way. Therefore you have a number of risks all at the same time of poor visibility, downhill, distractions on the platform, potential wet rails in a cutting and only a couple of foot past the signal before you hit the gates. It’s also a quiet road (expect in high season) so playing safe doesn’t have a large effect on traffic.

Having run into there as a Fireman on a WR engine chimney first I would be watching the platform, looking for the Bobby, holding the token and calling out what I see to the driver who can’t see the signal round the boiler due to the curve in the line all in a very short space so lots of workload for the crew. There is no room for error if the gates are set against you so having them open is very wise.

However if the circumstances elsewhere were say a long straight run in being able to see the signal from far back on an uphill section with signals in advance to slow you before you got there and the last signal was even 20-30ft further away from the gates I could see the risks would be a smaller so the governing body would make a different decision.

In the case of BA its most definitely the right thing to do and these decisions taken by the relevant authorities (a long time ago in the case of BA) are based on over 100 years of accident investigation and safety implementation which is one of the things that makes rail travel a lot safer than other forms of transport.

 

To give a NR example, Billingshurst on the Mid-Sussex line has a crossing right at the down end of the platforms. When the box was still there (and semaphore signalling), the barriers would be lowered prior to a down train entering the station, and would remain down until it had left. Up trains were even more obvious as most were longer than the platform (only 4-car platforms at the time, since extended), so for 8- or 12-car trains the train was over the crossing while stopped...

I've not been over it since resignalling to see if that's still the case, but I'd presume it is.

 

That’s nice

 

Is there an updated WTT now the 33 is not taking part. Thxs

 

It might be useful to bear in mind that essentially everyone posting here is here because they are interested in, i.e. have a positive outlook on, heritage rail. So unless there's some good reason to believe otherwise (e.g posts of the form 'the WSR is totally useless, and I hope it fails'), I think it's safe to assume that all the other posters here at least have an open mind about the WSR, and are potential supporters (whom the WSR will be needing a lot more of soon, unless you think the capital needed going forward can be raised from the existing supporters).

I can see that it's probably trying to roll in to NP and see the WSR thread at the top of the page, and questioning posts on it; most other lines seem to just get on with it, and and don't get a twentieth of the posts. As to why this is, well I don't want to get derailed into a long analysis, but I reckon it's a combination of history (the WSR has had a lot of issues: the trackbed ownership; the WSRA board; firing the PLC Chairman; finances; etc) and people's apparent need for interesting things to watch (I cheerfully admit I'm not immune to the latter). But as the saying goes, 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade': the above means that a lot of people are interested in, and watch, the WSR; when the time comes to launch a fund-raising effort for that needed capital work, that just means that you all have a large pre-existing set of 'eyeballs' you can draw on - a set which is also pre-selected to be the kind of people who are more likely to respond to appeals for donation to a vintage rail effort!

A similar sort of analysis applies to the people who are questioning the costs to bring in locos for the gala. You may see people who are being negative; but these are people who mostly are asking because they care about the WSR, and are worried on its behalf. Again, I can see that it might be irritating to have people peering over your shoulder, and effectively second-guessing decisions (and I'll leave for now discussing if their concern is warranted, and the best way to respond), but it might help to have that clearly in mind when responding.

I hope the forthcoming event is a big success!

Noel

 

[Duplicate post - somehow an early version posted itself, but left me in the 'post reply' window!]

 

Only D6575 not working, D6566 is still operating.
I have not been directly involved with crew rostering but believe we have been unable to find an extra 33 driver to replace the one that has unfortunately gone sick including someone from away with a WSR conductor driver.
D6575 currently has a failed Traction Motor Blower and is on restricted power so was the obvious one to drop from the line-up.

 

I happened to be in Minhead yesterday and there was a brown and cream coach parked in the station on the opposite side of the platform from the large yellow shed. The coach was parked such that about half of it was opposite the building. There was enough illumination from the building onto the coach so that the brown was a noticeably different one end to the other.

By the way. What is the yellow building used for?

 

The large yellow shed is the carriage workshop.

 

A message from the DEPG:

''We have a disappointing bit of news. One of our drivers has been taken ill and is currently in hospital recovering. We have not been able to get a replacement driver in the time available and as a result we have had to take the decision to withdraw Crompton no D6575 from the bulk of the Diesel Gala programme. We are naturally disappointed that one of our billed locomotive pairings will not now take place but we hope our visitors will understand the reason behind our decision. Our thoughts are with our driver and we wish him a speedy recovery back to full health''.

 

I wanted to send a message through this forum to Steve Edge (West Somerset Wizard) but it appears that he is no longer a member. The most recent post I can find from him was four days ago and his profile was shown as 'guest'.

I'm very disappointed that such a valuable contributor may have left us. Is anybody able to throw light on this situation? Reply by personal message if appropriate.