West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Sadly so.


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Frank C's post 21318 is straight to the point. Not an easy act to balance, but it is a necessity. It also brings to my mind that I suspect one issue for the WSR is and has been for some while now, the small but busy 'fifth column'. A post I made some while ago hinted at this and well known volunteer, at that time, confirmed my conclusions.

 

I appreciate that many of those 'In the know' are bound by collective responsibility even if no longer 'in post'

In addition of course there must be some reasonable element of 'well, they would say that' in response to any comments that they might make

Never the less it would be interesting to hear an 'Inside View' of what happened or what is happening

 

Honestly I cant see what the fuss is all about, the WSR has had 180ft ( 4 x 45Ft lengths) of welded rails in a lot of locations for many decades since before I was first involved in P.Way work there in 1987 , the "tin road" between minehead and dunster on steel sleepers dating back to 1939, and 180 ft rails on woolston moor plus some other sections in several other locations I cant recall at the moment without delving into my old records, and as for spending vast amounts on BH at about 3x the cost of FB rail to pander to an extremely tiny minority of purists, bearing in mind FB CWR has been about since the 1950s, all I can say is do you want the WSR to survive or not ? Get your priorities right !!!!!

 

BH rail in stations is a "Nice to Have", but when finance is short a "Nice to Have" has to go.
I'd certainly not get upset over FB CWR in stations if it saves the railway money and enables it to relay more track.

 

It is a difficult balance (and thank you for raising this most important point); alas, I'm not sure there is an easy answer. Part of the answer, on the volunteer side, is 'touching base', speaking with the volunteers extensively and regularly. (This process is helped if the managers are out and about with the volunteers all the time, through taking on 'peon' roles themselves, which is doubly useful, as it also gives them personal insight into what the volunteers are facing.) The 'touching base' communication is not one way, but two; not only do the managers find out what the volunteers think, but they can also explain to them the challenges they are struggling with on the 'business' front - and do so far better than a memo, because it's interactive; one can find out misconception, clear them up, etc, etc. Yes, it is a lot of work, and time, but that's the price for free labour.

Sigh, sad, and sorry, to hear that. All one can do is point out lucidly, as you did above, the absolutely needed and critical balance between a healthy commercial (I won't use the term 'business', as it can lead people to see things incorrectly, as you again usefully point out) outlook, and the delicate proposition of managing volunteers (who are after all there for their hearts, not a paycheck), and keep repeating it until the message gets through to everyone. Do keep at it, even if you sometimes get discouraged; success is vital, but I believe it is achievable - because everyone's there, fundamentally, because they care about the WSR.

Noel

 

Michael H was supporting the use of CWR. Bishdunster seems to have misread his post as far as I can see,

 

Yes, that is a serious thing to say. And, if without proper evidence, beyond the pale.

 

If that stretch is still there, then I do hope that when it needs to be replaced at least some is saved, even if just half a length on display somewhere. 1930s GWR steel sleepers are pretty damn rare now.

 

I know of a line that looked into just that, but couldn't find a suitable printer that would take an Edmondson size piece of card.

 

Got a stretch on the Gwili as well, that’s also been in situ since the 1930’s

Regards

Matt

 

I dislike the colour light signals at Pickering as much as anyone, but in their defence I think I recall it said they were recycled ones originally installed on the ECML by the LNER! Could be wrong though!

 

When part of Eardington Bank was relaid with CWR in winter 2015-16, the GM commented "It has to be realised that the SVR has to look to reducing the maintenance load on the PW teams who are not getting any younger. This section will require vastly less maintenance than the previous jointed bullhead rail allowing the resource that we do have to concentrate more on the remaining jointed sections." Much as I regret it, I can well understand the point he made which I am sure is not unique to the SVR.

 

And there can't be many places where you can see a 4-Aspect colour light signal on a heritage railway!

 

All that's needed is a disc cutter to cut a shallow groove at 60 foot intervals across the top face of each CWR. That way you will attain the clicketty-click sound of jointed track.

I'll get my hat and coat.

 

Some re-used in sidings at Minehead.

They tend to rust away around the attachment of the chair to the sleeper part and then the chair punches through the sleeper. When lifted, many were like this, and had to be scrapped but the good condition ones were re-used as above.

Robin

 

Chris, I believe that suggestion was "shot down in flames", as they say, recently by permanent way guys. Not sure which thread.
I guess your hat and coat was a good decision!

 

This would introduce a weakness into the rail likely to propagate as a crack resulting in a derailment risk.

But I’m sure this was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion.

Robin

 

Damm, and there was me about to suggest doing it at 30ft intervals so it sounded like you were going at twice the speed.

 

9351 just left BL with 8 on. That should make it cough!