West Somerset Railway General Discussion

It wasn't Welsh coal I had in mind,

 

I do hope this isn't a racist comment.

 

I’m quite racist in my views. There are Yorkshiremen, Lancastrians and foreigners in strict order.

 

I also do not know the WSR resources but I was a steward on a mainline tour from Paddington to the WSR when at Slough our guard realised, due to an error, there was an air braked only coach in the formation. The WSR had to call a paid driver in to allow the tour to get to Minehead as I understand as the steam crews on duty that day did not sign for diesel operation. So it may not have been an easy fix in this instance.

 

and yet in Cawdor Castle under an original Castle Class Earl Cawdor Nameplate there is a note written by the then Earl Cawdor, died 1993, that his Great Grandfather as Chairman of the Great Western Railway 1895 to 1905 demanded that should a train be more than 5 minutes late that an explanation had to be on his desk by 10 am the following morning. The note ended "meanwhile back at British Rail" but then it was viewed in the early 1980's!

 

Does that include advising passengers why there was a considerable delay?

Public relations is not a forte it would appear!

 

Casually unpleasant remarks like this and others I have read on this thread really take the biscuit, especially when made by those who were not on the Railway.

I was the Railway's 'Responsible Officer' for the Winter Steam Festival. I led a team of railway staff who worked their socks off to cope with problems not of their making, (particularly on the Sunday), and to keep our customers informed. I do not have to imagine how they feel reading such stuff. If we missed a few customers, that is, of course, regrettable, and to my knowledge, exceptional, as I witnessed some excellent customer service being delivered and being appreciated. I cannot let that go unremarked.

You will understand that a full report of events has been passed from those of us working on the day to the Railway's senior management and I have no doubt that will be considered and actionned for the future.

Do, please, think a little about the effect you may create before clicking 'Post Reply'.

Robin

 

Still no pa system on wsr? most railways that have it use it to explain delays, or at least walk the train to explain,

Maybe the forte now is fighting each other not public relations,

 

What I can say is that the TTI at the Minehead end of the train on Saturday did an excellent job of keeping us informed & the crew of Odney Manor worked hard to make up time.

@Robin Moira White I am pleased to see that a report has been prepared into what happened over the Winter Steam Festival, a positive step.

 

Whilst most p.a. systems on tourist lines seem plagued by inconsequential gassings, this is the sort of situation where they would be of use. They do need to be kept under control though.

 

I completely disagree. IMHO are a non-heritage intrusive horror. Nothing beats the friendly face of the guard, TTI (or, on occasion RO!) coming through the train to explain the situation in person.

Robin

 

I think that in the circumstances under discussion , its a question of doing the communicating rather than how you do it. I wonder if in selecting people for 'Front Facing' roles more thought needs to be given to their ability to communicate and training in communication should be given.

 

The staff I worked with at the weekend performed excellently in this area. But we should never be complacent or cease seeking ways of improving or learning from good practice elsewhere.

Robin

 

Probably the thing the most people don't realise is that being RO / DO on a line with signalboxes is actually quite a difficult thing. It involves a lot of phone calls to try and determine where everything is in order to come up with a plan. Compare this with the FfWHR where you have a Control Office with a train graph (same as the RER) who have the bigger picture and can annotate the train graph to come up with a plan (even then it doesn't work). The Control Office is in touch with all trains and can tell crews to speed up / slow down as necessary. Manual operation doesn't really have this luxury and can become a bit more problematic. Encouraging people to pick up the phone to report is normally some of the battle of course.

Those giving the WSR a bit of a hard time really do need to spend a day with a controller / RO - it isn't as simple as it sounds.

 

Well said Robin.
I wonder if those who have spent so much time making (apparently reasonable) criticisms on here over the past few days have taken the trouble to contact the Railway direct, or are they content to simply criticise our Railway on social media as is so often the case?

 

Couldn't agree more Robin. Fortunately I cannot think of a heritage railway that does use PA in its stock.

As an aside I travelled to Whitby on the NYMR Special on New Years Day. As I rarely travel as a passenger I was inwardly seething about the day's late running as it is usually something that could be avoided with a bit more forward planning. However the on train staff appeared at the appropriate times to inform us as to what was happening. As were approached Pickering on the return, by now some 40 mins late, someone appeared to thank us for travelling and wish us well for the New Year and got a spontaneous round of applause from our half of the carriage. Clearly no apology was needed for the late running as no one seemed bothered - except of course this perfectionist here! It makes you realise that sometimes we are not that good at gaugeing the general mood of our customers It is not the end of the world if things go wrong if the situation in handled correctly and there is nothing to beat a friendly face to face explanation. Heritage train travel is after all a liesure experience.

Peter

 

I must apologise that my guess was inaccurate! I have been given the following information about Junior by a BL station source:

A bit of information regarding Junior the BL Station Cat.


She belongs to Bishops Lydeard Station or probably more accurately we belong to her! She adopted us a few years ago now, probably because of her liking for dreamies and hot car bonnets.


We have a roster over Christmas/New Year and non running days to make sure she has food and milk. BL Station Staff, WSRA Office Staff, Steam Trust Model Railway Staff and RAMS are many of her servants.

 

That is the best news about that day. Although obviously no-one got hurt, I hope that the same principles will be applied as with RAIB investigations: identify all the contributory factors and all the lessons that can be extracted as to what to do and what not to do in future, while avoiding any assignment of blame.

 

The Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway uses its on board PA and, on my visit, it was used rather a lot. Others may have found it useful to know why we were stopping, slowing down, crossing whichever road, etc. but I found it particularly intrusive. Where it did score for the railway, though, was when the person on the PA drew attention to the gift envelopes on the tables and invited people to donate their loose change. Everyone that I could see dipped into their pockets, including me.

As you also say, heritage train travel is a leisure experience and it can be difficult to get Joe Public to rush. How many times has a train been delayed by mum with kids telling the guard that her husband is just parking the car and will be there in a minute. You are damned by mum if you go, you are damned by Control if you wait. (Not to mention the fireman who has a carefully prepared fire with full pressure and a boiler full of water ready for the hard work to come.)

 

I am pleased you did Inform your passengers and I offer my unreserved apology but the post that I read did not confirm that as fact hence the reason why I wrote my comment.

Passengers appeared to be thin on the ground on the 31st and 1st judging by the webcams which I observe from my sick bed and sadly incidents like this do nothing to the reputation of the railway for whatever reason and the lack of the smokebox running, the railway's Unique Selling Point does not help!

Sadly I find myself getting further and further away from the railway on which I spent so much of my mispent youth and from a considerable distance although I am pleased that it seems to surmounted its present financial difficulties.