GWSR General Discussion and Operations

A reversing loop for the narrow gauge railway would be an added bonus!

 

Perhaps a SteamWorks!/Train Story/Highley type storage/exhibition building could be useful as a visitor attraction and more importantly for storing out of service locos under cover, maybe tagged onto the back of the loco sheds with an integrated viewing gallery?

I know it all costs money, but better to have lots of suggestions and then see what's possible, or at least leave room for things to be done in the future!

Keith

 

I had heard an extension mooted, how seriously and by whom I can't recall now, I wouldn't hold out too much hope though.

There is the question of what we'd actually put in such a building!! Unless I'm being dim, I think all the steam locomotives present on site are currently either being worked on or are operational! 5 locos operational; 9466, Dinmore, P&O, 4270 and Foremarke. 2 under 10 year overhaul; 2807 and 3850, and 3 under restoration, 2874, 76077 (mostly off site) and John the Peckett. I believe a small extension to the Steam shed is planned to bring it in line with the diesel shed, and arrangements to make viewing the shed easier are being considered and it is most definitely an aim to make it easier to view inside.

A proper museum-y type thing, especially if it could provide a permanent home for the Winchcombe Railway Museum (I assume this collection still exists somewhere) would certainly be nice though. There is something to be said for the current arrangements with artefacts housed in various old railway buildings and the parcels coach scattered around Toddington, possibly more interesting for the visitor?

 

We don't actually have a museum in which we collect items and documents related to our line. There is no central archive, something which surprised me when I joined. Everyone has a bit of it, nobody has the full thing. I did a lot of digging to find out about Broadway. So I think a museum about ourselves would be a good idea.

The Winchcombe Railway Museum collection still exists, in the same house in Winchcombe. I'm sure they would like it to move to the GWSR, but where to? We do not have an empty building, nor the money to build/run one. The WRM is also a general collection, not specific to the Honeybourne line, although there are many items in the collection that relate to our line, such as one of the curious enamel station running in boards and one original lamp from Gretton halt, with its blue lamp glass. Many of the artifacts are in the garden and need restoring first, who is going to do that? Our Heritage Group has a regular dialogue with them.

I might also point out that there is a HP gas line running down one side of Toddington, which will complicate things. So we're at the early discussion stage on that plan.

 

If you do decide to establish a museum, it is very desirable to seek Accredited Museum status from the Arts Council. One or two places have even sought Accredited status for the whole railway but even if it is confined to the museum and archives part alone, the advantages are potentially large. Grant making bodies will be reassured that you have proper record keeping, storage and conservation policies. Items can be readily transferred from one Accredited body to another either by gift or loan.

Gaining Accreditation is not a given and takes quite a bit of work. I can think of a number of organisations (not railway ones) who, surprisingly, have only qualified for Provisional Accreditation. However, I am sure the number of places seeking this status will increase.

 

Intersting to here the turntable pop up in conversation again. I thourght the idea was to drop it onto the Wincombe yard near the new goods platform? But Toddington would certainly give it more exposure.

The Winchcombe museum I was lead to believe was in conversations with the Vale of Berkeley Railway or has that not got legs? The museum move not VofBR!

Bringing the narrow gauge up the side of carpark to the main road and making a Toddington north platform (all change for shop and cafe) has a certain appeal !

 

I think the VOB idea has dropped off the radar (I am told). WRM is talking to us, but the board is asking very sensible questions:

Where will it go?
Who will look after it?
Who will pay for any costs?
Who will restore the artifacts prior to moving?

A lot of the stuff is in someone's garden, and the museum closed for a refurb that never happened.

Standing back a bit, it is a case of an individual's collection and as he ages he realises he can't look after it any more. I can think of 2 like that, and so can you, probably. There's no easy solution.

That is an option and I can certainly see the appeal, but where is that gas pipe? I'm told they patrol it with helicopters and might not like a moveable fire standing on it!

 

What could possibly go wrong there.
https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/heritage-train-tracks-catch-fire-2952878

 

I would have thought that a carriage shed would be a better use of the money.

 

I was expecting a carriage works to build wooden-bodied coaches, along these lines:

 

One of the two guys who started the Winchcombe Railway Museum, John Ferris was a popular Swindon and Cricklade volunteer for many years running the railways cafe for both staff and public. He was even the railways chairman for a while.

A few years ago, he was driving along in fog, I think near Northleach where he lived and a van driver coming the other way decided to overtake some traffic and hit him head on, presumably they couldn't see each other until the last minute because of the fog and he was killed. He was a real nice bloke. I think he had just retired too.

 

Thank you for that, I have passed the information on.

 

Well the 'moveable fire' already happens, what they don't want is footings and buildings.
On the opposite side of the Toddington approach rd, by the brown tourist sign you'll notice a white and orange stripped pole, this is the gas pipe marker. https://goo.gl/maps/Ee8Wp4vzQQzBVm3W8
There is another just beyond the narrow gauge signal hut at Toddington. I've added a picture to show the approximate line twixt the two.

My understanding was that a new entrance road was to be created into the Toddington site, around the Western side of the garden center building, basically over the line of the gas pipe. If that is correct then the narrow gauge would need to have a level crossing. I don't think that's going to happen as you'd then be closing the site entrance off for every train and probably the run around as well.

What would be nice is for the narrow gauge platform to be built 50 or so yds to the North on the car park side. this would put it past the realms of the gas pipe and eliminate that trudge around to the platform at the moment. However the narrow gauge is a separate entity to the GWSR and operates on a shoestring, I would doubt it has the resources to achieve this even if it could be agreed between the two parties.

I'm probably being a bit thick here, but what is a reversing loop?

 

Thanks for that, Bill, that explains it for me. I didn't realise it was such a straight line, and quite far over at the start. In private volunteer chat we wondered about the possibility of heavy loco arrivals crossing or going along the gas line if the main approach was moved, but I see from the sketch that all arrivals already cross the gas line, so no change there.
Moving the approach road to remove the friction between people and cars by the station building is one of the key aims. I'm sure that after the initial reveal of the very draft plans there have been many many comments from heads of departments, and that they are on v.126 by now.
Patience....

 

And why can they both not be on the table as future projects? No-one has mentioned "the money" yet - just ideas of what might be nice to have.

As for exhibits, I'm sure as current operating locos come out of ticket, at least some of them will see a period of storage - at least with a museum they are under cover and the public can get to see them up close. Nothing to stop a wagon or carriage making its way in there too.

Keith

 

Fascinating picture! Where and when, please.

 

It's not a question of either / or. In fact at the moment there is no money at all for anything new. I'm sure the company would like to do a fund raiser for a number of things, but hovering in the background is the Stanton road bridge repair. I suspect they they would like to keep their fund raising powder dry for that in the first instance, which would make sense.

The carriage shed has had some thought on it, and it's going to cost a lot of money if it has to be built on a curve. At the northern end the yard layout will need to be changed, perhaps with a direct spur off the main line as it comes off chicken curve. We have no spare pointwork, so that will all be extra too. At the moment that yard trackwork is all bits and bobs, stuff they managed to rake together in the 1980s. It's not very good.

 

Indeed, since I've been on the GWSR 4 locos have gone out of service, all of them have immediately been stripped down for their ten yearlies. Perhaps a part of this is down to each loco being owned by an individual group, rather than just owned by the railway in a pool.

Progress on a carriage shed is grinding along, we have got to the stage of engaging a contractor to produce some plans and I had a peek at them the other day. There's no money for it yet, but at least getting some proper plans together means when some money is available, we can lay claim to it with a project ready to go. It's not an option at Toddington though, irrespective of gaining the garden centre there it still doesn't fit, in fact it only just fits at Winchcombe! Winchcombe is much more convenient from a maintenance point of view as well, having more of the fleet more easily accessible to work on will be brilliant. It looks unlikely we'll ever be able to have all our operational rakes undercover at once though due to operational practicalities; there's always going to have to be a set stabled at Toddington in the platform.

 

Alex, is the design straight or curved? I'm told curved is more expensive, but I don't see why.
The KESR built a 5 road shed for £0.5m, paid for by a supporter. The first thing that went in was the PWay train
Well, they laid the track all round it, including an impressive double slip ex Ashford.