S&D Railway Trust

Maybe everyone should just pay to visit the SDRT at Washford and enjoy the up coming steam gala from the museum

 

I shall certainly spend at least some of my time and money at Washford during the steam gala.

 

All I can say is that I hope that people take the opportunity to join the SDRT and support them.

http://www.sdrt.org/Membership.Html £18 a year seems pretty reasonable and less than the price a day ticket on the WSR.

 

At which point, that is two board members of HRA who would presumably need to recuse themselves from any discussion of this issue at HRA?

 

I see that the PLC are now advertising for a Station Master for Washford starting in the 2021 season !

IIRC they appointed a SM for Washford some years ago, but that did not work out well....... Still, with just an empty station to look after and the occasional disgruntled passenger looking for a non-existent S&D Museum, should not be too onerous a task

 

...still not a dickie-bird from the WSRA (I tried ringing them on Saturday and will try again tomorrow). Before any smart alec suggests it's nothing to do with them, my donations will now be heading for the SDJR Trust relocation fund. At very least they should have posted the news on their site and expressed some concern that a "palpable foul" may have been committed by the PLC.

 

Whilst perusing the HRA site I was very encouraged and pleased to see that 2 West Somerset volunteers were runners up in "the Lord Faulkner Young Volunteer Award", and that Bob Meanley was (jointly) awarded "the Railway Magazine annual award for services to railway preservation" at the recent 2020 HRA awards (https://www.hra.uk.com/2020-hra-awards?rq=2020 awards).

 

I'm delighted about the first award, and am very aware that Bob Meanley has a long and distinguished railway preservation career, well worthy of recognition. In ignorance of the citation for the latter, I would be interested to know if it was for work at the WSR or previously.

However, I find it entirely believable that an organisation - or indeed an individual - can simultaneously both perform excellent work and take actions worthy of censure.

 

Whilst I can't feel much for a rattling cash tin at the opposite end of the country from me, I too feel the need to drop some money to the SDRHT for the upcoming financial hole opened up under them. The WSR statement is a petty, pass-agg post that doesn't fly in the time of instant information. Maybe in 1985 this might have passed as information would take weeks to disseminate. But in 2020 when social media mobs can be formed faster than it takes to cook a pie, organisations have to be very careful about their actions and words. It would seem the WSR don't care for the optics of booting an organisation that has maintained a sleepy halt and a strong locomotive for 40 years in such a public manner.

 

For the avoidance of doubt, I would prefer that the WSR thrived as an operational railway. However, I suspect that it is going to need a lot of injection of new blood and serious structural reform for that to happen.

 

Never mind pies, I'd say the WSR has cooked its goose (possibly, to further mix metaphors, one that lays golden eggs)...

And just what *do* the PLC propose to do if 53808 departs for pastures new? It could be the end of the WSR as a destination for charters, and even if they can hire/buy/overhaul another loco to do the job, that will take time, and they potentially miss out on the 2020 season. Once the charters have gone elsewhere, they may not be so easy to bring back, even after the motive power and infrastructure crises are resolved.

 

They've made their own bed etc. I can see 88 moving on to pastures new. I don't see MSN being the place such a powerful locomotive won't be in the hire marketplace for long. I can think of at least 3 railways where it's presence would be of major benefit to the roster.

 

Are you aware that 53808 is the subject of a separate agreement? Even without that one it is actually possible to couple two locos together where the load exceeds that for one so where is the supposed threat to 2020 charters coming from or have you simply imagined it in the frenzy to develop ever more intricate "problems"?

 

53808 is on an agreement that lasts until 2030, and the S&DRT seem to have been at pains to stress that the agreement is separate to the lease on Washford station. That suggests to me that their working assumption is to continue the lease on the existing terms. What happens after it comes out of traffic (which will be no later than 2026) is perhaps more of an issue, but that is still years away.

(As an aside - I wonder how much benefits incoming charters actually are to a heritage railway. Undoubtedly a boon to Minehead town, but possibly less so to the railway given the costs they incur running a connecting service. I think sometimes there is an assumption that the charter market is awash with money if you can just tap into it. But just look at average ticket prices on a train of, say, 400 seats. The gross revenue is I suspect somewhere in the order of no more than £40k or so per train; by time you take out mainline loco hire, crew, possibly a diesel and crew, coal, fees to Network rail, hire of the rolling stock, crew for pathing moves before and after the day etc, it's not as if there is oodles of cash left for the heritage railway at the end of the journey. I'm sure they are making money, but I doubt they are making much).

Tom

 

Supposedly but not like one party isn't well known for welching early into such agreements.

 

Maybe. I really don't think the WSR plc has acted well in this matter, but I'd simply point out that in all their public pronouncements, the S&DRT have been at pains to stress that the agreement with 53808 is separate. That doesn't sound to me the actions of an organisation imminently planning to break that agreement.

Tom

 

44422 was on a 25 year agreement, but where is it now? Agreements can terminated early for various reasons. Negotiations will be taking place regarding compensation etc for WSRs early termination of SDRTs lease, and the loan agreement of the 7F could well form part of those talks.

SDRTs official statement says that the 7F is on a separate agreement, and that they have no further comment to make at the present time.

 

I don't think that SDRHT want this agreement to come to a screeching halt and are working to keep it in place but given the state of 44422, 6695 AND now the SDRHT themselves, I see no reason why 88 is immune from such a contract being torn up by the WSR. SDRHT could take 88 with them on the way out but that doesn't seem like their MO.

 

The WSR Mechanical Engineering Facebook site has a photo from 22/2 of blank cast iron billets waiting to be machined into four new valve heads for 53808 in Minehead. The work on the ground seems to be carrying on.

 

Some noise on here - but only from about 30 or 40 people. That's pretty irrelevant when you want about 200,000 people to pay to travel on the railway who've never even heard of this site