S&D Railway Trust

So if the head of infrastructure who is known to be very much his own man were to suddenly depart, then he could be replaced by someone much more compliant. Has anyone seen the long standing jobholder of late ?

The cost of fixing the wheels of the 4F was worked out using locally available coded welders and volunteer labour. The official cost of ~£1M was stated on the basis of the work being done at Tyseley hence the loco was sent away. The departure of 4110 was down to the Dear Leader and now we face the same outcome for "88". As Lady Bracknell would have said, "to lose one locomotive is unfortunate, but to lose three..."

 

But has not the Head of Infrastructure already departed? Seem to recall a message to that effect some little time ago and an advertisement for a replacement was published on 3rd March on the WSR website

 

Nail, head, hit.

One can presume that as with other senior positions, the most qualified applicant who scores the highest at interview will be selected for the role.

 

I seem to remember that the ORR inspection that led to last winter’s extended closedown was the result of a report to ORR. That suggests that self certification has limits, if Machiavellian* tactics are feared.

* As an aside, according to reviews of a recent biography of Niccolo Machiavelli, he was useless at the tactics that bear his name.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Was the work on the 4F's wheels actually completed, or just costed?

If you include 6695, that's 3 locos lost already, even before the situation with 88 is resolved

Keith

 

In a nutshell - the WSR decide what standards they want to work to (SMS) and must ensure themselves those standards are being maintained.

the ORR would have the powers to issue a prohibition notice preventing operations if they felt either a) the standards were not being met or b) the standards were not good enough.

basically it’s the same for every heritage line, no matter what size.

regards

Matt

 

Williton 14/3/1976

 

For followers of the old Swift and Delightful, I thought this may be of interest to you (especially as at present we're all confined to barracks).
https://shedbashuk.blogspot.com/2015/09/bath-green-park-1934-1966.html
Other shed and works visits are available to view from the home page. <BJ>

 

When the 4F arrived at the CVR after moving from the WSR, it was stated that "44422 is not in working order. However, the Churnet Valley Railway will be completing a full assessment in 2020."

I'm not an insider so I don't know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if the wheels were not repaired before it moved back to Cheddleton.

 

Yes 53808 was restored by the WSR before it was fit for use but the work done on the locomotive was paid for by the S & D Trust

 

The experts on all this psychological stuff might want to comment on whether JJP has a 'confirmatory bias' against the SDRT?

I don't myself understand why anyone would be so 'anti' the SDRT at Washford... Perhaps he feels the workshop staff and loco crews should not be so keen on loco '88', and should instead be doing work on his own loco 'Kinlet Hall', and that he has a 'GWR' mindset?

Seems odd for a 'bus man', whatever way you look at it!

Cheers,

Julian

 

That seems a bit of an odd idea - isn't he the boss and can thus tell the staff to work on what he wants?

 

be poetic justice if at the end, Kinlet Hall ends up being the loco leaving , because he is not just ousted but banned for life from the railway.

 

He doesn't own it, he's not the boss, just a temporary chairman.

 

Well, 'Piggy' I hope you are correct, but I have my doubts; the multitudinous WSR PLC shareholders seem to be 'leeming sheep' and happy to give JJP their proxy votes; the WSRA is impotent, and the WSSRT shareholding via it's board of trustees is in support of JJP over his stance on Washford and the SDRT.

Not a happy state of affairs.

No one can call a WSR PLC EGM because of the lack of a majority shareholding, and by the time of the next WSR PLC AGM the time limits for court action over Washford and the SDRT will not have expired and come to a head, and likely as not JJP will do another flanneling exercise and potentially get away with it.

Frankly, in the current circumstances it would have been better if the Ex-6 trustees of the WSRA had got the lease of the line to control the WSR PLC, and some very clever people were not so clever at the time. All they got control of was the WSRA that has no influence on the WSR PLC due to the minority shareholding the WSRA has!

Those who invited JJP to join the WSR PLC board and elect him subsequently as Chairman, and those very clever people distracted by the Ex-6 Trustees of the WSRA in personal animosity and hatred to get rid of them, but not see the bigger picture, really ought to take stock as to what they have done for the WSR as a whole, and in my case particularly with regard to SDRT loco '88' and the SDRT at Washford.

Happy Easter!

Cheers,

Julian

 

I would say if you are cancelling my agreement to have a museum then I’d cancel back my agreement that they have of 88 they won’t see that coming and would loose a good engine

 

Really? You think that no one would have thought of that?

Besides, the loan is a legal agreement. You can't just tear it up because of how someone treats you (no matter how bad) - you need to have legal reasons to cancel, and make sure those reasons would stand up in court.

Keith

 

..... but equally, you can enforce the WSR to honour its side of the legal agreement, which they have already indicated they may try to weasel out of. I can't the the S&DRMT having much sympathy for the "we can't afford it so we expect you to let us off" argument after they have had 10yrs use out of it.

By the way, where did an estimate of £1M mentioned upthread to repair the LMS 4F's wheel cracks come from. A similar repair to 61264's wheels came to a tenth of that. I reckon that it would be possible to make a pattern , cast and machine new wheels and tyres for less than £1M!

 

Absolutely!

Keith

 

If that quote of a quote (if you see what I mean) for a million pounds is accurate, then it sounds like someone's purposely slapped a huge price tag on something so it would be put in the "too difficult" pile. I remember when there was a hoo-hah over the canopy at Broadway it was said that an authentic one would have cost over £100,000. Eventually after a lot of lobbying it we got it and it cost us £10,000.