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S&D Railway Trust

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Andy Norman, Feb 24, 2020.

  1. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

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    ...but probably with less grass and more mud. Oh, and a WSR point at the far end of the platform leading nowhere....
     
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  2. oldmrheath

    oldmrheath Well-Known Member

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    Please don't think the smiley on my post indicates any support whatever for me for the actions of the PLC - it seems as unnecessary now as it did when first announced.

    The more I read on this thread , the more I suspect that far from the future of 88 being a completely separate issue, it is actually quite a major factor. After all, a few thousand difference in rent from Washford pales when compared with a potential £500k overhaul liability for a loco maintained on a unique contract agreement.

    Jon
     
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  3. Piggy

    Piggy Member

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    The statement is clear enough, it's a temporary directorship until he can be employed as the GM.
     
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  4. dhpaul

    dhpaul Member

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    Justin presumably must be comfortable with what is going on then. Hmmm
     
  5. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

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    Funny how the only current WSR PLC board member who was on the board when moving Dunster PW to Washford was previously raised in 2011, and not renewing the 1991 lease for Washford, is Mark Smith... perhaps I am reading too much into this?

    Funny how Ian Coleby agreed a new lease of 50 years for the SDRT in 2018 on behalf of the WSR PLC board when Mark wasn't on the board at the time... again perhaps I am reading too much into this?

    I've never understood the 'hype' over Dunster Station; perhaps too many Railway Modellers on here!

    Washford Station is to my mind far more interesting, and historically more important for the Railway; and the purported intended use of Washford yard by the WSR PLC as a PW dump on a cleared site, and at a location surrounded on the main road by a lot of buildings and with very difficult access to the yard, seems to me to be as contrived currently, as it was in 2011.

    Equally, at both in 2011 and currently, thoughts must have turned to costs of overhauling S&D loco '88' for the SDRT.

    All this has been prompted by Jill Jackson's excellent pic in her post 2140... what you see today at Washford in a lovely restored station etc that has cost the WSR PLC not a penny for some 45 years!

    Apart from passing round the 'begging bowl' mentality of the WSR PLC board that precipitated all this late last year, there is also on the WSR PLC board a lack of appreciation as to what the SDRT has contributed to the WSR family as a whole over 45 years. There are plenty of 'GWR' lines in preservation, but to my mind the WSR has an added incentive and interest to visit and contribute due to it's S&D Galas etc and the SDRT at Washford and loco '88'. It is a marketing opportunity that has been realised previously; but the current WSR PLC board seem to be adverse/blind to all this.

    Plus a stunning ignorance of the legal factors at play over all this on the part of the WSR PLC board and the costs implications of it's actions of 7th February served on the SDRT as to Washford on 10th February this year. And as others have commented upon, the 'position statement' of the WSR PLC board of 1st May, attached to the 'Joint statement' stating it will not honour the contract over S&D loco '88', has considerable implications.

    Cheers,

    Julian
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2020
  6. Piggy

    Piggy Member

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    Thank you, Julian, for expressing what many frustrated volunteers and railway enthusiasts are feeling at the moment.
     
  7. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    Yes. An inference of the PLC's postion is that its financial obligations under the 88's running agreement are so low in their priorities that whatever legacies, operating surpluses, support from WSR charities, asset sales and cash it raises before 2026/2030, this won't be one of them. Curiouser.

    Patrick
     
  8. Downline

    Downline New Member

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    The WSR has quite a list of tasks, areas requiring improvement and unfinished projects at the moment, so even considering starting a new project of 'transforming Washford' should be a dream for the far future, not the present.

    My feeling is that there has been too many people who get into a director or trustee role, start a project to leave themselves a legacy, the person disappears, and there replacement decides to ignore or put the project on the back burner. A failing time and time again. For example, there's all those carriages sat in the yard at Williton that have been sat there for how many years now, only being worked on by what appears to only be a small group of determined people. A project which had a big hype about it when it was launched, and when people involved disappeared for various reasons it got forgotten about. Instead of getting work done on these coaches we have a railway looking at moving dunster to washford, acquiring carriage sheds from network rail, the list goes on of dream projects.

    Cant the railway focus on what is necessary, finish off existing projects before adding more to the mix. Focus your resources into specific areas instead of spreading them out very thin across many things. Take on and finish tasks that were started by your predecessors. Then when you have completed all the fantastic projects that have started and stalled, then consider what you want to do about washford and come to a amicable agreement with your tenant on the idea of taking over the site.

    Too many people out for what I consider selfish reasons on the railway, and it something that disappoints me about the WSR.
     
  9. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

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    Hi Piggy,

    I don't have 'Monkey Magic's' stunning logic and ability to put over a 'hit' at the WSR PLC, and WSSRT, and WSRA boards on this forum; I am far too verbose and get bogged down in legal matters...

    But there is something squalid and sordid going on in the WSR with no regard to the effect of all this on the SDRT at Washford, and it is not pleasant at all.

    To my mind, and as a lover of the old S&D, the WSR was in part a reincarnation of the old S&D in Somerset, and has been for 45 years.

    To in effect say, (to use the phase used by JJP to Paul Whitehouse) "Fu*k Off" to the SDRT at Washford, after 45 years, is a sorry state for the WSR PLC board to be in on so many fronts. And it was Mark Smith who described the SDRT as the "cuckoo in the nest".

    The same Mark Smith who has been on the HRA for many years, and which might be deciding/adjudicating on all this.

    Cheers,

    Julian
     
  10. Andy Moody

    Andy Moody Member

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    I take it, that nobody on here subscribes to Railway Herald, Pity really, because if you read this weeks issue number 688, you would see that there have been
    some rather interesting developments, plus there is a valid explanation as to why the West Somerset Railway took the action they did.
    Thankfully negotiations have obviously been taking place behind the scenes (whilst everyone else is frantically taking to their keyboards to express there personal views etc) and it very much looks as if the WSR will let the S&D Trust remain on the railway but be re allocated to I think it said Bishops Lydard.
    Apparently the office of road and rail want WSR to move their P way site to Washford. Yes the ORR are involved, it would appear that some quite serious irregularities by members of the S&D trust were reported directly to them.

    As an outside observer, I have to say I am very saddened by all of the comments and rubbish posted on this thread, certainly a case of what you dont know just make it up a you go along!
     
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  11. nanstallon

    nanstallon Part of the furniture

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    Why was none of this apparently set out in the Notice to Quit? If the idea is that the S&DRT should just move down to BL, surely this would have been sorted out by agreement, without the confrontational approach of serving a Notice to Quit. It seems to me that the plc is trying to justify its actions after the event. Not very convincing.
     
  12. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    As an outside observer, I have to say there's some illogicality there. You're too unsafe to operate here, go and be unsafe over there?

    Life is said to be slow here in Somerset but the PLC's stated postion only six days ago was "We wish to help the Trust exit in a friendly manner". People can hardly be castigated for discussing their position. Some posts have been speculative, but there's been sagacity too.

    Were a relocation to take place I suspect it would raise many questions and many more pages of comment.

    Patrick
     
  13. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Or even in the joint statement/attached note released the other day? I can well believe the ORR suggested the WSR needed a better P'way base to meet their requirements, but I find it really hard to imagine Mr ORR stuck a pin in a map and said "Right, you need to move your P'way base from one inconvenient place to another, it must go there, well if you have to evict the S&D Trust so be it." Sounds like trying to get someone else to carry the can, blame the ORR, no one will argue with them. There was a whiff of that in the explanatory note.

    It'll be interesting to see the article mentioned above, but we've not been making things up here, the WSR and S&D Trust themselves have posted plenty of information up for discussion, and we've largely referred to that bank of material. So unless @Andy Moody is suggesting those statements are made up then I don't really see how it can be a fair accusation.
     
  14. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

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    Seems a bit strange that there would be no announcement of this by the WSR or the S&DRT, and this being some 5 days after the statement and position statement by the PLC, which made no mention of this whatsoever.

    It seems strange that there has been no previous mention of ORR involvement or that ORR want the PWay site moved to Washford. You would have thought this reason might have been foregrounded by the PLC.

    Is there a statement from the ORR in the article?

    I mean, far be it for me to think that in a quiet time when news from railways is short (what with them all being closed), someone from the PLC has dictated a story to a journalist and the journalist hasn’t done their fact checking.
     
  15. Fred Kerr

    Fred Kerr Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Pardon my ignorance but the PLC note seems bereft of identifying what experience JK-P brings to his new role either as GM or Board Member; where was his previous employment for example ?

    EDIT : I note that a JJP letter dated 27 March appeared with JK-P's name appearing at the bottom of the letter giving contact details for Board members yet the official letter advising his appointment to the Board was dated 6 May; a matter of concern ?
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2020
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  16. baldbazza

    baldbazza New Member

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    Surely the Railway Herald article is just a journalistic re-hash of the WSR plc's discredited statement of 1st May? I certainly saw nothing new or incisive in it.

    In a way it's a pity that the Somerset and Dorset Trust's response was so short and measured as the upshot was that this article came across as very one sided.
     
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  17. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Scroll down about half way: http://www.wsr.org.uk/r-news202002.htm
     
  18. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

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    Well, the ORR are a government agency, with a duty to be forthcoming to the public where possible, so I suspect that if someone contacted them and said 'this article says you told the WSR to move their P/Way dept to Washford, is that correct', I rather suspect they'd be willing to confirm or deny. (And if so, why a reputable journalist hadn't already done that, I don't know.)

    I will refrain from speculating further until that is answered. I know what I'd put my money on, though. ('First Law of Holes', and all that.)

    Noel
     
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  19. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Mind you, we are all currently taking @Andy Moody 's word for it that the article did state that! I suppose it would be poor form to ask for the whole text or a screenshot - maybe some choice quotes though?
     
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  20. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

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    Even a move would be difficult, though, given how much stuff the S&DRT has put in (sidings, loco shed, etc, etc).

    Noel
     

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