West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Nothing wrong with sweeping the cobwebs away every so often....

 

more interested in fighting one another,

Nothing was learned from the last time.

Too many of the snakes in the pit then remain now unfortunately.

 

Next time you are in the area, do remember when the line fully opens again, the WSR offers return journeys between 3 miles, 7 miles, and so on, up to nearly 40 miles. You don't need to do the full length. Other railways offer similar and that's what we do. You can simply choose a journey to suit your own circumstances. Hope to see you there soon.

Steve

 

The reduction was introduced to protect the track sections in question. And will likely be returned once done. Seems a fair approach. If I may be allowed an opinion.

But my question was aimed at Martin and asked for a list of work needed. Perhaps you have a list?

Steve

 

And your evidence of cobwebs in the commercial team is .... what?

Steve

 

Tony Trains......if you dont want to go & be out & about there.....just donate £10 to the WSR then to help out instead ? ....

 

I don't have the figures handy for the AGM when I was chairman. Normally, voting at the AGM is on a show of hands with each attendee getting one vote irrespective of how many shares you have. Proxies are ignored. However, an attendee can call for a poll vote where proxies and actual shareholdings are taken into account. Although I don't have the numbers, the proxies I held outweighed all the shares in the room. For the first time in many years the chairman held the 500k share proxies of SCC, normally SCC would abstain but I can't remember the margin I had. Those present at the time will remember the controversy this caused when an individual did indeed call for a poll vote.
Ian Coleby

 

slight caveat to the above, the owner of a steam engine does bear responsibility (see Clean Air Act 1993 for example - the liability is on the owner and not the operator). These responsibilities are passed on contractually to the hirer of the loco. This should be covered by a standard hire agreement, often with an indemnity should the owner be pursued directly about any matter.

regards

Matt

 

Would that happen to be 9466 at Crowcombe in 2008 ? I was there too....

 

Quite a common occurrence in BR days at my local station - Enfield Town:

 

Especially so in the Covid situation when there are many services and industries which are in danger of going under.

Something else to add into the political reality. There is more sympathy and support for councils and governments supporting 'deserving causes' than 'undeserving causes' (witness the reaction to Branson begging from his private island for a bailout for Virgin). Now, I will leave it to others to decide if they think that the behaviour of the WSR PLC board and the publicity surrounding their actions means that the people of Minehead and Taunton are likely think that the WSR is a more 'deserving' organisation than say social care, schools or other tourist sector industries that are also at risk.

Isn't there an Awdry story involving filling the loco with buckets from a river?

I do remember someone once running over a hose left across some rails that was watering something at the time.

I assume a bit safer given the OHL?

 

You could say that about any industry that attracts public money. If the economic impact of the WSR not running affects local businesses and tourism to the area the cost of not saving it could be far greater.

 

Indeed. But the politics of subsidy often favour the argument of “why is x getting £ym” over the widespread smaller benefits to those who stand to gain from the subsidy recipient.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Are you having a laugh? I'm not confused.

The Dartmouth line literally has its station right in Paignton's centre, runs along a footpath in a heavily built up area to Goodrington Sands, then along the beach, passes a caravan park, over viaducts that can be seen from a beach. Kingswear and it's approach can be easily seen on the Dart itself, as well as the whistles carrying over to Dartmouth.

It is much more in the public eye than the SDR. The only places I can think of are Caddaford Curve and Hood Bridge where the SDR comes into contact with a busy road, from which the railway cannot be seen from Hood Bridge. There are no major housing areas along the length of the line.

 

Sorry - deleted. The wrong quote was brought forward, confusingly.

 

It wasn't, as it happens. It's probably more common than people might think.

Off the top of my head, it's in "Tank Engine Thomas Again"

 

Yes, but on the other hand you could at least ride on it today, and the scenery would still be there. Some station buildings would have been converted (by railway enthusiasts?) into dwellings.

Two ways of looking at things!

 

The famous Titfield Thunderbolt used allsorts of things, some usually hidden, besides buckets to fill the tank.

 

Like many of Awdry's incidents this was "lifted" from a real-life occurrence on the Talyllyn when Dolgoch ran low on water.
The tank was filled from a stream using buckets borrowed from a nearby farm.

 

Not much point having a safe line if you don't have the license to run trains, and vice versa. Surely the two have to go hand-in-hand?

Noel