West Somerset Railway General Discussion

He was paid by the PLC.......but not for a while now........just an ordinary volunteer like me trying to do our best for our railway...........

 

What that JJP is (was) the only show in town or that the plc was insolvent at the time he took over?

 

The fact that there is so much debate on here on what should be clear cut and factual issues suggests to me that comms aren't all they should be so I'm puzzled by your criticism. It should not be up to individual volunteers to excuse or explain the company's track problems and challenges, although I'm sure many are glad they do.

No-one is suggesting that confidential staffing issues and the like be aired in public, but outlines of progress made, problems anticipated, etc would certainly improve the WSR image and publicising the timescales and requirements for reopening gives a focus to the appeals which currently seem too vague.

This does, of course, assume donors will overlook the fact that money might be going on legal costs...

 

2021 gala dates have been announced:

Spring Steam Gala – “Western Standards” - Thursday 22nd and Sunday 25th April 2021
Diesel Gala - “Vintage Diesels to the Seaside 111” - Thursday 10th and Sunday 13th June 2021
Autumn Steam Gala – “Great Western Region” - Thursday 30th September and Sunday 3rd October 2021
Winter Steam Festival – “A branch line in winter” - Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th December 2021

 

That's correct: if you've been furloughed you can't do anything of value to your employer, such as volunteer work for them.

I think doing voluntary work for a different organisation would be allowed. At my day job we've encouraged furloughed staff to stay in contact with each other and work together to keep their skills honed or learn new skills, but we have been very careful to ensure it is kept separate from people not on furlough and on revenue earning work

 

The latest issue of Railway Herald has just been published and includes a large article from the WSR Plc putting their side of the story. In regard to the track, they state "and we anticipate that, once the furloughed staff return, there will need to be at least a four-week programme of work to make sure that it is suitable for passenger traffic." So now we have an official timescale of the problem.

Also, when people compare the WSR to other lines, that is wrong "A Railway spokesman said that such comments "are utter nonsense. Every railway is different, and there are certainly no other lines that are 'similar' to the West Somerset Railway.""

There are also some other interesting comments.

Ed

 

Interesting to note there is going to be a beer festival at Minehead next June. First Somerset CAMRA have heard about it! CAMRA have no plans to be involved with this event at the present time.

Barrie Childs
Chairman
Somerset Branch
Campaign for Real Ale

 

Mmmm. Another case of poor communications, or just someone making rash assumptions?

Of course, the plan might be to showcase some superb sparkling keg beers..

 

I never find turns of phrase like ‘utter nonsense’ very helpful at a time when support is being sought.

After quotes from Charles de Gaulle and WSC earlier, let’s up the cultural level and have one from Melanie Griffiths’ character Tess McGill in the film ‘Working Girl’: ‘You never know where the next great idea is going to come from’. And she did get to ride off into the sunset with Harrison Ford!

Curses! I’ll be humming ‘Let the river run.’ For the rest of the evening now.

Robin

 

There does seem to be an unfortunate habit of using aggressive turns of phrase when an opportunity to garner some favourable publicity is available.

And the no railway is similar to the WSR quote smacks of the "not invented here" syndrome.

 

The video is only secondary. When all of this kicked off back in March, a separate page on the Company's Intranet was set up and everybody was encouraged to sign up to the alerts. Every message that needed to go out, went out via this means and it allowed everybody (everybody can sign up to the Intranet) to learn what (or rather not!) was going on.

There are two documents for the loco crew to look at, one which explains changes to standard things e.g. toilets etc and a second one explaining how to run the service (where to stop / speeds to run at etc). The video was produced so that it gave a visual representation of how things look.

Most importantly however, we've all asked for feed back on the new system, no matter how small as no doubt we've forgotten something! Everybody is being constructive about it and are trying their upmost to assist! Week 2 is going to be a little different from Week 1 because we've listened and changed where we needed to. Yes, it is leadership, but it is more teamwork.

 

I'm not saying that's how I would do it, but the Railway is run entirely by the Plc and for all I know they have been through all the permutations offered here, but it is they who make the decisions. We rely on them keeping the Plc alive else we're sunk. John Bailey's report means I'm hopeful of change to help avoid the long standing reliance on the Plc not going under - if the Plc agrees to th right kind of change. Even with the hope of change, we are 100% reliant, it seems, on the Plc. I need some fresh air...

Steve

 

That raises the question as to who is Management and who Responsible for Any of the Decisions?

 

Engineering yes but Infrastructure is a Surprise!

 

Did I miss page or ten on this fictional railway's thread on a fictional railway forum? I don't remember this bit. Other than that, your post certainly provided food for thought.

 

See my post #27600 Alex I think that may be what was being referenced...

 

That may be true but it is not necessarily anything to be proud of. "Look, they are all out of step except our Johnny."

 

It's an extremely wide brief. @bob.meanley is of course extremely capable as we all know, but on the GWSR that is currently split between 2 directors, in the past I think it has been 3.

 

Ah, thank you, easy for things like that to get lost in everything!