West Somerset Railway General Discussion

''The Watercress Line is delighted to welcome 7F 53808 owned by the Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust on long term hire.

We look forward to 53808 joining the running fleet during August and operating alongside another locomotive 76017 that also ran on the S&D.

The 7F is such an iconic design and its hill climbing capabilities will be of great use.

Our gala planned for the 16th 17th and 18th of October will naturally now have an S&D theme."

 

Wasn't Gareth Winter the guy who headed the Braunton Restoration team @ Williton?

 

Really Michael?
You really think that the SDRT will return their loco to the railway where;
not once, but twice they've been threatened with eviction
they've been accused of unsafe operations reported to ORR (which was denied by the ORR)
they've been called a cuckoo in the nest
they've been accused of not being team players because they didn't hand over enough cash to the PLC
and now they've had to make an agreement with the PLC to take their loco elsewhere to earn some money to pay for an overhaul that the PLC are legally bound to carry out, but have said they don't intend to do. This means that in 2 years time, if the PLC continue to say we've no money to overhaul 88 then the SDRT will be left with 2 years fees to pay for an overhaul that most loco owners bank on having 10 years fees plus some extra, to cover

Yes, I'm sure they'll be rushing to bring the loco back...

Keith

 

I stand to be corrected here, but IIRC - had life proceeded as normal this year - it was not planned for the Seaward Way work to be done before re-opening in the Spring anyway. Yes, it needs to be done in due course, but I didn't have the impression that it is a 'show stopper'.

I do agree that a clear, definitive and unambiguous statement from the Plc as to exactly why they can not open at least MD-BA, if not MD-WT, this year would at least give some clarity and help to reduce speculation that they are somehow 'dragging their feet' about any sort of re-opening.

 

Hopefully the MHR will be sympathetic to the S&D Trust and offer an running agreement if the engine stays at the MHR , in return for doing the boiler, they agree to base the engine on the MHR for the duration of the next ticket, of course, the loco could still visit the WSR for gala's etc.

 

Correct.....& at Doniford in the morning ...

 

Indeed pretty clear that nothing of significance will happen until Christmas at the earliest but not very clear as to exactly why not.

 

A vintage bus is generally much older than a 1970's one. But, as with much of today's vernacular definitions, they become quite elastic.
There are many buses of the type shown in an earlier post (Bristol VR) in regular service, so even to younger people they are probably not seen as scarce and probably regarded as 'just a bus ride'. Many seaside resorts have them often converted to open toppers.
Now vintage to me is a 1931 AEC double deck bus, now restored - rescued some years ago from a field - which I am pleased to have supported its restoration in a minor way. Maybe the open top and double deck bus was used to ease social distancing?

 

Being a vintage bus owner myself, (a Bristol RE), I can categorically state that there are not many Bristol VRs in service anywhere now, indeed I think there might only be a handful with Class VI MOTs. There are, however, many preserved examples.
The days of turning up in major towns or Cities, and seeing VRs in service have long-since gone.

 

The Mid Hants - and its NP thread - have gained some good and valuable publicity and great interest with the fact that 53808 will soon be on their line. Contrasting to the bad and demoralising view for the WSR and its folk.

 

There are no Bristol VRs in regular service anywhere that I know of. A tiny handful carried on in service as open toppers until a few years ago, when they were finally killed off by DDA rules.

 

A little light relief for these troubled times....

Bertie the bus was pleased to be making a trip from West-under-Horse to Minetop Station to help the railway folk who were sad that their trains weren’t running because the track wasn’t joined together after folk had been playing with it over the winter.

Bertie took all the Mums and Dads and boys and girls for trips around Minetop town, driving round and round until he was quite dizzy. But Bertie had another problem. Ever since he had left West-Under-Horse he had been feeling rather thirsty but he couldn’t make his driver understand because his diesel gauge was stuck on half-full. ‘Never mind’ Bertie’s owner had said, ‘it’s usually best not to be very clear how much of any scarce resource you really have.’

But eventually Bertie reached the roundabout at the sea front at Minetop and had no diesel left and just could go any further. One of the railway folk had to spend their lunch money on 5 litres of diesel to get Bertie back to Minetop Station. But then it was all right as £110 collected from all the Mums and Dads in green buckets were used to give Bertie a proper drink of diesel to get him back to West-Under-Horse.

‘Bye bye All’ honked Bertie as he drove home past the closed Railway Stations.

 

You will have to go quite a way to find an open top VR running a commercial route nowadays.....



Think there were still a couple in use there last year, but may have been killed off by the drop in tourists due to Covid....

 

I'm sorry Brian, I don't see this as "light relief" ... not in the slightest. I see this as yet another attempt from you to instigate speculation and drama on the operations surrounding the railway and it's events. In this particular circumstance I would go as far as to say that you're attempting to mock and prod fun at the hard work of the hundreds of volunteers who have made the open weekends the success it has been so far. From my point of view that is totally unacceptable and you should hang your head in shame. Imagine if somebody attempted to compose some "light relief" with your many firing exams as the subject matter ... how would you feel ?!

We all know you don't like the current WSR setup and JJP in particular - we've heard it all so many times from you but don't you dare start making fun of the good people who volunteer and take pride in actually running the railway.

 

Well, actually I thought it was quite amusing and light-hearted. I could see no sign of any attempt to mock volunteers at all.

As for the 'closed railway stations', well no doubt on the way home he took a nostalgic trip past Durston, Bridgwater North, Dunball, Burnham, Brent Knoll, Bleadon & Uphill etc....

 

Have I heard correctly that Foxcote Manor is due back at the WSR imminently?

Rather bizarre if it’s been decided 53808 is no longer required, yet an external loco is being hired in.

 

Pleased be assured that posts from "Snifter" are extremely biased and usually have some form of hidden agenda. More often than not they are only formed with mischief in mind. Admittedly its been a rare occurrence this year but whenever there is positive news the silence is deafening from that particular camp ...