West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Beyond unfortunate!!

 

Having read that Facebook page only confirms most of the comments that those well connected with the WSR have posted here. It seems draws attention to how people are dealt with, the true depth of sadness of many volunteers and of course those who find no fault with it all. It seems that most who post there are volunteers connected with the WSR, so it is not just the so called NP 'keyboard warriors' that have strong reservations about the direction the WSR is taking. I suspect many of them there on F/B do but few with courage enough to stand up and be counted! Today's events highlight the penalty.

 

A well-researched and informative news item about outstanding trackworks has been posted on wsr.org.uk

 

Indeed, most helpful, a big thank you to Steve who I presume did this bit of "investigative journalism". The timescale suggested by the Plc of 1-2 weeks fits in much more comfortably with the WSR's initial planned re-opening date this year, allowing add-on for the disruption in the intervening period. Perhaps a similarly researched item on Seward Crossing would be helpful? Maybe it's already in the works!

Now, a Positive Suggestion: I note one of the outstanding jobs is "clipping up". When we were building our Broadway extension, it was largely CWR. It was arranged that on the day the rail was stressed, there was an army of volunteers, not just P'way but from all departments (a general volunteer request was put out) to quickly clip up the stressed rail, and a couple of miles were done in a single day IIRC. So I presume this is a task that can be explained relatively quickly. Something for the WSR to try out perhaps? I'm sure all those folk who have been weeding the track by hand the past couple of weeks would be delighted to help at the very least, and it would no doubt help boost morale.

I'm still not entirely clear why the WSR feels unable to run any trains between Bishop's Lydeard and Williton though at the current time. The work required mentioned in the article is no different to any other railway which has managed to re-open, or plans to do so in the near future.

 

Which was as clear as mud, and will do nothing to quell the speculation.

17th March WSR lockdown; Saturday 21st March full reopening. That's 3 days work that was left on the PW track at the most.

 

(Just on this point, unrelated as it is to the WSR) I have long wondered what they were for. I'm slightly relieved to learn that they serve no purpose at all, though that does leave me wondering why folk on here use them.

 

On some platforms they allow your post to be grouped with others using the same hash tag. For instance on twitter if you're discussing a programme on the telly, if you all use the same hash tag and you can see what other people are saying about it even if you don't follow them. In other places its used more to aid search functions, so you can tag posts with particular topics. In effect in all instances its used as some kind of cross-referencing system. You can do that on NatPres, but not by using #s.

 

Well they have had it then.

All cause of a one man power trip,

There rephrased. you can stop throttling the speed I use the site now,

 

It's all very well buying it up on the cheap, but what about the folks needed to make it work? You can't buy them at an auction.

 

Was that not the Bodmin station episode, drew also went to Carnforth and bought all the Pullman cars seating lights at a disgusting low price, grrr.

 

Oh, come on, these things happen.
Didn't someone 'forget' to refuel at MD a few years ago - in the middle of a Gala - got all the way to BA - caused immense disruption to the timetable & hundreds of passengers.
These things happen.

Edit - corrected BL to BA

 

And to be fair, now that you mention it I recall it attracted quite a bit of comment even then!

 

Years ago when i lived in London i was on a Routemaster bus going to Putney, it ran out of fuel in Wandsworth high street, these things happen.

 

I can think of several captions for this one:
Note the man kneeling on his shovel
Note the abandoned baseball cap (or is someone still wearing it?)
Note the cast aside gloves
Note the cast aside shovel
Where's the rest of him?

 

And just like magic the Facebook post disappears. Now who would have thought that!
I really feel for the people who have put their heart and soul into the WSR. Let us all use this as a lesson for our collective futures.

 

Taking the pic & hat blew off