If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussie in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' gestart door gwr4090, 15 nov 2007.

Pagina 1471 van 2256
  1. D1002

    D1002 Resident of Nat Pres

    Lid geworden:
    25 apr 2011
    Berichten:
    9.851
    Leuk Bevonden:
    7.548
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Enfield
    Oops. I am obviously way out of my depth on this thread. From now on I will confine my posts to the Picture Puzzle thread and What’s Going On where I feel a bit more at home:(
     
    D1002, 1 aug 2020
    #29401
    Blackdown Boy vindt dit leuk.
  2. Scrat

    Scrat New Member

    Lid geworden:
    10 mei 2015
    Berichten:
    133
    Leuk Bevonden:
    106
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Beroep:
    railway worker
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I thought everybody ignored this site, and just treated as a bit of light entertainment when there was nothing on the tv.....
     
    Scrat, 1 aug 2020
    #29402
    Greenway en jnc vinden dit leuk.
  3. Miff

    Miff Part of the furniture Friend

    Lid geworden:
    17 jun 2008
    Berichten:
    3.000
    Leuk Bevonden:
    3.023
    Many do but, for some unfathomable reason, some people seem to hold it responsible for the WSR’s poor public image. They’re wrong.
     
    Miff, 1 aug 2020
    #29403
    jnc, Greenway, 35B en 3 anderen vinden dit leuk.
  4. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

    Lid geworden:
    9 sep 2013
    Berichten:
    10.674
    Leuk Bevonden:
    18.700
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Cheltenham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Absolutely. Within the volunteer circles on my railway, not too many people have heard of NatPres, but everyone knows that there's "trouble at 'mill" on the WSR, even if they don't understand the ins and outs of it all.
     
    flying scotsman123, 1 aug 2020
    #29404
    Triumph 2500S, Monkey Magic en Greenway vinden dit leuk.
  5. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

    Lid geworden:
    8 jun 2014
    Berichten:
    15.551
    Leuk Bevonden:
    11.955
    Locatie:
    Wnxx
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Several people I know on various other railways have said something similar.
     
    Matt37401, 2 aug 2020
    #29405
    weltrol vindt dit leuk.
  6. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    30 mei 2009
    Berichten:
    22.591
    Leuk Bevonden:
    22.721
    Locatie:
    1016
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    This thread would fail dismally under the rules of 'Just a Minute' especially on 'repetition' and also the fact that it just doesn't work without an appropriate 'challenge' that sadly seems to be a problem for some people on WSR matters.

    But a more serious point, and this has been said before by me:rolleyes:, is that there is a great deal to be said for longer periods of quiet on here until matters of significance and relevance arise. People will have noticed the recent arrival, and it seems departure, of @D1002, (who contributes regularly elsewhere on NP), after briefly trying to engage on here. It appears that the echo chamber of the usual voices has drowned out an alternative view and seemingly driven the contributor away. So as always with the truth, as spoken by people such as @bob.meanley (who does not seem to post on NP any more either) the value of informed opinion is lost.

    Of course, this all cuts both ways but even when an independent report is produced (Bailey) the discussion turns into criticism by some. And recent attempts to do something at Minehead have not led to much more than a grudging acknowledgement of the event.

    There are clearly significant problems on the WSR, probably driven by a business model that has become progressively impossible to sustain over a long period and escalating costs that are not allowing the whole line to earn its keep. Possible solutions all seem to involve doing things that long term supporters will not like. Changing personnel seems not to help and that suggests to an outsider that the problems go way beyond the people trying to improve the situation. Those on here talking about 'breaking eggs to make an omelette' may be right but if they are just thinking of people in that context they may be wrong. The line itself may have gone beyond what can be sustained into the future. If you live beyond your means then something has to give.

    A final observation. When the Mid Hants Railway held its excellent pick-up goods event the equivalent thread to this one was full of discussion and images. On here the 'Living Museum' event passed almost unnoticed except for something about a bus and fuel. It's on again today, I see........Just saying.
     
    Big Al, 2 aug 2020
    #29406
    Scrat, green five, Triumph 2500S en 13 anderen vinden dit leuk.
  7. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

    Lid geworden:
    16 mrt 2008
    Berichten:
    4.019
    Leuk Bevonden:
    3.804
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    South Hams
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    The problem, with posting pictures and details events about the WSR on NP seems to stem from the fear by many of the WSR supporters of being castigated for participating on NP. It seems only the bold - those able to stand up for themselves - make positive posts.
    Yes the bus got all the publicity here on NP, but whose fault was that, no one from the WSR, or their supporters, attempted to show other photos of the days events.
     
    Greenway, 2 aug 2020
    #29407
    Triumph 2500S, 35B en Dennis John Brooks vinden dit leuk.
  8. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    12 sep 2005
    Berichten:
    10.146
    Leuk Bevonden:
    9.777
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Alderan !
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    true but I suspect many will soon conclude that this is not going away for some time . Whether you reopen , now, Christmas, next year, 2022 you are still going to have to go through all that . The longer you leave it as well all your staff are presumably out of competence which must add to the costs

    the bigger point is the lines that reopened were almost certainly planning to do so as soon as we locked down . whether it was skeleton team/ volunteers people were working through the issues . My facebook feed yesterday and this morning is full of Severn Valley Railway, Talyllyn, Mangapps, East Somerset, from happy passengers and happy volunteers

    I spoke of momentum in previous posts . A good marketing team will build momentum . After TV on Monday the SVR sold close to another 100 compartments , another 100 following the day after .
     
    Sidmouth, 2 aug 2020
    #29408
    Triumph 2500S, ghost, Greenway en 5 anderen vinden dit leuk.
  9. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    12 sep 2005
    Berichten:
    10.146
    Leuk Bevonden:
    9.777
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Alderan !
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I would be more than happy to see images from the Living History weekends , whether from the volunteers or people visiting
     
    Sidmouth, 2 aug 2020
    #29409
    flying scotsman123 vindt dit leuk.
  10. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    12 sep 2005
    Berichten:
    10.146
    Leuk Bevonden:
    9.777
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Alderan !
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    these are a couple of videos posted







    so at least people get an idea of what took place
     
    Sidmouth, 2 aug 2020
    #29410
    Triumph 2500S en Mike S vinden dit leuk.
  11. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

    Lid geworden:
    6 jan 2018
    Berichten:
    3.498
    Leuk Bevonden:
    6.845
    Locatie:
    Here, there, everywhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    One thing that is interesting is the way in which liminality (when you are on the border between two states: survival or going out of business) impacts upon the choices actors make. It seems to make many more risk adverse in the short term, or to perceive the costs as being excessively high and so they do nothing, hoping that next year will be better and will enable them make any changes. But the problem is that next year they are still in this position of being between two states. They remain perpetually liminal

    Let me give an example, a friend of mine is a small scale farmer. He inherited the farm from his dad who inherited it from his grandfather. So there is a deep emotional attachment to the land. Every year, he has to mortgage the land to pay for the seed for his one crop. He knows that he will make enough to pay the mortgage and survive the winter (just). I asked him why he didn’t grow another crop that had the potential to be more profitable, the response was ‘too much risk, too much time, no guarantees of success, better to stick with his one crop.’ So he is stuck and of course a disaster could ruin him.

    There is a point to this. That is to say that the psychology of actors and how they understand their position profoundly influences their business choices. So I would argue that the WSR’s decision is more a reflection of a mindset and worldview.

    What I do find interesting is the contrast with the Llangollen which was in trouble and appears to have taken the decision to take on extra short term costs in order to survive long term (in short to try to move away from being liminal).

    We’ll leave the contrast between the radical approach to managing the WSR vs the conservative (with a small c) approach to reopening for another day :)

    NP Schrödinger’s forum, simultaneously both not influential and read by no one, and also influential and destroying the WSR.
     
    Monkey Magic, 2 aug 2020
    #29411
    Triumph 2500S, Roland Bushell, Miff en 12 anderen vinden dit leuk.
  12. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

    Lid geworden:
    7 dec 2011
    Berichten:
    3.984
    Leuk Bevonden:
    7.802
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    West Country
    I did watch the MD station webcam last weekend on several occasions, but really it is too far away from the station to see very much. I've also seen quite a few pix which have appeared on the web since then - what struck me was that very few of them showed anything more than the odd handful of visitors, although clearly from the official reports the numbers were quite good. But it did give the impression IMHO that, if Minehead indeed is bursting with tourists, there were disproportionally few of them on the station. Hopefully this weekend will be better.
     
    RailWest, 2 aug 2020
    #29412
    Greenway, 35B en Dennis John Brooks vinden dit leuk.
  13. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

    Lid geworden:
    24 jul 2008
    Berichten:
    7.762
    Leuk Bevonden:
    5.890
    But was the reason it didn’t look busy because they limited the capacity on the station at any one time?
     
    Pete Thornhill, 2 aug 2020
    #29413
    Triumph 2500S, Roland Bushell, smithersmark600 en 4 anderen vinden dit leuk.
  14. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    12 sep 2005
    Berichten:
    10.146
    Leuk Bevonden:
    9.777
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Alderan !
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    that has to be best line on the forum ever !!
     
    Sidmouth, 2 aug 2020
    #29414
    The Dainton Banker, Triumph 2500S, Roland Bushell en 10 anderen vinden dit leuk.
  15. Dennis John Brooks

    Dennis John Brooks Member

    Lid geworden:
    22 jul 2014
    Berichten:
    408
    Leuk Bevonden:
    885
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Beroep:
    Retired
    Locatie:
    North Somerset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    It would be a shame if the WSR went under through mis-management by the PLC board & the WSSRT/WSRA stood by & let it happen, but never mind there are plenty of other railways not too distant.

    DJB.
     
    Dennis John Brooks, 2 aug 2020
    #29415
    Blackdown Boy vindt dit leuk.
  16. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    12 sep 2005
    Berichten:
    10.146
    Leuk Bevonden:
    9.777
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Alderan !
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Not quite

    Bodmin is a different reason (don't panic anyone)

    I see South Devon has reopened Buckfastleigh site four days a week

    https://www.facebook.com/southdevonrailway/photos/a.1903512629922666/2685412281732693/

    https://www.facebook.com/southdevonrailway/ scroll down the main page and a lot of positive comment

    WSR unless something changes is moribund through the busiest four weeks of the year for holiday makers . My question re the cafe was not answered so I assume that isn't open , Stations are closed .
     
    Sidmouth, 2 aug 2020
    #29416
  17. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

    Lid geworden:
    12 sep 2005
    Berichten:
    10.146
    Leuk Bevonden:
    9.777
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Alderan !
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Sidmouth, 2 aug 2020
    #29417
    Triumph 2500S, keith6233 en nine elms fan vinden dit leuk.
  18. horace

    horace Member

    Lid geworden:
    14 jan 2006
    Berichten:
    543
    Leuk Bevonden:
    223
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Somerset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    horace, 2 aug 2020
    #29418
  19. Lplus

    Lplus Well-Known Member

    Lid geworden:
    24 nov 2011
    Berichten:
    1.919
    Leuk Bevonden:
    991
    Locatie:
    Waiting it out.
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Yes, the arrival and departure was noticed, however apart from saying how easily he got into the WSR restricted facebook group and how much more information was provided there and how it "Isn't all about NP", I didn't see a great deal of engagement or actual information provided - and when this was pointed out he fled.
    Sadly Mr Bailey didn't just deal with the problems he was originally asked to, he also took it upon himself to consider the overall picture and what he considered to be the route to take. Hardly surprising that some disagreed with him - at least with his short term view of backing the only horse he saw in town.
    And that may well be the crux of the problem - if there really isn't enough money coming in to run a line of that length in the manner it has been run, what can be done?
    Either find the money and effort from more volunteers, donors, grant providers etc, or cut the railway down to a size (operationally or physically) that is financially viable, by one means or another. I wonder which the Plc favour at the moment....
     
    Lplus, 2 aug 2020
    #29419
    ghost, horace, Monkey Magic en 1 andere persoon vinden dit leuk.
  20. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

    Lid geworden:
    8 dec 2012
    Berichten:
    1.706
    Leuk Bevonden:
    3.988
    Geslacht:
    Man
    Locatie:
    Out there somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Twitter post from the railway on Friday (31st July). My highlighting:-

    West Somerset Railway@WSomRailway· 31 Jul
    This weekend will be the last chance to see some #webcam action via @railcamlive
    live on #YouTube Our 03 shunter and 9351 will be viewable throughout Sat & Sun. Almost 300 likes ! How many can it get...? Could we hit 12k #followers too? https://youtu.be/EYMnQnoFWeo

    Does this mean the webcams are being shut down? Does it cost the railway anything to have them? If so it might explain why...
     
    gwilialan, 2 aug 2020
    #29420
Pagina 1471 van 2256

Deel Deze Pagina