West Somerset Railway General Discussion

30 minutes by car BL to MHD suggests that you have little idea of the area and its roads.

 

That’s odd, because it’s about what I’d reckon on unless I caught a tractor - without parking.


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Pickering is a worthwhile destination for people travelling from Whitby whereas BL is not a worthwhile destination for people travelling from Minehead. That is the difference. However, Whitby and Minehead are basically equivalent. That makes the traffic more uni-directional on the WSR. Both railways suffer from having the principle MPD at the wrong end of the line but that's another subject.

 

Bing maps suggests 32 minutes with light traffic. How often light traffic is applicable, I don't know.

 

That's not an unreasonable time. I travelled to Minehead a couple of weeks ago and it took around 35 minutes each way from Bishops Lydeard. I also travelled along the same road to Stogumber last weekend behind a car doing 30-35mph all the way to the Stogumber turn off. Like any road it's pot luck. Nobody travels on heritage railways to get somewhere fast, it's all about the experience, leisurely travel and doing something different. Otherwise nobody would travel on them.

 

Holiday times of the year I would avoid the main road, turn off at the Stogumber turn on the A358 and then go Monksilver, Washford and back out onto the main road. It can save you ten minutes, and you won’t be crawling with other traffic. But you can get lost in the lanes...

And we do find the whitened bones of a group of tourists lost in the Exmoor lanes from time to time - the ‘Beast of Exmoor’ has to be fed...

Robin

 

Various postings by "normals" on social media that children can get bored silly by prolonged runs on tourist railways.

 

Of course, you may run the risk of being 'held' at Stogumber by the Friends Militia check-point and then 'requested' to help with the hand-weeding for a few hours.....

 

But you missed my point - you have got to get to Minehead down the A358 or the equally challenging A39!!

Bishops Lydeard is just off the M5 and as the rail works are at Minehead you could go to Watchet if you want the seaside - top n tail Williton to Watchet

But that requires some imaginative thinking doesn't it?

Too late now sadly

 

You must have had a very clear road then and some!!

 

Not timed, so measured on gut feel - and to be fair, I’m usually heading west on the A39 so may foreshorten the distance by going round the back of Minehead.


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Naughty naughty "shouter"! You, and I don't mean you personally but the assorted bodies associated with the WSR and no-one else. can determine how much mileage (a) you can afford to repair and (b) will generate a surplus in relation to costs. A limited run to a convenient passing station at the Minehead end would generate income.

There is money out there to be taken and some places are duly taking it as they have for some weeks.

 

But what exactly is the cost of covid compliance? As in not just hand sanitiser and floor stickers but adequate clean down of each carriage at each changeover, platforms, toilets, shop, plus staff ppe on the trains etc, the list is endless. Have the other lines stated their initial outlay for compliance alone?

 

Asking the question that way feels like taking a bet that at some point in the relatively near future (say by next spring) conditions will return to “normal”. But what if they don’t? What if having strategically placed hand sanitiser and carriages disinfected at regular intervals through the day becomes the new normal, either by necessity (virus still prevalent and no vaccine) or simply because customers come to expect it? Such things may simply become a routine business overhead. There are risks being undertaken by railways that are operating now, but there are also risks in having to play catch up perhaps next spring. The one thing that is absolutely certain is that you can’t stay closed forever hoping that things go back to normal. Sooner or later a business has to generate some revenue.

Tom

 

Since when did putting a single word in upper case count as shouting? In the days of plain text it was the only means of emphasis. Putting an entire posting in upper case was shouting. Nowadays other means of emphasis such as bold exist, but some of us are old fashioned.

 

OK. So you drive for another 1/2 - 1 hour in a hot car, with 2.4 children in the back saying "Are we nearly there yet", and herself saying "don't get impatient with them, YOU wanted to come here".
Get to Minehead. "Well they've been cooped up in the car for nearly 3 hours-let them go on the beach for a bit, first"
(It was 2hrs15, including the 3/4hr just getting from Bishops Lydiard, but there's no sense arguing)
Hour and half later, thinks "I wonder if I can suggest going to the station now"
"WE'RE HUNGRY. What's for lunch"
"Dad promised fish and chips"
She takes kids back to beach, you queue for a 40 minutes to get burgers and chips (because they don't like fish, apparently), and go to find loving family, who by now are halfway to Porlock.
3pm, "Dad, when are we going on the train?"
"We aren't, we've missed the last train"
"Well, there's no point blaming them, this was YOUR idea...."

 

On a general point, sadly I'm beginning to see signs already of a slacking in precautions and the general approach to COVID issues.

I happened to walk past a local children's playground this morning. When it first re-opened a few weeks ago there was a strict one-way in and out system in place, with ample supplies of hand sanitiser at the entrance - that's all gone now and people just walk in or out as they see fit. Likewise our local supermarket used to have a member of staff at the entrance offering you hand-sanitiser and wiping over the handles of a trolley or basket for you. Now you are left to do this for yourself - many don't bother - and it's quite common now to go in there and find that the hand-sanitiser has run out and the staff haven't bothered to replace it. And of the four pubs that I have visited since they reopened last month, in only one of them have I been served by anyone wearing a mask or visor.

 

I suspect the wsr.org.uk website owner will be updating his 'Old Friends, Faraway Places' page then. Sixty-Four Twelve in the flatlands; who'd a thought it.

EDIT: Just remembered, 6412 has been to the NVR before, 2007 I think.

 

So that's the secret ingredient.

https://www.exmoorales.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Beast-trnsp-247x300.png

 

Distraction tactic. He doesnt HAVE an answer.

Robin