West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Makes a change from jeans that look like they have been savaged by a mad dog!

 

News of the formal agreement surrounding S&D locomotive 53808. <BJ>

''West Somerset Railway Plc Director Steve Williams has written to staff and volunteers about recent events concerning the popular Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway 2-8-0 no 53808. Given many WSR supporters may also be interested, Steve has kindly agreed to his words appearing here:

As many staff will know, 7F 53808 left Minehead on Wednesday [26 August 2020] for a period of external hire to the Mid-Hants Railway. The Plc Board is well aware of the popularity of this locomotive amongst staff and enthusiasts alike and thought it would be helpful to tell everybody the basis of the formal agreement reached with the SDRT [Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust] about its future.

The current agreement with the Trust has been suspended in order to allow 53808 to go to the Mid-Hants Railway to earn hire fees to contribute towards the cost of its 10 year overhaul. The boiler ticket is anticipated to expire in around November 2022 when 53808 is due to return to the WSR for the overhaul.

Whilst it is at the Mid-Hants, there will be an annual inspection of the locomotive which the Plc will be part of. This builds on the joint independent inspection that took place prior to its departure on the 26th so that we know the condition in which the locomotive left the WSR.

The Plc will now focus its efforts on raising funds toward the cost of the overhaul. Our initial indicative target is £228,000 (the SDRT will also be contributing in relation to the period when the locomotive is away from the WSR). The Plc Board will be examining options for fundraising very shortly and we will be publicising our approach to everybody to help us to secure the funds which will be put into a designated account specifically for this purpose.

53808 has spent the best part of 20 years on the WSR and, after the overhaul, we look forward to her being able to complete the remainder of her contract with the Plc which runs until 2030''.

28 August 2020
Details kindly provided by the West Somerset Railway Plc and wsr.org

 

My glass is half full, though I acknowledge that there are ironies in the situation. The fact that the plc have released this publicly suggests to me that meaningful discussions have been held with the S&DRT, and that the two are in the process of agreeing a future way of working together.

We don’t know where other discussions are at, or what stage they have reached, but the fact that practical measures are in place must in and of itself show progress.


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Not worth the paper it is written on, agreements can be broken as has been proved by the WSR Plc.

 

As others have said, and will continue to say, Can the word of the PLC be trusted? certainly whilst the present board remain in office I would say be very weary, certainly the chair has to go, and his enablers, before I would take anything at face value, Its possible that there may be an 11th hour change of heart, that the trust will stay on the line, but, as the saying goes, plan for the worse, hope for the best, but trust will need to be rebuilt, and that can not happen whilst JJP remains as Chair, , thats of course assuming the railway does not become insolvent between now and then, which as there is no regular income at the moment, has to be a very concerning matter, if the railway cant pay its bills, no amount of jam tomorrow will matter,

 

You both emphasise issues of trust, and they are serious. But I’d ask you to consider what must have happened to get to a position where the Trust could agree a hire contract, and the plc offered a ring fenced account for restoration costs, and both parties come to a deal.

To me, that suggests very significant progress and points to the value of whatever mediation processes have been happening in the background. It is now up to all concerned to continue to build that trust and create a sustainable future for 88.


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Very true. personally, I have a lot of respect for lines such as the Dartmouth Steam Rly, which have been running as best they can in difficult circumstances, rather than throwing in the towel. That respect translates to travelling on them, and getting friends to come with me. Fortune favours the brave!

 

Deeds speak louder than words.

 

There will have to be a lot more than promises for me to start believing the current Board. If the current agreement between the trust and the Plc has been suspended than any monies 53808 makes at the MHR belong to the Trust (for them to use as they see fit) and most definitely not the Plc.

Seems to me that the Trust has just rolled over and given up....

 

They do, and I’d still like to see the eviction notice rescinded. But every journey has to start somewhere.


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So be honest with your stakeholders. Explain that to supporters and the wider public. Don't give an excuse that doesn't hold water.

If the reasoning is - we don't believe we will break even, and the unfinished trackwork means that we would be unable to run a service from Minehead, then say so. Don't come up with the line about it being because you have open stock and you can't do social distancing, while you have the cafe open and Minehead station open and when other railways have been able to work out a system that allows them to use open carriages.

 

I'd respectfully disagree.
I would suggest that the plc has had advice that they cannot ignore their legal agreement to overhaul 88, and have "allowed" the loco to go on hire simply to reduce the amount of money the plc has to find.
The ring fenced account is meaningless as there's nothing in it, and while the plc delays reopening there isn't likely to be any money going into the pot. Even if the railway was open tomorrow, I'm sure any income would be spent elsewhere rather than on "someone else's" loco (especially one owned by a group that the plc is evicting).
Methinks you are giving the plc too much credit!

Keith

 

Absolutely so. Whilst availability of compartment stock means there is a somewhat less dramatic loss of capacity, the fact that the Lakeside and Haverthwaite, with relatively modern stock, was the first to "get going" suggests that there are other factors. As previously suggested, the degree of "pzazz" in any particular organisation is as important. Compartment stock plus pzazz is the beau ideal.

 

A lot can be put down to not having the right people in place at the right time, and that's down to poor management, The outstanding PW issues, are also indicative of poor decisions made , some going back years, but all the same, the various plc boards should have acted sooner, and stopped the rot, without the track being looked after properly you can't run anything, and along with good sound management should have been a plan to ensure when it was safe to do so, you can reopen, why was the paid PW staff in effect allowed to go, they if anyone I would say would be the first people you need to retain, and you need someone who can think out of the box, not someone who looks to put it in the " it's to difficult" box, if you can run a limited service from BL , then do it, if you want to provide a link up, whilst seaward crossing is closed, have a bus link, you have a board member who owns a bus company, after all,

 

Possibly. But I suggest the arrangements described add up to rather more.


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Perhaps the reason why lines like the Ffestiniog, SVR, ELR, Bluebell, MHR or IOWSR are considered to be 'Premier League' lines is because their management teams are able to think outside of the box.

Here's the thing, if you can't break even running a steam service, maybe you could running a diesel service. You might not be able to tap into the walk up market in minehead but with prebooking you wouldn't be able to do that anyway. But you look for a work around or an alternative. The living museum is nice but I think management could have done more and sooner.

I also think running a service, whatever kind of service is incredibly important for morale as it is a huge sign of a return to normality and a sense of progress to returning back to full normality.

 

They add up because you want them to add up.

 

Absolutely, I don't think that the hurdles the WSR faces are complete barriers to restarting operation. If lines like Gwili can do it, why not the WSR?

I get the sense that some on the WSR would consider it infra dig to copy lines they consider to be inferior to the WSR. And again, I couldn't imagine the SVR for example looking at Telford or CHR and saying nothing we could copy or learn from them.