Isle of Wight Steam Railway

@Matt37401 - While some (but by no means all) of the large capital consuming projects have been funded by grants or donors the money to keep the railway going day to day and for a myriad of smaller improvements comes exclusively from the farebox and other on site sales. Please do both come over and enjoy yourselves at one of the best heritage railways in the country. It would be great if you did spend some cash too !!!!

 

I said 'Practically everything in preservation is paid for in bulk by other people. That's how things like charitable donations work'. Your response was to ask what better reason (than everything is paid for in bulk by others through charity etc) was there for avoiding wishful thought. Logically that suggests you don't like the idea of charitable donations or money coming from 'outside' to pay for things in preservation. Unless your logic works differently?

 

Perhaps we should start a separate ‘WIBN nonsense’ thread, and get back to discussing IOWSR here.

 

WTBN
(Wouldn’t that be nice)

 

Absolutely but it would be a long thread!

 

True but elsewhere so easier to ignore if that's way one feels about such dreaming.

 

I think we are being unfair to Paul Hitch here, he does a useful job of reminding us that the difference between WIBN and reality is a proper approach with money, knowledge and support. There is a big difference between ideas proposed on here and what is actually done in the real world!

My favourite one that keeps popping up is giving the Island line over to the IWSR to run, which comes up now and again...

 

Wasn't that the Island's MP's favoured solution at one point , till someone pointed out that they would need the same, possibly more government money to run it,
What some of us dream about, is small fry compared to what MP'S dream up, at election time, when they are after votes, or trying to get the eye of someone ,so they can climb the greasy pole, that is politics
My only WIBN, IS that it would have been nice if Chale, or one of the other 02's scrapped at Newport had somehow survived . or that a proposal to build a new 02, to resurrect W31 was launched .

 

The worst of it is that the politicians don't just say what would be nice but promise to deliver it.

 

It becomes tiresome, though, when just one particular person pops up all the time, proclaiming any new suggestion to be "WIBN". Virtually all projects will stand or fall by their merits before they get very far, so surely it is not unreasonable to keep quiet and let them face the test of generating sufficient support to succeed. In some cases they don't even need that if one or more supporters have sufficiently deep pockets - think "Scots Guardsman" or the Baby Deltic, for example.

 

Some projects do need the cold blast of reality, where the originator is clearly clueless. But there are others which have something about them that deserves a modicum of respect, and constructive criticism rather than just cold water.

We should also have the humility to recognise that we can be wrong. I found an email from a 15 or so years ago suggesting that Hengist would never happen; I think the author would acknowledge that this was unduly pessimistic. And I turned down the offer to give a small amount of money to Tornado because that would never happen...

 

Sensible ideas like the Bala Lake going in to Bala Town are free of WIBN A greater quantity are not

 

The embryonic IOWSR did hope to save Chale as well Calbourne. Sadly lack of cash prevented it happening. Thoughts of building a replica have been mooted by the IOWSR before.

 

Did the IoWSR try to save Chale? I know at one point there was interest from the Bluebell, but the money couldn't be found for the transport off the Island. (Somewhat ironic when you consider that in this day and age, there has been funds available for "Calbourne" to visit the mainland several times just to attend a gala - but fifty years ago there wasn't sufficient money even for a one-way journey. I'm sure there are lots of lessons in there about how achievability of objectives changes over time ...)

Isn't the spare O2 bogie in Train Story from Chale?

Tom

 

I believe it may have been, at one time, i heard it was a spare that was acquired from Ryde works, but others have since remarked that it was from Chale, and the IOWSR managed to buy it from the scrap men whilst 31 was being broken up, this of course was by Staff from Kings who were also cutting the coaching stock at Newport, There was talk that Jolicliffes did offer to sell an almost complete 02 but minus the copper and brass fittings, which already had been removed from the engines, but no one either met their asking price , or the cost of transport off the island scuppered any sale, This was quite late on, so possibly might have been the last 02 that was still waiting its turn. does anyone know which engine it was ?

 

So close then, imagine though if the Bluebell had purchased 31, Would it have left Ryde and gone to Newport at the same time as 24, or would it have been left at Ryde, until transport could be arranged to transport it to Sussex, who knows, maybe a deal would have been done where by the same transport, took 24 to Newport, came back, and took 31 to the Bluebell, but as ever it was not to be. but it does make an interesting what might have been.

 

I suppose looking back over the railways history someone must have thought it nuts to rebuild a 4 wheel carriage or two but thank god we did.

It is all relative to the age of your presentation project. At the start you are just trying to find the money to keep open then after a few years you can think about a project or two. I bet if we could fast forward 25 years we would be surprised at what we see.

 

A BP 2-40 t at the head of the Oldbury rake , W3 trundling a restored coal train through the station, 24, and a new build 31 simmering in the yard at St Johns, waiting their next turn ?
PS, Edited Ashbury to Oldbury, as i got the name wrong

 

This might of interest - as well as some nice shots of the IWSR and Calbourne back in 2002, 18mins into this video there's a walk through of the tunnel at Ventnor:

 

Further WIBN alas! Not Ashbury but Oldbury