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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Rasprava u 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' pokrenuta od gwr4090, 15. Studeni 2007..

  1. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

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    I would agree. I can see a possible market to bring passengers into MD to have dinner in the town and then a stroll on the sea front etc before going back to their B&B/hotel etc. I have less foresight of people wanting to set off from MD to go - where? Watchet? - or simply 'eat on the train'.
     
  2. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    I’d have thought an evening trip from Minehead ought to work well, for those staying in the town. Not to go anywhere, but just for the ride and meal. The question is what level to pitch it at.


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  3. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

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    I find it hard to imagine that the WSR Board would not have market researched the issue to death considering the potential market
     
  4. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    Whatever you can serve from a mobile roadside bar you should be able to serve from a train.
     
  5. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Looking at a few of the "muck trucks" I've encountered over the years, whether you'd necessarily want to is another matter entirely ;)
     
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  6. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Surely the concern is that they haven’t.


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    MellishR, The Dainton Banker i jnc se sviđa ovo.
  7. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    There’s loads of pop up street food these days, one of our local pubs has made quite a thing out of having a different one in the car park every week. Basically as long as you have space for their trailer nearby, I see no reason why that couldn’t transfer to being served on the train, especially if choices are pre-booked.
     
  8. 61624

    61624 Part of the furniture

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    But isn't that how most railway's dining trains operate - people going for a ride combined with a meal on the train? On the NYMR, some passengers may get off to stretch their legs, watch the engine run round etc. on arrival at Pickering, but they don't normally disappear into the pub across the road! (At 9pm or so arrival time it's only the pubs that are open). On the other hand, in its early, pre-dining train, days the NYMR used to operate "Scenic Land Cruises" by DMU where (iirc) beer was available and perhaps sandwiches but what was sold was a train ride. I can't remember if it was cheaper than a daytime steam train ride or promoted as a different experience. On the NYMR there were occasional opportunities for unscheduled stops for wildlife-watching/spotting opportunities; if there are similar opportunities on the WSR perhaps they could be marketed as service differentiator.
     
  9. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

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    I find it hard to believe that they would be that incompetent.
     
  10. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

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    Indeed so. There are a couple of places I won't mention where I would only eat or drink products that are prepacked.
     
  11. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    I hope you’re right.


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  12. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

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    I think @Bayard is suggesting something a little more classy like this https://pizza-mondo.co.uk/
    (Slightly biased I know these guys, but you get the idea)
     
  13. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Resident of Nat Pres

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    The Swanage Railway appear to be able to do it with the Curry Nights on their dining set so it must be possible.
     
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  14. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    It’s actually not that hard from a catering point of view, no different to when you get a takeaway delivered, just on a larger scale. I put on several social events for a company with around 175 staff. When we did fish and chips I just picked them up in a work van, the chip shop was actually 10 miles away, they packed it appropriately and the food was still piping hot 25 minutes later when I dropped it off. It was the same with pizzas. We did also do burgers & bacon rolls but from somewhere closer, but again no issues. Basically, if the place you are getting the food from does delivery, they are geared up for it and the challenges it presents.

    I’m sure @Spamcan81 could tell you about the practicalities given his experience.
     
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  15. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Indeed, certainly when I was talking about street food at the local pub it wasn’t a butty van!

    Off the top of my head, over the last few weeks on a Saturday night, they have had, Fish & Chips, Gourmet Burgers and American style barbecue, Indian, Mexican & also Caribbean which was last night. A world away from what I think Paul had in mind. (They have all be rated 5 star for hygiene too).
     
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  16. jnc

    jnc Well-Known Member

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    Recent history, on a number of different points, might not be supportive of that view, sadly.

    Noel
     
  17. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    Indeed, there are some places where I wouldn't stop unless I felt my immune system needed a workout. However this sort of thing has gone upmarket recently, as others have pointed out. Here is one local to me: https://cafemor.co.uk/
     
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  18. 1472

    1472 Well-Known Member

    Pridružen(a):
    26. Kolovoz 2008.
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    Level crossing progress in evidence on WSR.org today with the arrival of the all important Relocatable Equipment Building
     
  19. Snifter

    Snifter Well-Known Member

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    I have been contacted by the individual who would like the record to be clarified.

    Message begins........

    For the record I, as volunteer QB manager for WSR plc, and my wife (volunteer kitchen lead) resigned our roles in February 2018 during planning for the 2018 QB season. During peak seasons 2016 & 2017 we were each volunteering up to 30 to 35 hours per week, while attempting to also hold down part-time day jobs. The situation had become untenable for us so we had both verbally agreed to become minimum wage WSR plc part-time employees to cover about half of our QB working hours and continue to volunteer the other half. We had pledged to increase QB income by more than our wage costs, something we were confident of achieving by becoming solely focused on the QB. We attended Minehead to sign employment contracts, so we thought, but found the commercial manager back-peddling on the arrangement. At this point we were both working our notice at our regular jobs in anticipation of the WSR promise being fulfilled. In hindsight the arrangement might well have been cancelled later in 2018 as part of WSR's financial reform measures, so the disappointment at that time could instead have turned into a hiatus for us further down the line. The increased QB program then planned for 2018 potentially placed us in an impossible position so we felt we had no choice but to resign. There were other routine issues around marketing and administration at the time but these did not have the gravitas to be material to our decision to resign.

    The generator car was a brilliant enhancement to the QB and of great benefit to the crew operationally, once the inevitable gremlins had been evicted. My only disappointment with the set-up, as I expressed on NatPres some years ago, is that flexibility of operation is diminished. Previously we could run the kitchen restaurant car as a single vehicle attachment at gala events. Now we have lost that option and are obliged to attach two heavy vehicles and service them both accordingly. This proved a stumbling block for both ourselves as QB crew and both operations and commercial departments need to maximize seating capacity at galas.


    .........message ends
     
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  20. Great Western

    Great Western Member

    Pridružen(a):
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    I totally agree, Ive never met Robin but I put more faith in her knowledge and background that the Father of the Chairman basically trying to take the heat off his son.

    What a total mess when you think the WSR drama and self destruct cant get any worse.....another chapter is opened!
    Will the railway see the half way point of the decade, I doubt it.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 14. Lipanj 2021.

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