West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Does it look as if any private entity is riding in on a White Horse? Would any non partisan rail enthusiast give their hard earned money to this dysfunctional organisation? John of Wessex is literally "on the right track."

 

AIUI for the foreseeable future the line from Crediton to Okehampton will run as a single One Train Working section, so minimal signalling infrastructure and an existing installation at Crediton anyway. Crew needed for one train at any one time. Not sure to what extent the station at Oke will be manned. By contrast the WSR will need several block sections plus manned signal-boxes etc, or else expensive conversion to a more modern system (bang goes heritage), and who will pay to replace all the current voluntary staff? The Okehampton line will depend largely on all-year-round commuter traffic towards Exeter, whereas the WSR relies largely on seasonal tourist traffic towards Minehead.

I'm not sure the comparison is as simple as some may think.

 

The other shoe will drop shortly. The obstacles you mention are not as insurmountable as getting the warring factions of WSR to actually agree on running a railway.

 

Martin, I can see exactly where you are going on this. I received a lot of support across the railway, including members of this forum. One forum member gave me legal advice for which I am grateful. Having received that support does not make me beholden to those people in the future. Indeed, one of them subsequently took some actions that caused me a great deal of difficulties.

Despite that, I think everyone always acts with the best intentions and we all want the railway to succeed. It just that we have different roadmaps to get there. That means that is possible to separate the person from their actions. So whilst I respect many of those people and I can regard them as friends, I may not like their actions wrt the WSRHT AGM and I feel free to argue about that. Nevertheless, once the arguing is over, I would still have a cup of tea with them.

My responsibility now as a WSRHT trustee is to act in the best interests of the charity to enable it to fulfil its objectives.

Ian C

 

To be honest, I think that's unlikely. SCC already subsidise a bus service from Taunton to Minehead so why would they want to pay even more to subsidise a duplicating train service. If the current operators of a railway can't make it work and nobody else comes forward to do it, then the line might be abandoned.
Ian C

 

Well there was rumour of a planned management buyout some time ago that still resurfaces from time to time. The great and the good of NatPres in their wisdom have concluded that it's a bit of a non-starter and I have no reason to doubt that, but given the past record on doing stupid things, it not being a smart idea will almost certainly not be a barrier for that to be the plan nonetheless.

 

There is always one theory about a private saviour…

But, even if there were a case for reverting to the national network (and Okehampton’s is much stronger), I don’t see SCC as more than broker,


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I detect a certain reluctance from certain WSR volunteers to comment more explicitly on here in case they have their ID cards called into question.

That is (to state it lightly) a very unhealthy state of affairs for any preserved railway to be in.

And not a squeak by anyone on the WSR as to matters relating to the SDRT over Washford or 53808's impending overhaul. That is what is of concern to me. And it ought to be for many many others also.

 

There certainly doesn't seem to be much willingness by either individuals or groups to speak out to defend other groups or individuals whose place in the WSR family is under threat. It is cowardice dressed up as self preservation. No doubt some hope that by ingratiating themselves with the current regime they hope that it will spare them, along with the few opportunists looking to be rewarded for their slavish fealty.

Is the WSR's revenue greater than its costs at the moment?

 

Ian,

You have indicated that you are willing to let 'bygones be bygones' over the 12 who stood as trustees for what was then the WSSRT, and I thank you for this.

However the PLC have taken action against 4 of those 12, two have now left the railway, one has agreed to a sanction and a hearing has been held for the final one.

I do not see firstly how any brought the railway into disrepute, secondly why the PLC sees fit to interfere in the matter - other than to remove four critics and silence others, and finally why has the WSRHT not said anything about what is in effect the PLC interfering in its own internal matters?

 

One could almost believe that they were asked to interfere ............. if it were not such a ridiculous idea.

 

On the WSR people would rather play with trains than do the right thing by other people.

 

It's not playing trains that's the problem, it's playing petty power politics. With only minimal changes, the history of the WSR over the last five years could be the history of a small third world republic taken over by a military junta.

 

And you like posting throw away comments from behind your computer screen, so maybe you and the WSR people have something very much in common.

 

or the UK (minus the military intervention (so far))

I am curious about those on the WSR who were disbelieving of the story about the ID when it was first reported. Still disbelieving? Still internally justifying it?

I chose to support those groups who were pushed out and to not support those who were doing the pushing. What did you do to support those being pushed out?

Truth hurts, people would rather dress up and play station master or engine driver than they would do the right thing for those being pushed out. The WSR has made its bed and that's the one it has to lie in.

 

I'd like to reinforce the point about 53808 made by @jma1009 as a counterweight to the Panglossian optimism that currently seems to pervade this thread.

The S&DRT having been made to feel so unwelcome by several members of the so-called West Somerset 'family', severance of all its connections with the WSR must in the long run be a good thing.

In the near term, however, things look much less rosy for the Trust than the upbeat posts in this thread suggest. The S&DRT's ejection from Washford has put it to the considerable expense of locating fresh accommodation for its assets and transporting them there. Worse, the need to raise the funds for this came as an unwelcome surprise, given the 50 year extension of Trust's right to occupy Washford that had been agreed by the plc just two years earlier.

As if that were not enough, there has been no change to the signal from the WSR plc that it does not expect to be able to perform its contractual obligations as regards overhaul of 53808. Unless there is an astonishing transformation in the WSR plc's fortunes, it is likely that either the Trust will have to fund 53808's next overhaul from its own resources or the locomotive will have to be laid aside as a mothballed asset.

I see no reason to expect any such transformation in the plc's fortunes. On the contrary, plenty of contributors are expressing concern about the possible demise of the West Somerset Railway. Since I am Somerset born and bred, have lived in the county for most of my life and have worked on the WSR as a volunteer, I 'm an obvious target for any fundraising campaign to keep the railway going. But I also see the trust that commemorates the Somerset & Dorset confronted by an equally serious financial threat, in particular as regards the cost of 53808's overhaul that should in any case have been bourne by the WSR plc. So, given a choice between donating to the WSR or donating to the S&DRT, I regard the Trust as having by far the stronger moral claim to whatever I can afford to give. And, to be blunt, it would be anathema to make a donation that gave comfort to those in the WSR 'family' whose own conduct brought about the tribulations the S&DRT now have to surmount.

The WSR plc is, I gather, mounting a campaign to raise £1M towards its operational overheads. I can understand why many WSR supporters will regard the line as facing an existential threat and will say “My railway, right or wrong.” Even so, when deciding whether to donate to the plc's campaign I invite them to consider whether, having been ousted from the railway by the plc, the S&DRT is more deserving of their support.

 

Another option would be to come to an 'overhaul-and-run' agreement with another railway - much more beneficial to SDRT that the 'run-and-then-overhaul agreement' that was had with WSR. I am sure there are some railways that would be only too willing to come to such an agreement.

 

Thank you, John.

It's good to read the voice of reason through the malevolent turmoil emanating from the plc and its obsequious cohorts.