West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I'd have a guess that this company may be in relation to potential work from the Gravity smart campus near Bridgwater - https://thisisgravity.co.uk/

Clue - another .gov.uk website links three relatable companies to the Gravity campus site

 

Striping out the Heritage like the Torbay and Dartmouth.
That line is only 7 miles long.
Has one panel signalbox.
Of which controls the MCB crossings at Kingswear. The WSR 23 miles long and has more passing loops to control.
The T&DSR is a holiday line not a heritage line. The lines are completely diffrent.
There was talk of demolishing Kingswear station, but its listed and the railway had to keep it. Churston station was a lovely passing loop, but spoilt by the motive power depot, not in keeping to the line.
The WSR has nice shed's at Minehead, Williton and Bishops Lydeard.
All in keeping for the line's heritage.
Yes you can reduce costs by using one signal box, but the savings would be small as all the signalman are volunteers. The out line costs of resignalling would out strip the cost savings. The line has to many level crossings and passing loops to run as one train working and would reduce the amount of trains you could run.

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Sadly, if every attempt to moderate costs is going to get a response of the ''no, no, no'' kind then the continued existence of the railway may well be doubtful.

 

You cannot compare the DSR and WSR in many ways. It pays its way - not verging in bankruptcy. The DSR has magnificent scenery of sea and river and Churston is not bad - passengers are interested in the MPD.

 

As an S&T new Works tester, please tell me where you can save money on the operating side, I am happy to have a look at your proposals, I am happy to answer any technical questions you have.

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I know the S&T engineer very well !!
But sorry Churston is not that station that is used to be. The MPD should have been built where the turntable is and that would have kept the village station appearance.

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But it also rather begs the question of what preservation is for. The WSR has preserved not just a line, but also something of a time capsule. If all that happens is to turn it into a steam operated version of a post Beeching stripped back railway, how much is left of what made it valuable?

 

The T&DSR has the Sea and scenery, but for the railway enthusiasts it has no sole.
It's no difference than a Steam train on the mainline but much slower !!
It's a tourist railway only.

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That looks like another case of "let's massively increase the value of some land that we own using public money".

 

If an adjoining landowner had decided to put up a big shed hard up against the boundary and the boundary was the edge of the platform as it might well be on a station on a heritage line, the effect would be exactly the same. Minehead Station is right next door to a Morrison's and its car park, people just zone this sort of thing out, they have to.

 

The DSR makes no pretences, but makes a valuable contribution of moving lots of people to where they want to be. You have the choice of the SDR if you want a steam train and 'heritage'. They are nor far apart.

 

I suspect a lot of contrition emanating from Minehead would not go amiss at the moment...

 

The WSR Chairman does seem to have somewhat of a fetish for incorporating dormant companies with minimal capital.

 

My point entirely

 

What specifically is missing to give it sole - or even soul?

 

That sounds a bit fishy to me.

 

No doubt that's the problem with the WSR - it's in the wrong plaice and may well flounder

 

I think in your rush to harumph, you are slightly missing the point. Assuming the objective is for the WSR to continue along more or less heritage railway lines, specifically with a large volunteer workforce, there is negligible saving to be made in rationalising the signalling, since the major expense in traditional signalling - the labour - comes for free. The major capital expense of modernising only makes sense if you are considering a move to an all-paid model, but I don’t think that is what is being suggested. The bottom line is that if you can’t make the WSR pay it’s way with a volunteer workforce, it certainly won’t pay with a paid one - whether on the DSR model or as part of Network Rail. Clearly cost savings have to be made, but there isn’t much scope in doing so in signalling rationalisation. The big wins are to cut down mileage of trains running largely empty, ie a hard look at the timetable.

Tom

 

He does, but none of which convinces me there is some Machiavellian plan to somehow buy up the railway for a song and make a killing. I can’t see how such a plan would work financially; I also get the impression that whatever else may be his faults, he does have heritage operation at heart. Why else otherwise would he own a steam loco or have been a volunteer for years before becoming chairman if he didn’t fundamentally have that ethos at heart? I still believe in cock-up, not conspiracy.

Tom