West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Certainly Tangmere was the only time the inbound railtour loco went through (with 88 as a pilot) on a tour I was on.

 

That would have been this tour, 29 Sep 2012:

 

I guess the issue (and I accept that even with great help from a couple of members to try to understand the organisation in Somerset I still do not) it is who makes the decisions, as in my eyes they are "the management"
So if things like infrastructure renewal, operating days and timetable frequency are purely the responsibility of the PLC then in my eyes they are the management that martin was referring to. Of course if these decisions also include the WSRA then they will be part of "the management" as well.

 

Fair enough, thanks for explaining that.

Simon

 

Depends which way you read it though...

"Develop ... as an investment for the future" to me meant making the track 'better', which fits with the red route idea. I didn't read that as 'we need money to keep up with essential maintenance'. If it was to mean the latter, why mention this as being separate to the first 500k?

 

Getting back to day to day matters which way are the two locos working the service facing? I will be making two visits in 16th and 24th. Thanks

 

What about any tours for the non-steam market?

 

I do not know but it is a fair time to get from BL to Minehead, whilst that may be OK for the steam market (loco performance, other loco to see etc) if you want to sell a tour to the seaside then Weymouth or Paignton probably meets the need all at mainline speed I guess.

 

That seems to have been taken into account - from the webpage for the restoration:

"The DEPG is a registered charity so funds received into the D1010 Restoration Fund are ‘restricted funds’ and can only be used for the purposes of restoring D1010."

 

Wrong - he has two red route locos.

 

.... and Washford .....

 

DEPG also have two Red route locos,

Not that 1010 is gonna run for a while unless we all dig deep & the Spoon 1661 is off on an extended holiday to Yorkshire.

So thats 4 locos ruled out.

 

44932 worked through to Minehead, With 6024 as pilot both ways 23/10/10

 

My answer is based on watching the webcams over the last few days and photos on social media.

Odney Manor and Foxcote Manor are both at BL and facing MD. 5199 is also at BL and facing TN. I don't know what locos are rostered on those dates. I suggest you keep an eye on the webcams because locos could get turned at the triangle.

I hope this is useful for you.

 

I think I need to clarify the point I was making.

I replied to a post which said "Firstly, the WSRA are a supporters' organisation, they are not in charge of the railway", which is correct. The PLC are in charge of the railway and make all of the decisions that you referred to.

However, it then went on to say "nor are they [the WSRA] a company, or an organisation that resembles a company. The expression "the management", in common usage, applies to the appointed officers and executive directors of a company, not the board of trustees of a charity." It's this bit that's incorrect. The WSRA are a registered company, and the trustees are also directors of that company, i.e. they are "the management" of the WSRA (but not of the railway).

 

Lloyds has a debenture over everything, the WSRA has security over two Mark 1s and the last accounts (to March 2020, pre-Covid) showed a couple of finance agreements (from memory, one was secured on a manor and was due to be paid off in 2021).

This isn't WSR specific and the WSR PLC is following accounting rules, but a more general point is what lessons lenders take from the Llangollen administration and forced sale. Everyone picked up the Llangollen rolling stock and plant sales exceeded values in the accounts, there's been less comment that the leasehold property and fixtures and fittings didn't (£354k in the accounts but sold for £15k, around a 95% discount). Lloyds might feel secure on WSR's rolling stock (valued at £1.14m in the accounts) and plant and machinery (£130k), but how will it view the value of its security for WSR's land, buildings and improvements (also valued at £1.14m in the accounts) and track and signalling (£1m) in light of the Llangollen outcome? The same goes for other lines.

Patrick

 

To be fair, everyone was moaning that the PLC were not saying what the big fund is to raise money for. They then start to explain why the money is needed, and people are now moaning that the PLC is saying where money needs to be spent. I agree, they still don't seem to have a clue what is going on, but surely the "we need 1/2 mil for subsistence and 1/2 mil for infrastructure" is a step in the right direction.

 

Could Creditors get the track & signalling were the WSR to go bust?