West Somerset Railway General Discussion

At a guess it will be anyone who might be a threat to those warming their seats on the PLC board, as the pressure starts to build, as things become more acute, and the supporters begin to realise they are facing almost certain loss of their railway, so the bunker mentality and Syphantic reaction by supporters of the PLC is only going to get worse,

 

AIUI that was full of Somerset and Dorset artefacts, presumably now all dispersed.

The museums at Blue Anchor and Bishops Lydeard are more aligned to the GWR, therefore of greater significance to the line.

 

..... and, previously the departure of the Dinmore Manor locos - 7820, 3850 and 2874.
Ray.

 

So its better to have a derelict site than have a non-GWR museum that also brought with it possibly the best suited loco for the line?
Words fail me.

 

What are your views on telling volunteers to **** off and inviting people for fights?

Cutting your nose to spite your face.

It strikes me as a perverse arrogance - I could not imagine any of the Premier League lines saying they want to be purely Southern, GWR, LNER, LMS etc. It would be weird for the SVR to only want GWR engines, or the NYMR only LNER locos, or the Bluebell kicking out the Dukedog, NLR tank because they 'didn't fit the line's pre-preservation ownership' theme.

 

2874 was purchased by DMLL and left the WSR in 2009, Minehead being an unsuitable location for the geographic of our volunteer workforce. 7820 departed for overhaul in 2010 (has returned on 3 separate occasions since) 3850 departed for overhaul in 2015.

All ancient history and a period of much change within our company which was required.

Nobody said we had to go is the key point which I thought it may be wise to clarify before anyone gets too excited...!

Regards,

Mike Solloway,

DMLL

 

With that in mind shouldn't the WSR sell its MK1's and only use GWR stock, but how many GW coaches have you got that is available for use, One isn't it, and the railway hasn't even touched any of the stored GW coaches, that were brought in how many years ago, if only the whole railway had got behind this chance instead they preferred to fight each other, till its got to the point where its questionable if those coaches are actually restorable now.

 

I think my views on that are pretty clear. But for the avoidance of doubt, all forms of abuse are unacceptable.

My point was about this forum. The rules (7.4) are very clear. So I am very surprised to see that @Sidmouth who is a moderator appears to be condoning rule infringement when he says

Moderators really do need to be whiter than white.

Ian C

 

Given how White I am, not sure how possible that is…

 

Presumably then, that makes the current Chairman's position untenable?

 

Just the sort of project that could make an excellent focussed appeal - covered storage and restoration to produce a veritable heritage jewel. Rather than give us your money or we will die (maybe) or ego driven lets upgrade to red route status so I can play with my trains.

I assume that you told the people responsible for the abuse that it was unacceptable.

 

Its worth just knocking this one on the head.
Clearly I am now out of the picture, but when I was chairman, the thinking went like this. We need people to contribute to a track fund. This was difficult as asking people to contribute to rails and sleepers etc was uninspiring. So the thought was that the appeal would be to run large locomotives. Do you want to see a castle class running again on the WSR? A large shiny, named express locomotive through the west Somerset countryside? If so, contribute to our track appeal. It was, as I was taught, "selling the sizzle, not the sausage".
As I said, I am no longer in that loop, but I suspect it is not "ego driven" as you suggest.
Ian C

 

I don't understand this-other railways manage to raise funds for track renewals,so why not the WSR? It all comes down to using your imagination. You don't have to promise bigger and better-whats next, help relay our track so we can run a "Big boy"?

 

Ian, Clearly you love the WSR very much, and have given years to it, Those who have been thrown off by the PLC, also loved the railway, and had given many years of service to the line, don't they deserve better? at least an chance to fight their right to continue with their hobby
Is it not possible that your love of, the WSR, and wanting the line to survive is blinding you to the reality that those people making the policy have got it wrong,
You say you abhor abuse, yet appear to not notice it when its a member of the PLC who is abusing their position and stifling dissent and interfering in matters that were at the time not concerns for the PLC, i refer of course to the ten, then 6, members who stood for trustee ship and were subjected to the worse possible abuse,

 

Why would people give money to an organisation which admits that it can't maintain things properly??

Threatening to stop doing something if people don't donate isn't a great approach either.

 

Ian

The Bluebell raised money to remove refuse from Imberhorne cutting to complete their extension, and this included "Tenner for the tip" with volunteers collecting money on trains.

Paul