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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. 242A1

    242A1 Well-Known Member

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    Wonder if some believed that he'd bring his own castle?
     
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  2. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

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    ...probably built on sand (there's a lot of it as a certain seaside resort further up the Somerset coast) ....:)
     
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  3. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    But he have his own 'castle', 7027 Thornbury Castle. It was sold in 2020.
     
  4. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    you have nailed that there are two WSR's

    the one where the volunteers go and run the trains , are nice to customers and everyone is happy and can ignore everything else life throws at them . Its a little bit chocolate box but within it in the main most are happy

    the second one is inhabited by reality and senior management and is more than likely rather disconnected from the first .it may even be in a bunker with angst or even denial at the reality of the situation

    all railways are like this which i've realised is often why the abuses of management go seemingly accepted by the volunteers
     
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  5. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    I think that also applies to many organisations, volunteer based and commercial business.
     
  6. RichardBrum

    RichardBrum Member

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    The WSR are asking the public to donate to their appeal
    They have received public funds, & are presumably going to bid for more

    Therefore everything they do is up for public scrutiny.

    [ If they don't want scrutiny, then it's a simple answer; no more bids for public funds, no more grants/donations from the charities, no more public appeals ]



    So, what are they doing to help themselves?

    Why is there a constant stream of silly mistakes that make it look like they're either unprofessional or simply don't care?
    When you notice a few, you then notice more.

    Other lines make mistakes, but there's a massive difference between 1 a year & 5-10 a year!

    If you do something different to the majority, you stand out & get noticed, whether it's positive or negative. (otherwise what would be the point in any line doing something different?)


    Why doesn't the timetables page, or the ticket booking page, make clear that it's not a train from Minehead?! Is that acceptable?
    Go through the purchase process here, & at no point does it state that it's a bus transfer
    https://westsomersetrailway.digitickets.co.uk/tickets

    Same on this page
    https://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/timetables
    It isn't until you get to a timetable page that there's any reference to it being a bus transfer.
    There's no info on why, or even an apology.





    Gift Aid on just half of that would be an extra £5854.12 ...

    So this appeal is raising £15611 per month. It's going to take 5years 4months to raise £1m.
     
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  7. 242A1

    242A1 Well-Known Member

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    The word turnkey comes to mind.
     
  8. martin1656

    martin1656 Nat Pres stalwart Friend

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    Along with a Hall class locomotive, That at the time it was thought might be completed using the WSR engineering facilities, in a joint venture with Vintage trains,
     
  9. Snifter

    Snifter Well-Known Member

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    I think those numbers assume that the one-off saving was correctly counted as a donation. IIRC, it was cost avoidance by not switching the lights on or something similar. Sadly unless other spend can be avoided such as the cafe buying fewer sachets of brown sauce, the run rate will be far more pedestrian.
     
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  10. big.stu

    big.stu Well-Known Member

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    Is he in residence at Seaward Way? "None shall pass"...

    ...I'll get me coat...
     
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  11. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

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  12. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    The line seems optimistic for the near future, they are accepting bookings for their Santa Express and Winterlight events.
     
  13. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Any business has to keep operating with its public face as if there is not any issues, otherwise customers lose faith and go elsewhere.
    Same as a Government who will keep saying it is not going to devalue its currency, right up to the moment it does.
     
  14. RailWest

    RailWest Part of the furniture

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    When the Government says "it has no plans to...", then you can be sure that it will do very soon.
    When the Plc says "it has no plans ..." then I tend to believe them these days :)
     
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  15. Aberdare

    Aberdare New Member

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    Update on tender T2061 for 7828 Odney Manor.

    Since my last posting progress in August has been slowed due to the small volunteer team being occupied with footplate and other duties, other duties including the occasional holiday. On Tuesday Paul and I spent the day getting the side panels upright, straight and parallel to each other, this involved the use of ratchet straps and spacer bars to hold everything where we wanted it.

    Once done the three transverse baffles could be trial fitted and the edges trimmed to match the actual profile of the floor plates. the top edge of each baffle had to be level with the top angle irons on each side as the top panel of the tank will later be welded to these. Once trimmed and checked then a couple of holes were drilled to hold each baffle to the vertical side angles. The baffles will be welded to the side angles and the side angles will be riveted to the side plates, this is to avoid any welded joints directly onto the side plates which might distort the plate work along the line of the weld.

    The rivets are due to be delivered this week so if the weather cools down a bit we can start filling some of the holes before long.

    Baffle 'C' fitted at the rear of the tank, the first one in. These had been delivered laser cut to the required profile.
    IMG_1689.JPG

    Followed by baffle 'B'.
    IMG_1690.JPG

    Making progress.
    IMG_1691.JPG

    The side vertical angle irons that do not have baffles attached will each have one transverse steel tie bar that runs from one side to the other to help support the sides of the tank.
    IMG_1692.JPG

    View from the rear end with the job part completed, (Ignore the 9 rivet holes in the rear plate that got marked out incorrectly and had to be welded up. "A mistake is evidence that somebody has tried to do something!").
    IMG_1693.JPG

    Baffle 'A' in position. This baffle does not have the two extra holes in the middle for some reason best known to the Swindon Draughtsman, drawn in 1910 by ERJ (?) and checked by FW Hawksworth.
    IMG_1694.JPG

    Andy.
     
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  16. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    As a pure guess - possibly encouraging the incoming water to flow to the rear when picking up at speed from water troughs?

    - but there again what do I know? o_O:confused:;)
     
  17. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    No updates or discussions for nearly a week !! So thanks to Steve Edge at wsr.org here we go. <BJ>

    WSR SOS appeal and Christmas trains bookings

    ''Some very positive news to report from the West Somerset Railway this week with the line's £1 million 'SOS' appeal having now passed the £50,000 marker (actual £50,464.11), so 10% of the initial £500K target this Winter and so 5% of the full figure.

    The WSR is looking to increase this figure rapidly now with the help of a new fundraising drive to push donations in different ways, plus some specific infrastructure projects that the line's two support charities can support too towards the appeal.

    And just a fortnight after launching the WSR's Christmas programme on Bank Holiday Monday 30 August with the traditional Santa Express and new Winterlights trains, both seasonal products have been eagerly snapped up by people keen to travel this festive season with 2,650 tickets having been sold and bringing in over £55,500 in much needed income.

    The Santa Express bookings so far are encouraging with 650 tickets sold with a value of £13,000, and Winterlights has done spectacularly well with 2,000 tickets sold with a value of £42,500, and some trains have already sold out.

    Some further good financial news was shared with the WSR's volunteer and paid workforce too this week in a letter circulated to staff from WSR plc Chairman Jon Jones-Pratt which shows that the company's trading figures for July were well ahead of where they were expected to be after some very good summer trading, and August is promising too - the results for July show a profit of £49,503 compared to a budgeted loss of £29,036 for example!

    The WSR held a successful 1940s event last weekend 11-12 September with wartime scenes and vehicles of the era recreated all along the line at many stations, along with people dressed in period costumes and uniforms, and the highlight was the big band dance at Minehead on Saturday evening featuring the Liberty Sisters and Deane Big band, attended by some 200 people.

    This weekend see the WSR's Mixed Traction event with diesel and steam on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 September (see button link below) and then there will be the all-steam Autumn Steam Gala to follow on Friday 1 to Sunday 3 October (see button link below).

    The WSR is still hopeful that the delayed opening of the new Seaward Way Level Crossing will take place in October, but news of that will follow in a further update soon''.
     
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  18. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    I still can't understand how they can be half way (?) through a project and still have no completion date. Everything should have been ordered by now, delivery dates should be known and installation and commissioning times would be the same as everywhere else on the 'big' railway…
    I thought they hired in a project manager specifically to oversee these Works - who should know exactly what's going on (The clue is in the name - "Project" & "Manager"). So does this mean that no-one knows exactly what is happening with this project? WSR-itus strikes again?
     
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  19. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    I am strongly reminded of the usual "sale" tactic of "slashing" prices from an unreasonably high previous level to give the impression of a bargain. More to the point, how does July's income compare with previous, pre-COVID years, not some figure that looks to have been calculated for the sole purpose of being as pessimistic as possible? I wonder who JJP thinks he's fooling?
     
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  20. Piggy

    Piggy Member

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    He has only to look in a mirror .....
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2021

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