West Somerset Railway General Discussion

On beading: I wonder how much you'd need to order to make rolling a specific section commercially viable? Presumably owners of other GWR tenders would need the same section.

When the team building 'Beachy Head" had a similar issue on making the cab beading round the cab cutouts,, they had to fabricate it from various part-sections welded together to make the full profile - see October 2015 report (scroll down) here: https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/locos/atlantic/latest_15.html

Tom

 

Well, a while ago on this thread a whole-year figure of 70lb/mile was given for the WSR, that including all the coal spent lighting up etc. (i.e. simply taking the total tonnage consumed divided by the total miles run). That was comparable to a figure I calculated on the Bluebell of 63lb/mile.

The amount spent running is obviously less than that - I'd suspect something about 50lb/mile might be a reasonable number for a train of that size. The trip is 8 miles, so 400lbs of coal per round trip for steam lights. Steam heating a train of six coaches takes about 700lbs of steam per hour, so about 100lbs of coal per hour.

So from the starting point of a loco in steam, if the duty is an hour of steam heating followed by an 8 mile round trip, roughly 1/4 ton would cover the marginal cost in coal for an engine already in steam. If the loco is steamed specifically for that duty, add about another 1/2ton for lighting up. As I understood the calculation you were trying to do, it was calculating the specific cost of the winter lights trains.

My question about what else the loco did was specifically in the context that the more daily miles, the cheaper those miles become (because the lighting up cost is spread over more miles). The longest duty given by @Ian Monkton above was 64 miles, and for that the 70lb/mile figure is probably a reasonable number, since that would be comparable to "normal" duties. That would give about 4,500lbs of coal, or two tons. At the other end of the scale, two winter lights (16 miles) plus lighting up plus an hour of steam heating before each train would be say 1/2ton to light up + 16 *50 = 800lbs for the journey + 200lbs for steam heating - say a ton in total, to the accuracy of a fag packet. The coal/mile in the short duty is getting on for twice the normal, because of the disproportionate impact of lighting up, though it is less in absolute terms.

So in round figures, between one and two tons per day depending on the duty.

(It's why, incidentally, rostering efficiency has more impact on cost than locomotive size).

Tom

 

A few years back, I had a bit of fun with the CME in that we both tried to predict the annual spend on coal given the planned timetable, engineman courses, galas, charters, QBs (remember them ?) etc. We used two different methods and converged on almost the same answer to within around 7 tons for the year which was almost bang on the actual figure. It may have been a happy accident rather than a stroke of genius. I think he was closer than I was but my budget figure was 34.8 miles per metric tonne across the fleet that was operating at the time.

 

How sad to see the recent images of the abandoned yard at Washford.
wsr.org.uk

Thanks to wsr.org. <BJ>

 

Williton yard is about 4 miles from abandoned .

 

Confirmation that Andrew Forster knew how much coal his locos consumed ?

I imagine he was reassured !

Michael Rowe

 

Has anyone any idea when timetables for 2022 might be published.? Might we also ask if trains are likely to call at Washford (we like to get off there and walk back to Watchet on the old Mineral Line.

 

I was wondering about the current status of the appeal, the WSR's website page suggests the '2021 appeal' is still open, though (as these things do) the text needs a refresh https://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/donations

The last update I saw was 14 December.

 

With the recent news announcements that all is going well and the rejection of the funds bid due to the line not being at risk, has the appeal now closed ?

 

Timetables will be published very shortly, Keith. And, yes, we are very much hoping Washford will reopen at the start of the season, if not shortly afterwards.

Frank

 

Many thanks Frank! We look forward to getting on a train again and walking the Mineral Line from Washford to Watchet.

 

News from the S& D! A new agreement will release Washford station to the WSR immediately (good news for those who like to walk the Mineral line back to Watchet) The S&D will have the yard till Nov 2023 to allow them to remove EVERTHING and leave it empty! News by email to members,

 

I may be missing something here, but....

During the course of 2021 the S&DRT emptied their signal-box display, shop and other items from the station building. With much of their efforts now transferred elsewhere, AIUI the station has been locked and no longer manned during WSR operating days. So in effect WD became just an unstaffed halt, rather like Doniford but bigger. I fail to see why that necessitated the Plc no longer stopping trains at WD, it's almost as if they were trying to pretend the place no longer existed.....

 

Just Billy Bunter being spiteful ........

 

RailWest has echoed what I was thinking. Maybe the rights to use the station had to be reassigned to the WSR for some legal reason?
It all seems a very sad saga to me but I'm pleased the the S&D people have found a new home.

 

Can't see why WSR could not operate Washford even as an unmanned halt last season but hopefully that will be resolved this year. we eagerly await the 2022 timetables.

 

With regard to the latest Topical Pictures showing the progress with the Steel Sleeper relay.
Can I ask what the sleeper spacing is?

It looks a bit like 24 or maybe 26 sleepers per length to me.
I understood that the recommended spacing was 28 per lengtb or 653mm centres.

Also the photo of the relay end against the BH joint.
Is the first BH Sleeper Timber or Steel?
As there should be 2 sleepers of the same material either side of the joint.

http://cgibin.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?h=Topical+pictures&t=pics

 

my thoughts too, and what is the need for a machine with a magnet on? there arent even any chairs on these lightweight tin sleepers, older p way guys will be familiar with lifting chaired tin sleepers with 2 men, no wonder everything seems to take 3 times longer to do these days !

 

Perhaps he was practising for a spell on the arcade 'grabber' machine ?