GWSR General Discussion and Operations

Lineside fire between Winch and Todd delayed service on saturday, rather surprising after the rain.

 

Object lesson, considering rain and just goes to show how long a prolonged dry spell takes to overcome. Hope not too much damage and services not too badly affected.

 

My understanding was that didn't turn out to be the case, was called in as such but turned out to be a bonfire nearby (not related to GWSR activity). Northbound service only delayed by about 10-15 mins IIRC (I wasn't on operational duty but was around doing other things)

 

That's a relief. We've had quite sufficient fire-related excitement for one year.

 

Yeah the first shot was just the typical steam in the landscape shot. Wanted to capture the surroundings, you may not capture much noise. But if you’ve got a mixture of close ups and distance stuff on the coverage. It’s a nice balance. Thank you for the comments


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Timetables for the mixed traction gala are now out, should be a very happening railway with 5 sets out and about: https://www.gwsr.com/Timetable_2.html

 

Thanks for spotting that, I will get on to them sharpish!!

 

Another visit yesterday, this time with 7903 ‘Formarke Hall’ in action. 5 shots from the 4 different locations.




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There's a new post on the civil engineering blog:
https://bridgestobroadway.blogspot.com/2022/10/28022022-update.html

... with an update of all the works since February. 100 year old bridges keep you very busy!

I think it's sad that we are not judged to be a good enough partner to take over the bridges to Honeybourne (should the board want that of course) as we are clearly very professional with the ones that we do have.

 

A very enjoyable family day out at the GWSR last Thursday was somewhat tainted an issue with the Wychavon Council operated car park at Broadway.

Short version: I got scammed by the parking machine and I strongly suggest anyone who has used that car park recently and paid online or via the "RingGo" app to keep a close eye on their bank account.

Long version: Having watched the station arise out of nothing on the excellent blog, but not yet had the opportunity to visit I thought it would be nice to start from there on this visit. Most car park ticket machines I've visited recently are card only, no taking coins so I was a bit dismayed when I got there to discover it was coin, or pay "RingGo" online or via an app. I tried online, and got asked to approve a £1 verification payment which it seemed would be refunded, so I proceeded, and suddenly found myself on a website giving me "free access" to streaming and music downloads - and I couldn't get back to the parking site. Tried to log in again but the website didn't recognise me so I tried to set up a new account but I couldn't do that as my email was already associated with an account! Catch-22....

I'm no technophobe but gave up at this point and my partner tried on her phone using the downloadable app. She came up against exactly the same problem with the app. We then tried the phone number provided by RingGo: It's a (slow) automated service and after it taken her details said it couldn't authorise the payment, could she try again - right back to the beginning, go through the hoops all over again only to be told that they were "experiencing difficulties" and couldn't process the payment at that time.

By now we'd spent 25 minutes trying to buy a £5 parking ticket, any thought of a look round the station had evaporated and I decided to use the change I did have to buy a 3 hour ticket and we'd take our chances, rather than miss the train which was now at the platform and run round ready to leave. I did mention to the chap in the ticket office that we'd had some issues, but he couldn't have been more cheerful in telling me "it's nothing to do with therailway" - his manner rankled a bit and that isn't entirely true as they part refund the parking charge against tickets. Just after we'd got on the train the RingGo app sprang to life on my partner's phone and confirmed the parking payment. So, we'd paid twice, but at least we didn't spend the day worrying we'll get an overstaying charge. On with the rest of the day, which was really enjoyable. Trains were well loaded, but the coaches clean and very well presented, and the Whistle and Flag service was quick and friendly, and the food excellent. 7903 and 35006 looked and sounded spot on!

Other than firmly reminding myself to always park at Toddington in the future, I pretty well forgot about it until lunchtime today when I received a text from my bank asking me to confirm whether I'd just made an online payment to sth-1.net. I hadn't, but the web address rang a vague bell and a quick check confirmed it was where I'd ended up from the RingGo website. As well as the £1 "verification apayment" they'd taken another £1.49 on Sunday, and tried for a bit more £29.99) today. Presumably if my bank hadn't picked up on that one, they'd have tried for more according to the person I spoke to at the bank. So, thankfully I've only lost £2.49, but I've had to stop my debit card, and will have to wait for another one in the post, wasted several hours on the phone etc etc.

I have phoned Wychavon Council and let them know that they have a problem with their supplier. If anyone else has an issue I suggest they do the same: They do at least answer the phone and the chap I spoke to sounded concerned and helpful and I'm waiting for a call back.

RingGo is a big firm with some even bigger owners (BMW & Daimler) so legitimate , but something had clearly gone wrong for them on Thursday at least.

This is in no way a criticism of the GWSR - just for info in case it saves anyone here from having unauthorised amounts debited from their accounts!

 

Don't you just love the way modern technology has in so many cases stopped being a labour saving device and just added complications to the simplest things now days.

 

They are certainly labour saving: it cuts down the labour force.

 

I'm old enough to remember when all the gee whizzery was going to set us all free too. Now it's just one of those pipe-dreams which sits there, along with free electricity from nuclear, cold fusion and robot butlers on the list of things which didn't quite pan out as we'd been led to believe. Oh well, that's life for you.

 

I had a similar happening and it turned out I had a virus in my phone. Worth a check to see if all is OK.
All my working life I heard the phrase 'paperless office'. Turns out that was bollox too....

 

The paperless office was a great idea until some eejit invented the printer...

 

Fair point - I've got AVG installed on the phone and it says it's clean. I think might try another antivirus for second opinion though.

Given that my partner had the same "divert to external website" issue with the (freshly installed) app on her phone, the current thinking is that RingGo had an issue at the time. The Car Park operator (Wychavon Council) have been in touch today, and RingGo are investigating - so at least they appear care about their clients' security!

 

What about John, Paul and George though?

 

Good luck with John and George….