West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Did somebody man them though? Yes
Surely it is harder to man adhoc workings?

Anyway, like I said, the loco hauled Mk2s were based at BL and ran ECS to Taunton for Cardiff services Monday to Friday daily.

Also, if the area around Taunton is to be resignalled, could NF not be resignalled as so BL box doesn't need to be 'switched in'?

I'm sure those in the planning and investigation into this project have considered these things. Almost like they do it for a living.

 

With volunteers? No. In my experience people will turn up for odd or unusual turns every now and then. But a regular shift at unsociable hours with what's actually quite a boring duty, you quickly run through the few people willing to do them and the novelty soon wears off.

 

Who’s moving the goalposts? I’m merely reacting to the proposal as reported. I don’t know what you’re talking about so I don’t know how comparable the situation is, but a year round hourly service would include the depths of winter. And yes I know that the WSR did that in antiquity but times have changed.

 

As I see it, the only way the WSR could operate an all-year-round service would be in partnership with GWR with the TOC providing an DMU service between either Bristol TM, or Taunton, to Minehead, as a commercial service.

 

I can imagine few different scenarios, but in the end the questions I previously posed will always be the ones to be answered. Is there a subsidy, how much infrastructure change is needed and what is the impact and benefits to the WSR.

Year round operation (I am only going by the report) along the WSR will require at least an underpinning of full time staff even if volunteers are able to help with some of the duties.

A frequent connection out onto the mainline from BL could easily mean sufficiently high platform occupancy there to require another platform, somewhere.

Let’s see what the upside for the WSR is. If they get a continuing income over and above the “cost” (cash and otherwise) of the thing, then it sounds great.

 

I agree entirely about a through service to/from Minehead, but is there any serious suggestion of that now? What I was commenting on were the implications for the WSR of a main line TOC running as far as Bishops Lydeard.

 

I think it's worth pointing out that the Taunton terminating services that are often mentioned for extending to BL *do not actually exist* for much of the day. They continue to Plymouth or Penzance. For example, there are no 'local' terminating services from Bristol/Cardiff arriving at Taunton between 0718 and 1153 today.
This means that to avoid cutting these services, the BL service would have to be an additional service either entirely separate from or attaching/detaching to/from the existing service, and not just an extension. More units, more crew, more money.

Here's a link to Realtime Trains showing relevant services at Taunton.

 

The report posted said that the GWR would run to BL and there would be year round connecting services on the WSR. That may not be what is intended or what would eventually be operated, but it is what the report said.

 

Let alone where a cash strapped government would get the money from for the upgrades needed. Of course it will not be a GWR decision either as by then resumably we would have a fully fledged GBR that GWR may, or may not, be part of.

 

I had not bothered to read the report so hadn't seen that. But a report proposing year round connecting services on the WSR doesn't seem worth reading anyway.

 

1st December.

Any update on the WSRA DMU appeal?

 

Whilst all Heritage Railways are unique, surely the Swanage Railway experience of Project Wareham is a salutary lesson.

 

Although ironically, the couple of years when SWR ran a through service to Corfe Castle (2018/9?) sounds very similar operationally to what the WSR is proposing.

 

It was bedevilled by strike action so it didn't run as planned on many dates.
The fare levels were set at incredibly low levels which whilst attracting many passengers would be unrealistic in the current post covid circumstances.
It had the very visible support of a (former) senior SWR manager which may have been a key factor in its operating.
It added operational complexity which as we know increases the risk of a mishap.

 

Was it not also a unit that otherwise would have spent most of the day parked at Weymouth?

 

Although I’d suggest that as a visitor destination, Corfe Castle has rather more to offer than anywhere along the WSR (the best comparator being Dunster, but far less convenient for the station); and - being near the junction end of the line - Corfe Castle is subject to comparatively short section of enforced 25mph running. If you want to visit Dunster by train, you are going to spend well over an hour each way once you get off the mainline network.

Don’t get me wrong: I like the WSR as a steam railway, where steam is a major part of the attraction and the lineside scenery is quite good. But would I use a modern unit to traverse the line to any of the villages? No, without the draw of steam, I’d just drive.

Tom

 

I thought it was Salisbury but not sure.

 

I used the service in 2018 to travel from Sherborne to Corfe for the novelity rather than an easy way of visiting Swanage railway. As I recall the service originated from Basingstoke and consisted of a 2 car 158 plus a three car 159 set. From Sherborne we had no less than four reversals en route, namely Yeovil Junction, Yeovil Pen Mill, Weymouth (where we left the 2 car set behind) and Wareham. The whole journey took about two and a half hours in each direction. During the layover at Corfe the unit did a couple of shuttles back to Wareham.

As an enthusiast I found it an interesting and unusual service but it was hardly an ideal way of getting there when driving is so much quicker and more flexable. It was no surprise that it did not get repeated.

Peter

 

Added to which, the impact of the slow rail speed is magnified by the extra distance travelled between Watchet and Blue Anchor compared to the 5 minutes or so on the road. My wife still moans about the time she dropped us off at Blue Anchor and was at BL before the train left BA

 

45 minutes to drive from Taunton to Dunster Castle. If you don't want to drive, just get the bus. It's not much longer than by car and the bus stop is a lot closer than the railway station. The same journey by train will be about 1 hr 45 including a 20 minute walk from the station, plus crossing the A39.

The buses are pretty frequent for a rural area and broadly follow the route of the railway, with the added bonus of actually stopping in the villages rather than on the edge of them. As you say, the WSR is an attraction in itself; it's pretty useless as a means of transport.