West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I presume that you mean Tuesday 8th July? The only 'half empty' trains today were the last round trip of the day. The 1040 departure was fully booked, the 1000 and 1430 departures were 90% or more booked. We had 6 coaches deliver parties of very content passengers to travel on those trains.

 

Why people pay inflated prices to ride behind Flying Scotsman ( AKA "Flying Moneypit") is beyond me . But, luckily for heritage railways , they do.

 

Preserved Railways must be thankful that Flying Scotsman attracts passengers.
On many occasions, business/accounting type people have become directors of Preserved Railways and found that they are a ridiculously bad business model. And only survive by the good grace of supporters.
Any hefty slug of profit over fixed costs, is very welcome.

 

In my view the ‘good grace’ business model is one of the greatest achievements of the Heritage Railway movement. Any director who does not see the importance of motivating people to volunteer so much of their time & money, for nothing but the satisfaction of keeping the railway alive, is not fit to run a (voluntary) whelk stall.

 

Normally yes but the railway is running to a special timetable. When Scotsman is in service she departs BL at 10:40. The next departure is not until 14:30.
When Scotsman departs BL at 15:00, the next departure is the evening diner at 18:45. <BJ>

 

Don't forget it has to come back from Minehead each time as well!

 

Yes, I appreciate that Ian but the discussion was about spotting lineside fires. When Scotsman departs from Minehead, the next service departs just half an hour behind it and could deal with or report any incidents. <BJ>

 

Yes, and there is also a security team at many of the vulnerable spots who can be on the watch for any lineside fires.

 

Is there a WSR loco roster publicly available anywhere?

 

it would seem not by the engineman's reaction at Dunster!

 

Things are bad when Doctor Death and his assistant, A Ladder is a more sensible option than climbing on a car roof.