Trouble at GWSR?

The byte fairy stole the word "heading" between my keyboard and the interweb.

 

If they are be restored to a condition comparable to that produced by LNERCA and/or GW(SVR)A how long will it be before we even see the truncated rake of 5 vehicles? The eventual addition of the 3 Coletts will expand the rake to 8. Or; are the boasted 2 rakes to consist of 4 vehicles each? Even if the coach fairy conjurers up others I hazard it will be at least two decades before we see two full GW rakes running on WSR .

I do however agree with you regarding the internal management issues at GWSR and also hope things settle down quite soon.

 

No-one is "boasting". Not sure why you suggested that. No-one is saying how long it will take to complete all nine - that is not important. There are no plans to acquire further vehicles. As for restoration standards, the aim is for a similar standard to the completed Sleeping Car.

However, this is all well off topic for a GWSR thread. I'm happy for you to start a dedicated thread on the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust's Heritage Carriages Project so we can continue our discussion there.

Steve

 

Mk1's are potentially better for mainline operation than Mk2's in some ways on account of the latters inability to be dual braked, with dual Mk1's, an air diesel could rescue a train hauled by a vac only steam loco.

The GWR would be better sticking to MK1's to restore for now, a GWR rake in the longer term would be nice, but getting enough operational coaches of any type should be a higher priority, asthetically pleasing types can come later.

 

Quite a few dual braked Mk2's around.

 

News to me as I was told in laymans terms, there isn't room for both types of equipment, I don't suppose you know who has them ?.

 

It's worth noting that the Mid Hants went down the Mk 2 route for a while and then reportedly ditched them because they weren't popular with passengers. In the longer term I think Mk 1s are the better bet, there's quite a lot of them around and a cottage industry producing spares is evolving. There's a lot less Mk 2s and consequently there's likely to be a lower level of support in the long term. There aren't that many dual braked examples left outside preservation now I would have thought, and even fewer vac braked ones.

 

The "formica" interior Mk2s were felt to be less in keeping with the period the MHR is trying to get itself to present (roughly mid-1950s to mid 1960s). Whilst green Mk2s clearly do represent the latter part of that period the public including many enthusiasts do not associate them with steam locomotives as strongly as a wood panelled interior Mk1 which looks older.

There were two other reasons though. First the Mk2s were found to be more expensive to maintain because of their construction and the fact that there are some moisture traps around the ends that rot out critical bits. Mk1s rot too, but are easier to repair. Second, the Mk2 fleet was mostly mainline registered and someone wanted to buy the set as we got out of mainline tours, leaving us the money to overhaul the Mk1s we wanted and buy several more.

 

I may well be wrong on them being dual braked, although I though there were some. There are a good few vac braked examples around, though.

 

My understanding was they could be Air or Vac, but not both, the green train Mk2's and Tyseley's are vac only.

 

Just before we sign of this OT exchange: Is that one set of 9 or two sets of 4 and 5 respectively?

 

Ultimately, and as far as I know, either of the above or any other combination of numbers ;-)

Steve