West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala, 27-30 March 2014

My photos from Saturday at the WSR gala and evening photoshoot are now on-line at my Zenfolio site here: - http://mickrogers.zenfolio.com/p665584487


Cheers,

 

The U class leaving Watchett on Saturday.

 

I wasn't aware the DMU coaches can't be added, just as they had been in the past I assumed.

Hopefully GWR 6705 will be available for October and the QB BCK & RMB. There are limited refreshment options aboard the BSOT, and again I assume the RMB has better facilities on it, if this is the case it really should be used.

It's a good idea to have more seats than needed, a group looking to sit together but can't in my opinion means there is a lack of seating.

One thing the WSR should look into doing is adding the Hawksworth Saloon to one rake and serving cream teas or similar like the SVR do during galas, would be a good oppourtinity for regular passengers to sample this carriage and it's views, but also for the railway to make extra income, however with the WSR refusing to allow the QB team to operate during galas anymore I can't see this happening.

 

Here’s my video of the event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB0yh-K_LuA

DUE TO ROBLEMS WITH THE EDITING SOFTWARE, THERE ARE TWO CLIPS WITHOUT SOUND.

Also my photos at: www.railwayscenes.com/photos---2014---steam---west-somerset-railway-spring-gala

 

Returned today after spending 5 days at the WSR. Enjoyed the event, shame about Manston, but these things happen. Hopefully not too big a job to repair. Feel sorry for the owning group.
Given various problems on Friday, not helped by the weather, I think full credit should be given to everyone who pulled together to keep things going and provide a service. Well done!

 

Saturday was a grand day out. It brought memories of Barnstaple Jct in 1964 for me - Bulleid Pacifics and SR and GWR Moguls. Yes, trains were crowded - just as they were in 1964!

 

I hope that the statement about the WSR refusing to allow the QB team to operate during galas is your opinion, it certainly isn't mine and I hope that is not the impression I have given in my posts. The WSR plc and the WSRA have been having meetings over the last few months and they report that they are making progress in coming to some agreements.

Also, I didn't say that the DMU cars could not be used, they can but would be operationally more difficult. For similar reasons, the Hawksworth saloon will only be used, if chartered, attached to the QB this year. This may change (note - may change) in the future.

6705 belongs to the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust and I believe that they do not wish it to be added to the general pool of coaches but will run it in public service when they have at least 2 other coaches to add to it to make a GWR Heritage Train. I'm not sure, but I think these may also be incompatible with Mk1s, although corridor connections can be adapted.

Finally, there are just about sufficient coaches on the railway to cope with the normal trade even in the height of summer, but obtaining more (if they were available) just for a dozen gala days a year would mean them sitting around for the rest of the time doing nothing, and storage space is at a premium. Extra coaches have been hired in the past, but the current budget for galas does not allow this, unless you would like less guest locos! You only mentioned the one train that was full, did you travel on any others, and were they equally full? There were 3 rakes of 6 and one of 7. With 4 guest locos which would prove popular it would be impossible to know which set to diagram each loco on.

Finally, the RMB is used exclusively in the QB set, which means it is equipped more for serving hot drinks and alcohol than the range of food on the normal buffets. Again, I'm not sure, but it may not be able to heat pasties etc.

 

Hello All,

A collection of seventeen photographs has been added to my Rail Traction Photos website taken during my visits there. If you wish to view, and hopefully enjoy them, a link is here;

http://railtractionphotosbyrichards...st-somerset-railway-28th-29th-march-2014.html

 

First visit to the WSR for me, cracking event, 7828 sounded awesome when I had a trip behind her!

My photographs from the event are now online: https://www.flickr.com/photos/frank47524/sets/72157643225473815/

 

A shot at Blue Anchor on Saturday -

 

My video from Friday:


James

 

A video with the visiting locos including one of 'Manston' Also includes scenes from the night shoot.

 

Heres my effort from Sunday..Great event as usual..thanks to everybody involved in making it happen..

 

My second video featuring the 'home fleet'

 

I would need to look up my pix from said gala to be certain. but my recollection is that 12/14 of them were home based? It was around the peak time for SVR loco availability.

 

I just want to add my thanks to the organisers and staff on the day(s) for what I found a very enjoyable gala. (My fourth WSR Spring Gala on the trot, and I'll be back for more). A gold medal to whoever sorted out the weather - much more pleasant than last year's "Siberian" spring gala which was ruined by the cold.

For me the stars of the show were 5322 (a cop loco for me) and the performances of 88, a huge silver lining in the Manston cloud. I'll definitely miss 88 when she goes out of ticket I think part of it is the small wheels which make for lots of chimney chatter. I loved the book sales and the model railways at BL and MH. I love the Bath Green Park layout - almost a work of Art, although I can't help thinking it needs a (certain) camera man on the water softener tower just to finish it off.

The one thing missing for me was a bit of shunting at Washford or Dunster as in previous galas, but all in all a very fine effort by all concerned.

Looking forward to next year already.

 

There was some shunting going on at Washford using the small diesel shunter there, although I didn't see a huge amount of it, there were movements taking place.

I think the main reason for no shunting at Dunster is the lack of a small/low power loco available to do this. In the past 5553 was usually seen here towards the end of its ticket, and the likes of 78019 in 2010, 1450 in 2005, 32678, and 30587 have all been seen here. One thing I think people say is that placing a guest loco capable of full line trains at Dunster can be seen as a waste of an engine that should be pulling in people being sat around doing basically nothing all day. If a loco was brought in specifically for this purpose/a reduced load passenger train during the week, that might be a good solution.

I do think the West Somerset kind of shot themselves in the foot when they removed the ability to run round trains at Dunster. Leaving it in would have opened up opportunities for more activity between Minehead and Dunster, or even Dunster and Blue Anchor with regards to goods runs, which I do feel the Saturday and Sunday crowd miss out on. Maybe it's something to think about for the future, but for me there is still potential to come from West Somerset galas.

 

Oh I get it - I think 88 was supposed to do some shunting there but when I passed through early on Saturday I noticed she wasn't there and then on MH I was told she was running in place of Manston - so I assumed there would be no shunting at all. Oh me of little faith!

In all seriousness I think that shunting (especially of loose coupled wagons) is one of the most evocative things about railways for me and on the mainline you just don't seem to hear the clang of buffers, snatch of couplings, squeeling flanges and shunter's calls anymore. I spent an hour on Dunster a few years ago listening and watching and learning - fabulous. The last thing approaching shunting I think I've seen on the mainline was from the bank at Peak Forest a few years ago. Washford and Dunster present such a good opportunity for a bit of it so I hope the WSR keep going at this.

 

Well, Dunster to Minehead was double track in BR days although latterly worked as two separate single tracks; perhaps this could be reinstated to give more flexibility.

John

 

Despite Manston's truncated appearance at the Gala we've had some good entries for this competition.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116839141471298057728/WSRSpring2014Gala

Submissions close at the end of April, and more entries are welcome. Details here: http://www.southern-locomotives.co.uk/News/news.html , scroll down to "34070 Manston Photo Competition".