West Somerset Railway General Discussion

What is the staff website?
Any more news about the work at Williton?
Also the water crane in the bay at MD?

 

If you have a valid Staff Id then you can access to the staff website - contact the Railway.
I have no news about the Williton work but I expect it'll start in January 2012.
The water crane is currently at Williton for renovation before eventual return to Minehead.

Steve

 

On wsr.org it has a photo of the work starting in the field adjacent to BL, & also says 'which once included a new carriage shed'. Is this not now being built? I thought that was the whole idea!

 

Is room still being left for a carriage shed, or has the whole idea been dropped completely?

Chris

 

I understand there are conditions placed on the developers that leave a way forward for future developments by the WSR on the area of land previously earmarked. I am not sure where this proposed project fits into the overall WSR forward plan but my guess is that it is not in the top ten. Securing the land is the first priority and it looks as if that aim is still a possibility. My own views based on interpretation of recent documents..

Steve

 

Hope so WSW. I would have thought a carriage shed would be way up in the 'top ten'.

 

My hunch is based only on the overall cost of a facility - carriage shed/museum - at Bishops Lydeard.

Steve

 

A couple of snippets...

Norton: I have added a minor update to the Norton Map - ballasting the very end of the Spur at Allerford Bridge and also along the half-finished East Chord. WSR :: West Somerset Railway :: Norton Map There's also five pictures of yesterday's work at the Norton Triangle on the latest pics page.

Williton: I understand the work to extent the Up end of the loop at Williton is unlikely to start during January and February due to awaiting final costings and also the priority relay work at Stogumber. There seems the re-instated bridge, which will carry the extended Up loop over a tributary of the Doniford Stream, could be installed at any time this year. Finally, staff from the relevant departments are due to meet on site this coming week to determine the position of the loop point.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve. Are they still awaiting rail for the east chord? Far be it for me to critsize as i'm only a lowly paid fireman: in fact not paid at all! but i thought the loop at Williton was going to be done this Jan/Feb. So cold'nt they have done costings last year?! Seems rather obvious to me!

 

Not sure about rail for the East Chord gap. There was supposed to be a delivery from NR some time back - I guess it hasn't arrived yet.

As for Williton loop - I'm not even a non-paid fireman, just an out-of-ticket (by 20 years!) guard - I merely passed on the message from WSR Plc. I suspect the PW team are needed more at the Stogumber relay.

Steve

 

It just seems to take an inordinately long time to get anything done!

 

West Somerset Railway Plc Chairman Humphrey Davies advises "We are arranging a public presentation of the proposed Govier's Lane Crossing development. The meeting is planned for 23 February 2012 at the Phoenix Centre in Watchet between 10am and 1pm."

As previously reported, visuals will be on display giving those with an interest to see exactly what is going to happen at the busy pedestrian level crossing near Watchet Station.

Steve

 

Quite serious flooding at Williton today with tracks totally covered by water in the platfoms. I hope there is not too mch dqmage. See latest pictures at WSR :: West Somerset Railway :: The Minehead Branch

 

With the unofficial WSR website being reduced to a pictures only site from tomorrow, perhaps now is the time to say a sincere thanks to webmaster Steve for what I consider to have been the best unofficial (or official) heritage railway website in its present form.

I hope that the "News" element will be found presumably on the official site? (I'm not a twitter or Facebook user)

Regards

46118

 

Thank you, 46118, for your kind comments.

WSR news items - I'm not aware of future plans for the already hugely-improved official website. But I can confirm wsr.org.uk will carry the latest tweets on a dedicated page for all to see and where poss I will add a link to the appropriate website where more info should be available. Thus I hope wsr.org.uk will to continue a kind of signposting role.

Expecting to do the upgrade this eve during the footie and after listening to Keith C on The Park - Truly Local Radio for the New Forest - 96.9FM and ON-LINE (8pm-10pm) who is, I understand, playing two of my former band's tracks...

Steve

 

I'll second that, many thanks for the time and effort, much appreciated.

 

The flooding pictures reminded me of a much earlier event.In Colin G.Maggs book Branch Lines of Somerset there is a picture of a broad gauge B&ER 4-4-0 ST standing in floods at Williton in 1877.
Colin.

 

The new order is not at all bad - it is easy to access some very nostalgic photos of the early days as well as the latest images. I hope that the archive material,such as a fascinating list of all locos that have graced WSR metals, has been preserved and made easy to access.

In any case,many thanks to Steve for running the site over the years.

 

Yes, Thanks Steve.

One thing I couldn't find on the new wsr.org.uk site was a loco roster. Is there one on the official site ? I couldn't find one thee ere either (Apologies if I am being a bit stupid!)

 

Thanks folks for kind words.

The loco roster can be found on the "photographer's page" (thought they'd like to know!) As far as I know the loco roster is not on the official website.

The "old" site can be found from a link on the "about" page.

Steve