West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I understood the same as Nanstallon. Also there has been mention of accommodation for some artefacts with the Mid Hants besides the famous loco 53808.

 

Your images seem cursed with invisibility.

 

Is it not the mysterious case of the missing train service?

 

The DSR made early planning it appears and were quick off the mark to run their services. Critics here said that opens were not the best type of cars to use, but I think they have proven otherwise. Of course for them it is sink or swim, no volunteers to work free on the train operations or make donations as far as I know.

 

It’s sink or swim for all heritage railways, Covid or no Covid, at least the DSR have pulled their finger out their backside and put a service on, you say there’s no one to make donations, but by surely buying a ticket there’s money coming in?

 

Well they are not but they can be adapted for present circumstances. This has been shown at several places.

 

It's certainly sounding like they have with the announcement the other week that some items are off to the MHR, albeit temporarily, also given the lack of any obvious support for their cause from the WSSRT or WSRA who seem to have remained very quiet on the matter then it's of no great surprise. Had made me wonder what @WSSRTcandidates view was on the matter, has anyone asked, I don't recall seeing, or have they remained quiet too?

 

I am afraid that from this potential donor, the answer would be that I might have donated if there was a clear strategy and plan. I do not have huge ties to WSR, and not a member of any of its supporting groups, but have fond memories of the support I gained from some of its senior management some years ago (and the friendly rivalry that provided a light-hearted motivation to me in my then role on another railway). However, as WSR is not my first priority in allocating my charitable giving, it has lost out as I don't have confidence as to what difference my contribution would make. Instead most of my heritage-oriented charitable giving over the past few months has gone to supporting the salaries of two people in another, non-railway related charity (alongside some targeted support to the railway that holds my primary affection). I hasten to add that monitoring the attitude of people from WSR on here has not been my main disincentive - it has been the lack of any positive message anywhere else. (And I think that I am discerning enough to distinguish the difference between those who have real connection to WSR on this forum, and those who are merely interested observers - so it is in no way NP forum members that have assisted my decision to place support elsewhere, it is the conduct of those from WSR here and in other places that has).

Sorry if this is reality - but donors will make their decisions on the messages they receive and the conduct of those people and organisations they might support. Instead my money has gone to ensure that another organisation will live to see another year...

 

It is there now as far as I see.

 

You may, of course, think what you will but thoughts are not facts and may simply be quackers ....

 

Not sure what you post refers to. If it refers to the S&D trust then this may clarify.
https://www.sdrt.org/
There is a statement dated 9/9/20 and it is good to see they are getting donations and new Members.

 

There's nothing in there that says anything about 'throwing in towels' ....

 

How about this:
https://www.sdrt.org/Blog/Part-Of-T...ine-While-A-Permanent-Location-Is-Sought.Html

 

Yes it is, thank you.

 

Statement by prospective WSSRT Trustee Candidates - Tuesday 29th September

We note with surprise and pleasure the extraordinary coincidence that yesterday, only approximately 5 hours after we e-mailed the Chairman of the WSSRT to warn him that we intended to call an Extraordinary General Meeting of the WSSRT, it was announced that the Annual General Meeting of the Trust would be held on Saturday 14th November. This is just within the deadline for the Extraordinary General Meeting if the relevant forms are submitted to the Trust by the end of the coming week.

We would be pleased for the Extraordinary General Meeting and the Annual General Meeting to be held at the same time. We assume that the election of Trustees will include all of us as properly nominated candidates. We believe that the resolutions we have proposed for consideration at an Extraordinary General Meeting are all the more important and we will be continuing to submit the relevant forms to call an Extraordinary General Meeting and suggest that those members who support our aims would also wish to do so.

In addition to nomination as Trustees, our resolutions are as follows:

RESOLUTIONS:

1) The WSSRT shall fully engage with the work now started to move to a new structure for the West Somerset Railway with a supervening charity, likely having the WSR plc company as a trading subsidiary of that charity. The WSSRT Trustees shall work to achieve this by the simplest and most efficient manner and the WSSRT shall become part of this single charity.

2) Shares in the WSR plc held by the WSSRT shall not be sold or otherwise disposed of or transferred to new ownership without a vote by WSSRT members specifically authorizing that sale, disposal or transfer.

We also note with pleasure that Trust membership is to be opened for new members and we encourage all those who support the work of the Trust to join, whether you think we are good candidates or not or whether our desire to see the WSSRT play a full part in the future restructuring of the Railway is a good idea or not.

Membership of the WSSRT can be applied for at http://www.wssrt.co.uk/membership/

It may be helpful at this point to summarise some of the reasons why we have taken the action we have.

We believe that the WSSRT becoming part of a single lead WSR Charity will be good for the WSSRT and for the whole West Somerset Railway for the following reasons:

• The number of charity boards can be reduced, allowing more efficient use of scarce resources, both in administration and scarce personnel.
• The Byzantine complexity of the WSR family will be reduced, better facilitating the grant funding so sorely needed for the whole Railway.
• The educational outreach work of the Trust can be integrated with the community outreach work of the WSRA, and apprentice and ‘tracker’ functions of the WSR plc thus giving education the place it deserves on the whole Railway.
• The museums can be fully accredited under the banner of a wholly charitable Railway.
• Organisational fragmentation will be reduced.
• The heritage carriages project can be protected, enhanced and the covered accommodation it so sorely needs be provided much more easily as part of larger, better resourced land-owning charity, so allowing the ambition of a rake of vintage GWR coaches running on the WSR to be accelerated.

We look forward to having our candidature tested by the WSSRT members on 14th November 2020 and, if the membership so wish, to working with existing WSSRT Trustees to achieve these goals.

We would invite any WSSRT member who wishes to join us in calling for an Extraordinary General Meeting to fill in the form which can be found by clicking here and immediately send it by post to the WSSRT’s registered Office at:

WSSRT
The Railway Station
Bishops Lydeard
TA4 3BX.

The form is also attached, as a PDF, to this NatPres posting, for any WSSRT member to download, fill in, and put in the post.

If you do this, please also send us a copy at wssrtcandidates@gmail.com .

Regards

Barrie Childs
Dee Childs
Steve Doughty
Brian Fraser
Emma Haywood
Dave Horton
Nigel Power
James Price
Jeff Price
Robin White

29th September 2020