West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Spa Valley manage to convert a carriage into a mobile bar with around 12 barrels of beer and cider without issue...

 

Sheppy, from near Wellington, in my opinion, is much better. And it is available still rather than gassed up.

 

anyone into buses, don't forget Taunton vintage bus running day 2moro (14th sun)

 

But was it real ale?

 

Yes,well as much as southern beer can be.
Takes days to prepare but the sales justify the effort .
Try getting out and seeing what those with a can do attitude do.

 

Not a question of attitude just reality. You assume that there is a sufficient demand to justify the costs and effort involved. That may be so but I would like to see some accounting evidence that it can be a profitable undertaking. As a sepcialist event I can see it being OK but I doubt the demand is there for everyday service as an economic reality. Your prejudice against beers from the South suggests it is you that should get out more rather than me. As a fully paid up, card carrying Yorkshireman exiled in Somerset for many years, I can confidently say that the North has no monopoly on good beers, or bad ones for that matter!

 

Do we know why the tram didn't go through to Minehead, seams to my memory no MK3 type coach has been down the branch for a while, the 159,s had to be stopped at Lyd as well

 

The suggestion from Anne was to put bars on trains at the diesel/beer event not everyday.
The fact other railways do it repeatedly suggests a financial return to make it worthwhile .
I was happily sampling beer from the BL brewery last weekend,as I do get out.Will back in June and July as long as no more MM dates are cancelled.

 

GWR sent some people down to do some gauging work in preparation for today's trip a month or so ago, so presumably it was them who decided Mk3s don't fit. One reason that I've heard is that clearances were too tight on curved platforms, which would suggest that Doniford and/or Watchet are the problems. It could be that standards everywhere have changed since Mk3s were last on the branch.

 

Yeah I did think Doniford may be involved in some way, thanks for the reply

 

What about cider?

 

Good idea! Half of Thatchers, please.

Robin

 

Well, if you're around on the 26th, I might oblige, even though you've misquoted me.

 

Thank you, kind sir....

Robin

 

Thankfully D1010 'Western Campaigner' had a successful run over the WSR. After being crammed on an HST for several hours I expect that the passengers were glad of a chance to sit in older coaches with comfortable seats and plenty of leg room.

The Western ran with the correct headcode (1Z66) and the Bristolian headboard. Nice. <BJ>

 

I took my three sons from Frome on the HST. While an HST to Minehead was quite an exciting prospect the Western more than made up for it and with 9 on the back certainly gave the impression of having its work cut out, rather disproving my view of large Diesels on preserved lines as being like driving a Ferrari in a car park

 

Good to see the WSR got a mention in today's Sunday Times Travel Section, Page 15.

 

Agreed. But given the choice on a moving train (coming over all Titfield Thunderbolt) would it be a live 'bright' beer, a bottled beer or no beer at all?

Patrick

 

I'm really surprised by this, as on the NYMR we have room to accommodate C3 stock, having had Mk3 sleeping cars all the way to Pickering with an Inter City land cruise or two back in the days of sectorised BR.

Sawdust.

 

As Mr Monkton says they have been down loads of times TBH, there were at least one full HST rake stored down there for a few months but that was then and common sence seams to have left the risk adverse railways of today