West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Excellent picture of the Somerset and Dorset recreated in 2018.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

Actually, it is in the timetable. Dep BL 17:45 , Arr NF 17:55 , Dep NF 18:15 , Arr BL 18:25

 

The same is scheduled to happen today (Saturday) at the same times, this time it's 53808 + 7820 + 34046.

 

My footage of the gala filmed on Thursday and Friday. Despite the problems, credit goes to those involved in making this gala a success. Enjoy.

 

A WSR mystery

So here we are at Stogumber, just off the foot crossing towards Crowcombe. MP 174-111. The new wooden track access gates are in the background.

And the web of the rail here is marked with and arrow and ‘177’ and the rail also was plainly fitted with track circuit bonds in the past.

So where did this length of rail come from?

One theory is that it was recovered rail from the Taunton to Barnstaple line on closure - 177 would put it in the Venn Cross station layout. 177 WSR is in the (relative) middle of nowhere between Stogumber and Williton, where no track circuit has ever been.

Or maybe there is another explanation?

Robin

 

Having written that sort of graffiti many times.
The marking looks to be made with wax crayon probably a Markall Paintstik.
The number will be a site marking indicating 1770 metres from the site zero point.
The arrow is to indicate the actual survey location, usually for a track renewal scheme.
Survey readings will be taken at least at 10m intervals so 10 metres away should be another mark with 178 or 176. Reducing in the direction of low mileage.
Normally the first and last 200m will be into existing track so as a minimum the renewal site will be 1370metres long or nearly 1500 yds.
There is no way from your marks of saying where the track came from.

The individual who wrote the numbers is not very advanced in skill level as I would expect them to be able to write upside down so you can read it right way up.
As for length of time it has been in place, 6 months on site to allow for track survey and design work pre renewal and maybe a month or two to be disposed of via a contractor or NWR disposal depot.
The crayon mark can fade off before then depending on local conditions, or could be visible for 2 years or more.

I intend to be making use of some similar marks on the NYMR on thursday when I survey a proposed renewal site on the NYMR for this winters work.
I applied the marks earlier this month.

Has anyone been through Stogumber with a rail measuring wheel doing a survey of the whole line? They may have written the marks.
I did something similar on the NYMR wheeling out from buffer stop to buffer stop Pickering to Grosmont in a continuous survey.

 

The top photograph does show the figures as being written 'upside down', in the lower one it is the photograph that is upside down".

 

Anyone know the locos use monday 1st October please.

 

Minehead signalman chats to driver of the hymek perhaps mentioning “This is a steam gala and that’s a diesel”

Thank you all involved for a superb gala.

 

That certainly looks like an accusing finger

Yes indeed! Massive thanks to all concerned for such a great gala, despite all the early problems.

Just out of curiosity, why was 7820 running tender first on the 10:55 from MD?

 

As the owner of the finger, I can say that it was an ‘emphatic’ finger, emphasising ‘you’ in ensuring clarity in instructions was achieved given that we were about to depart from the shunting plan slightly and make a move that had two locos heading toward each other!

Great picture, BTW, Anthony. Can I have a copy?

7820 needed coal at Minehead. When going to turn beforehand the crew experienced difficulty ‘unbolting’ the turntable and sensibly prioritised coaling over solving the turning problem, meaning they only departed 11 minutes late, which time was rapidly recovered by some slick working, like the move above...

Robin
(Early turn Minehead signalman / line controller today.)

 

Thanks for the reply Robin. I knew there had to be a very good reason for 7820's 'backwardness' and it's nice to know what it was.

 

You are welcome.

I appreciate that it will not have provided the photograph that some folks wanted, but I believe it was the only ‘fail to turn’ in 4 days and my judgement as Controller was that this was the lesser evil to keep the instance of lateness to an amount recoverable over the next timetable cycle or so.

I thought the timekeeping was pretty darned good, and the Gala team coped admirably with the couple of ‘googlies’ bowled at them in the run up to the Gala.

Robin

 

The writer should write upside down so it can be read normally. The arrow should be upright not inverted.

 

Despite appearances, the WSR is still short of volunteers in some areas. I know that there were some desperate phone calls being made pleading for cover up to the day before the gala - luckily, people were persuaded to commit to an extra day.

 

I think your 'Line Controller' judgement was the correct one. So I , and a lot of other people, didn't get the photo we expected, but it was a gala and there were loads of other opportunities to get photos of 7820 the 'right' way round.
I think the timekeeping was very good throughout the gala and while there were instances of late running during the day they didn't accumulate and trains were back on time very quickly. One such was when a train left Williton 15 minutes down, but was only a couple of minutes down on arrival at Minehead.
I found it very enjoyable gala and my grateful thanks go to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen.

 

You did suggest that the original writer was , to put it mildly, inefficient. Not so it appears. Maybe he is long gone and just a memory of him survives on that piece of rail.

 

I was gap-filling on Sunday myself. I only arrived back from France the day before. At least with a single line, no need to think which side to drive on (!).

I qualified as a WSR signalman well over 30 years ago and I can thoroughly reccomend it as a way to spend a day, if you like operating heritage equipment with a certain degree of responsibility.

Incidentally, dates for WSR 2019 Galas are, provisionally 21-24 March and 4-7 October, I believe.

Robin