West Somerset Railway General Discussion

A post from "Maybach" on UK RailUKforums that might be of interest here:

"Guest editorial by Jonathan Jones-Pratt, Chairman of the WSR, in the latest ‘West Somerset Railway Journal’:

“In a few days, we have our AGM. The annual accounts have now been published for the 15-month period up to the end of March 2019, and, as expected and in line with advice to shareholders at our earlier EGM, we have sadly reported a significant loss for the period of over £800, 000.

When I took over as Chairman in September 2018, I found a very poor financial position. Our safety regulator had real doubts about our capability to operate a safe railway and we had to take some very hard business decisions. These actions mean we have now reached a point where we are trading profitably again. We have not needed to touch our bank overdraft and we have started to build up a cash reserve again.

Is the job done? Not yet, and there remain some big challenges: we still need more funds; we must bring in more active volunteers so we don’t have to rely so heavily on just a few, and we still need to improve the way we all work together. But we are making real progress for the good of the WSR…

I do feel so positive about this great railway which has now come back from the brink…We have moved from a position where our Auditors were questioning our survival to one now where we have our accounts signed off, and we can move on.”

Cheers

Andy

 

Thanks for that, I did have a look at some photo's that showed the shunt - I just could not see it in the dark.

 

Yep, had a great day yesterday (Sunday) the lost time of 15 minutes was picked up.
Delayed by an hour on the 14.50 ex MD at WN by the late running down service hauled by the Manor.
Apparently when coaling at BL a large amount of gravel was picked up, which does not help steaming!
Although slightly miffed at no lighting and late running the the guard thanking and wishing everybody a safe journey home at BY made up for it.
He could so easily have hidden away from possible grief.
Well done him!

 

Shame he was in the minority. Yesterday was anything but "great".

Appreciate things can do wrong, but its how you handle situations when things go wrong and yesterday was a perfect example of too many people trying to be heroes whilst the management for handling issues wasn't implemented.

The morning crew of 7828 wanted to fail it in the morning with the (understandable) steaming issues. They were for whatever reason asked to continue, which they did but even with the assistance of the afternoon crew there was still stops for blow-ups at every station on the trip to BL. Time was recovered in cancelling the run to Norton, but instead of putting the 33 out to ensure people got home ok, the afternoon crew tried to get home solo. A late departure from BL, a 15-min blowup on the climb to CH, a further 10-15 minute blow up in CH itself, a mini blow up at Stogumber and then one final blow up outside Williton before finally making it into WN 1hr 10mins late.

Not once did a member of staff walk through the train to apologise or explain the situation, it was only because members of the group I was with spoke to one of the drivers we had an idea of what was going on. As I say things go wrong, but how you manage the failings is a sign of how good you are. Yesterday was a real disappointment.

 

We were waiting at Williton for you to arrive. With hindsight it would have been better to have let us proceed to Crowcombe. Our well-loaded train arrived at BL 5.26pm, 72 minutes down.

Your train, the 2.55pm from BL, eventually arrived Minehead at 7.50pm assisted by 53808.

Valiant efforts have apparently been made by loco dept overnight to rid the engines of mud scooped up when coaling at Norton Fitzwarren. The problems with 7828 yesterday were similar to those experienced with 7752 on Saturday. Let's hope it doesn't happen again today.

 

I just hope the laudable attempts to control expenditure have not included the purchase of soil quality coal. This is never a good idea.

 

9351 unexpectedly running tender first on the 11:50 MHD - NF service today. Possibly a lack of time to turn the engine at Minehead.

Update:
53808 tender first on the 14:50 MHD - BL .
7828 tender first on the 16:20 BL - MHD. <BJ>​

 

Very similar to the Chairman's message previously posted here.

Noel

 

Then, for some reason, 9351 was turned on the triangle (when I am sure it could have just ran around, or if not, just cancel the NF bit). A round trip tender first on a railway that boasts locomotives can be turned at either end to eliminate tender/bunker first running!

 

I was trying to put a positive spin on the story.
It was a great day, did you not notice the blue sky and sunshine?
Oh and the railway was operating, something that if the recent blood letting had not occurred, there might not be a railway to complain * about.


*Other railways are available

 

Its difficult to compare the WSR with other lines, both because of its length and because I dont spend anything like the same amount of time on any other preserved railway, BUT I do feel that there may be a cultural issue over timekeeping - or as in this case not.

 

Its typical GWR, the timetable is there for guidance, not observance

 

I like the Colonel Stephens approach to timetabling. "Trains will not depart before....." which means they are never late.

 

If you were privy to comments I hear all too often about timetable drift, you might take the matter more seriously. Customers have a not unreasonable expectation that trains will run on time and to the published timetable, and plan accordingly. That planning may be simple everyday events like keeping youngsters occupied whilst little is happening or retrieving their car from the car park before the gates are locked up or the clock ticks up an additional parking fee, right up to more important considerations.

Reliability and punctuality should be an aim of all Heritage Railways. People who are paying a fairly high price for a relaxing day out expect no less in this day and age.

 

And that’s the exact point that needs to be reiterated to some people.

I didn’t visit WSR with preservation rose-tinted spectacles, but neither did I visit looking to find all the politics spoken of by the many here and everywhere else. I visited for a family day out, spent over £100 in doing so, and the end product was the trains ran over an hour late with no information provided to those travelling direct. Not bothered the weather was nice, the handling of the situation was poor.

Why have we got to sugar coat everything, or be fearful of the truth? It was a bad day at the office, it happens. So long as those concerned listen, and lessons are learned there’s no problem.

I know when I’ve been RO, I’ve always tried to maintain the timetable but as soon as I go over 30 mins late my thoughts turn to how to ensure minimal disruption to the whole service, and punters can get home in reasonable timeframes. Maintaining the booked timetable for the sake of running trains is not so, as not everyone travelling is an anorak.

 

So it doesn't matter then? What a lousy attitude to customer service.

 

I can see that with such a long running line delays can easily snowball, what might cause less than half an hours delay on a ten mile line could easily make over an hours delay on a twenty mile line. Someone does need to make those commercial decisions to get customers home safely, even if it means compensating for reduced journeys.

As a matter of interest, not really WSR related, when you are RO do you deal with both operating and commercial considerations or is there a separate commercial officer in the mix too?

I know from KESR experience that we often have a separate commercial official, sometimes this will be a manager from the commercial team, sometimes it will be down to the Tenterden stationmaster. The operations controller is mainly tasked with keeping the service running or as much of it as possible, except where commercial requirements dictate otherwise.

Operating staff such as guards can assist the station staff/TTIs/catering staff with customer relations by passing on the necessary information. But the decision as to whether to run the complete journey and delay everyone, or turn short to allow people to make connections is really a commercial matter. Separating out the commercial decision making allows the operations controller to concentrate on running the trains.

In the long run keeping the customer happy is everyone's responsibility. Take a small example: one day when I was working the box at Witt Rd, two passengers got off the train by mistake. The fact that the station has only one platform meant that not all trains stop there and thus they could not complete their planned day. But I was the only member of staff there and liaised with the commercial staff (at Tenterden) to arrange an alternative, and they were thankfully reunited with their belongings which had been left on the train, and given a voucher for a return visit to compensate for their disappointment. I believe they were thus a lot happier than if I had left it as "not my job, too busy running the trains".

 

A few clips of the WSR Winter Steam Festival on 29th and 30th December 2019. Lovely winter sunshine on the second day.

 

@michaelh given that you are a "Well-Known Member" on here, would it not be reasonable to assume that you might realise that indicates a light-hearted comment, not meant to be taken literally?!