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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. ikcdab

    ikcdab Member Friend

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    Due out on 7th Dec. Not sure if the shop will have it. It will be on Lightmoor's website.
     
  2. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

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    When I was WSRA Chairman it was clear that the QB dining train was significantly underpriced. I had to work hard to get folk to put the price up.

    A member felt able to write to me to say that I was ‘on a mission to murder the Quantock Belle’. I saught him out and talked it through. We Identified that he thought the tickets should be £39.50 and I thought £42. Only a small Murder!

    A small proportion of folk will always go overboard. That doesn’t mean the right reaction is to operate in secret.

    Robin
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2017
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  3. Another Yorkshireman

    Another Yorkshireman Member Friend

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    I have posted a few comments and a question on the almost unused "Viabiity of Extending to Taunton" pages and would welcome answers to my question from people who know more about regulations than I do!
     
  4. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    So that's what's causing the slips, a syrup gusher... Should it be called Golden Slipup (after a cider or two?:confused:)
     
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  5. Aberdare

    Aberdare New Member

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    This is an easy one to answer, there were two reasons.
    • Firstly. In the carriages affected the wiring was generally in poor condition with perished insulation, stray wires and damaged components. with predominately hydraulic locomotives the investment to re-wire was not viable when carriages were overhauled.
    • Secondly. Mk 1 carriage stock was built using asbestos as insulation behind the steam heating equipment, this is mostly covered by steel panels. When converted to ETH more asbestos board was used in exposed locations under and above the individual heating elements under the seats. This board will deteriorate over time even if not broken/damaged when seats have been removed and refitted. It could not be established that individual elements were not already contaminated with lose asbestos fibres and subjecting the elements to heat might cause them to be circulated within the vehicle. It has been the policy of the WSR to remove all asbestos as vehicles go through overhaul or to encapsulate it (with a sprayed coating) pending overhaul. To remove the asbestos panels the licenced contractors also had to remove the ETH equipment and the steam heat equipment, cleaning and refitting the steam heat was a simple task but to guarantee the ETH elements and switches clean was very costly and again not worth the investment. It was much cheaper and easier to instruct the contractors to treat the elements as contaminated and treat them as asbestos waste.
    Yes there have been times when ETH fitted carriages would have enabled ETH fitted locomotives to be used in cold weather but the many thousands of pounds per vehicle was not justified. Keeping 30 or so vehicles in service on limited budget was always a saga of choices and the aim of re-upholstering each vehicle every 7 years considered more important to enable families to sit on clean seats than the inconvenience of having to plan to run steam rather than diesel on cold days.

    Hope this explains the reasoning.

    Andy.
     
  6. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    I quite agree - but - sites such as this one are monitored by the powers that be (saves doing a physical inspection I suppose!) It just needs one bod near a crane to have taken his hard hat off to scratch his head when the photo is taken and, if the hard hat can't be seen in the photo, it appears as though dangerous working practices are creeping in - so out comes the ORR.

    Stopping photographing is one reason why you'll see so many boarded walls around building sites.
     
  7. 34015

    34015 New Member

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    I think you will find its more to do with keeping trespassers and thieves out rather than stopping people photographing.
     
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  8. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    I have seen, on the internet, some quite impressive building works taking place in one of England's largest cities. These were at street level where a tramway was being constructed and of redevelopments being done where photos were/are taken from taller buildings surrounding the construction site. All the work taking place is quite visible.
     
  9. torgormaig

    torgormaig Part of the furniture Friend

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    Which begs the question - what have you got to hide from the ORR? Let them come and be reassured that you are operating safely. I suspect that they will have a pretty good idea anyway of how you go about your operation.

    Peter James
     
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  10. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    There has been a similar discussion on a discussion group elsewhere about a preserved railway of good repute, and issues have reportedly arisen as the result of photographs appearing to show violations of good practice. A level of caution does not seem ridiculous, though I suggest trying to stop pictures getting into the public domain is a tad excessive and counter productive.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
     
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  11. 1472

    1472 Well-Known Member

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    Hence the advantage of the Infrastructure Manager himself actually compiling the post with photos (for others to upload if necessary). That actually gives the IM the opportunity to look at the photos himself and persue any issues which arise from doing that. If there are then NO photos suitable for public posting then the board should have serious concerns and be interesting themselves in what is going on.

    Before somebody suggests that this is a significant extra task surely a good photographic record of works in progress is an important asset for a variety of reasons beyond publicity?
     
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  12. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

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    West Somerset Railway -Then and Now #146

    Minehead Turntable 1998 / 2017 / 1977

    After lurking at Minehead perched on a pair of coach bogies for over 20 years, the turntable obtained from Pwllheli is moved into the loco department for the start of the restoration process. Behind, the seafront development is underway. Nowadays the turntable has settled in as a feature. The 1977 photo shows the table arriving at Minehead. The word ‘join’ could still be read in 1998.

    Copyright Nigel Mann / Robin White / Ron Prickett

    1998
    C4055C30-212C-401B-919C-11A302F81DD4.jpeg

    2017
    E11389D0-A828-4300-B815-8E226623EB7F.jpeg

    1977
    55893CC7-7CD2-46EF-B7F0-4F7693A00596.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2017
  13. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    Indeed so. One line known to me has just such reports, both in the quarterly magazine and in periodic updates to the website. However it does have a unified structure (he says pointedly)

    PH
     
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  14. Pictures of WSR PW work continue to be published on www.wsr.org.uk (unofficial WSR website) in almost all cases without intervention of the WSR's Infrastructure Manager. And such pictures are posted on facebook and twitter, sometimes by the Infrastructure Manager, so there's plenty to see. Only on the rare occasions that an image could be misinterpreted, or when shown to be taken from an out-of-bounds location, will I get the call to consider removal from www.wsr.org.uk and then it is my duty to inform the photographer of the decision. It's a matter of trust and responsibilities, and it works very well on the whole. I remain grateful for all website contributions.

    Steve
     
  15. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    Snap. I think I've had two instances in a more than a year on the SVR site.

    Patrick
     
  16. Kje7812

    Kje7812 Part of the furniture

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    My dad worked for BR, Railtrack and some of the later contractors. There were always work photos on the digital camera from a site visit for record keeping.
     
  17. Paul Kibbey

    Paul Kibbey Well-Known Member

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    Please excuse my ignorance but what is ETH ? Thank you .
     
  18. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    Electric Train Heating (as opposed to steam heating).

    Tom
     
  19. Wenlock

    Wenlock Well-Known Member Friend

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    ETH was the old name Electric Train Heat, which predates the current usage ETS which is Electrical Train Supply as it it no longer only used for heating.
     
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  20. Paul Kibbey

    Paul Kibbey Well-Known Member

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    Many thanks Tom and Wenlock , TBH I thought all the heating with diesels as well was steam . I was shown either on a Warship or a Western the boiler and had it explained by the "second man " of how it all works . This was back in the early sixties so I've been to sleep since then and might have forgotten some of it .

    Paul . K
     
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