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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

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

  1. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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    Is that renewal of Rail only or a full job, Rail, Sleepers and Ballast?
     
  2. Robin

    Robin Well-Known Member Friend

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    For comparison, the latest SVR News has a comment in the GM's notes "Maintaining a safe infrastructure, including annual rail replacement, costs alone circa £600,000 per annum."
     
  3. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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    In the 3 main elements of track, the main components wear out in the wrong order.
    Ballast 30 - 40 years
    Sleepers - 40 - 50 years
    Rail - 70 plus

    All dependant on ground conditions, maintenance and loadings.
    Going by the above and assuming your mileage of 25 miles and a 35 year life, you need to reballast 1 1/4 miles per year to stand still

    You cannot hope that the track will last by just changing the rails you need to have an ongoing programme of full renewal as well.
    Some rerailing will get you by for a while but it will catch up on you.

    Take a look at what is being done on the Bluebell as an example of what is needed.
    https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/ext/inf_news.html

    Or what we do on the NYMR.
    https://www.nymr.co.uk/blog/civil-engineering-diary-27-march-2019
    Other pages are available.
     
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  4. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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  5. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

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    It would have been a brave volunteer who attempted to ask her between 03:52 when she arrived and 09:30 when she departed...

    Robin
     
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  6. mvpeters

    mvpeters Member

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    Somewhere, buried in this thread or one of its fore-runners, is an excellent description of the overall track refurbishment plan, at least as it was then.
    My recollection is that a mile a year was the 'plan', but I may be wrong.
    If you can find the thread, it may be a good 'read'.
     
  7. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

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    By contrast - the WSR (according to comments from the Chairman) has apparently been able to resolve the infrastructure issues which concerned the ORR by expenditure of £140k. This is surprising - you don't get much for £140k these days.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2019
  8. Robin

    Robin Well-Known Member Friend

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    I suspect that was the minimum expenditure needed to reopen. A more comparable figure going forward would be that mentioned in the notes on the pre-season WSR stakeholders meeting on 4 March. "All 4,000 WSR plc shareholders will also be contacted shortly to seek further necessary investment which is expected to be at least £500,000 a year."

    http://www.wsr.org.uk/news.htm#1706

    The SVR has more viaducts and more problems with unstable ground, but the WSR has a longer line, more stations and a backlog of work to address. On that basis the £500k should not really come as a surprise.
     
  9. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    I will make allowances that the WSR has been rather pre-occupied with things of late which may suggest no one knew beforehand of the visit. :D
     
  10. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

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    But, given that they were technically insolvent last December and considering Voluntary Liquidation - where is that £500k p.a going to come from?
     
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  11. huochemi

    huochemi Part of the furniture

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    Easy, just get the WSRA to reprise its "Let me through, I'm an expert fund raiser!" routine which was deployed to such good effect re 4110. ;)
     
  12. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

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    Barbara Pym wrote in one of her books describing a Blood Donor session a character shouting "Let me through - I'm A Rhesus Negative" and the queues miraculously parted, - as I am an A Rhesus Negative Blood Donor, I have been often tempted to shout that out to see if I get rushed to the head of the queue but sadly I have never had the courage to try it out!
     
  13. Paul Kibbey

    Paul Kibbey Well-Known Member

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    And I thought antagonism was all in the past , must pay a visit sometime soon .
     
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  14. DragonHandler

    DragonHandler Well-Known Member

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    I think the sign we had on our office wall is probably appropriate:

    "Get it right and no one will remember.
    Get it wrong and no one will forget."
     
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  15. ikcdab

    ikcdab Member Friend

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  16. Captain Fantastic

    Captain Fantastic Member

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    How heavy is a Hall class when it's ready for a train?

    I only ask as 46010 has had its invitation to attend the diesel gala as the WSR have decided the track is a bit poorly and may not cope, it's ok as I'll just take my money to the Swanage or SVR instead. But I wonder whether the steam visitors to their gala will be subject to the same weight limits, dont worry it's a rhetorical question as we all know the answer already :mad:
     
  17. billbedford

    billbedford Member Friend

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    the hall would be about 15 tons lighter than the peak
     
  18. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Did you mean to say that it has had its invitation cancelled?
     
  19. marshall5

    marshall5 Well-Known Member

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    It's not just the weight but the axle load which is important. A 28xx is a 'Blue Route' whereas the Hall is 'Red' as the weight of the former is spread across 4 driving axles but only 3 on the latter even though both classes are almost the same weight.
    Ray.
     
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  20. alastair

    alastair Well-Known Member

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    Confusing post, and why the "mad" emoji?
     

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