West Somerset Railway - Removal of the PLC Chairman and related matters

Perhaps a job for...you?

Steve

 

Would love to but an essential ingredient as indicated by the GW is that is essential to be present and that I could not do

Additionally all the blogs are always bang up to date

The guy who writes the Broadway Extension Blog works all day and then must write it up before he sits down to dinner. The Drainage guy with the exception of Saturdays seems to write it up in the middle of the following night - a bit nocturnal like own Robin who recently featured on the Extension Blog using her newly acquired skills on sign writing the Broadway clock

 

Now there seems to be some communication flowing, even if not strictly relevant to the title of this thread, perhaps some of the outstanding questions may be answered:

1. @FrankC - what had changed to make you accept Rodney's invitation to be put forward for a return to the WSRplc Board just a couple of months after resigning?
2. Can anything publically be said (and I appreciate a number of potentials reasons why it may not be able to be) about why it was felt Ian had be removed as Chairman with what looks to an outsider like considerable haste but no replacement acceptable to the WSRplc Board had been identified, thus leaving a vacuum?
3. Is anyone acting as de facto Chairman in the interim or what arrangements are in place to co-ordinate and move forward what seems to be agree to be the urgently needed future plans?
4. Who forms the Working Group tasked with identifying the new Chairman and what timescale have they been tasked to work to?
5. Has a 'Job Description' and 'Candidate Profile' been drawn up yet, and will they be published when they are and applications invited?
6. It has been alleged that one set of proposals designed to address the problems that it does seem to be generally accepted the WSRplc currently faces have been turned down at the WSRplc Board. Have any other proposals (and I am not asking for details of any such proposals) been presented and turned down in the last year or so (bearing in mind the increase in costs revealed by the 2017 accounts) and can the WSRplc Board at least confirm that some action has been taken? Again, details might be nice but given the nature of the seeming situation, I can understand if they aren't available. I am probably thinking in the widest possible sense of 'proposals' - i.e. not just a business plan or suggested actions but any item, be it actions or changes to structures, that could be seen as being aimed to address the situation.
7. What measures are routinely in place and especially being considered now to keep all stakeholders informed, to the extent this is possible, of the trading position and activities of the WSRplc.

Probably sufficient for now!

Steven

 

OK, so when do the Show Trials start ?
Which of the revolutionaries is next for the chop ?

 

Unfortunately, in this instance, the two seem irrevocably combined. AIUI it was the Association's formal complaint to the PLC that triggered all this nonsense.

 

Olga from the Volga? don't you mean Volga Olga , a bottle of apple vodka , and its, good night comrade ,

 

Many here may well think they already have!

 

whats the West Somerset equivalent to the gulag ,or sent to the Siberian Salt mines?

 

Exile to the Cornish treacle mines???

 

The irony of the intrusive advertising on this site for the ' Final Fantasy XIV ' on-line game is not lost on me..........

 

But I wouldn't mind being banged up with her, would you?

 

What, Volga Olga ,

 

There are salt marshes in the Somerset Levels, so maybe that is the best that can be done. Cornwall doesn't deserve that.

 

I can point to our first tentative links with Cornwall. There are at least 2. A visit to the lovely Helston railway will reveal all. Not a gulag by any means though. Love what those guys are doing, and this year they have steam and now know somebody who could get their own little industrial back on her feet.

 

I am constantly impressed by the sheer amount of Volunteer crews on the WSR. The Cutting Back, Infrastructure, Permanent Way gangs & all the others.
Just one day a week or one day a month or whatever time you can spend makes an enormous difference to maintaining the railway.
& the satisfaction that you will gain is incalculable.

 

Yes Mike I remember it only too well - work all week in Luton either come down on Friday Night or get up at 4 am Saturday morning and hit the road at 4.30 to roll over Blue Anchor crossing at 8.35 work all day play Saturday Night and go home on Sunday night Fortnight in Fortnight out - then I got married and that is another story - my quip is that the Railway is still here but the marriage isn't!! Ask Home Counties Chairman Keith Smith about the bets they held on how long I would remain married?!! My Triumph Spitfire even got in some of the photographs and there were many occasions at Barry when I was woken up by the docks police waiting for the crew to come up from Taunton. How come I always managed to beat them on arrival? The Spitfire even carried 6 First Class cushions out of Birds scrapyard to provide bedding for the night in a derelict DMU - oh happy memories distressing in the case of Long Marston when you see whole rakes of Mk 1's put to the torch - now had they done a Barry they would be worth a fortune today!

Haven't enjoyed the best of health recently and even though Swindon is half the distance of Hertfordshire (beyond Jeff Price's place in HH) stroke Richmond London the WSR is still not at the end of the road and then there is the cost. Keep on talking about starting again though so maybe next year I say - got a lot of personal stuff to sort out first though!

 

The real treacle mines are at Mudford in South Somerset. The Cornish product is inferior.

 

As has been commented already though, they are two different railways albeit facing some of the same key challenges of skilled volunteer shortage, regulatory compliance and increasing costs that all heritage lines are. The GWR have just appointed one more paid role and are in the process of recruiting another. Rebuilding on a ‘green field’ site before a railway opens is in many ways easier, can be done without time pressure and provides an initial honeymoon period on maintenance - reaping the rewards of capital investment in new/refurbished infrastructure.

I don’t think closing 5 miles at a time of the WSR to relay with cwr a la Broadway extension is really an option as it needs to keep earning. Bear in mind also that laying a single line on a double track formation is much easier than relaying on a twisty single line formation with restricted access.

In a perfect world you would renew all the WSR track between stations with flat bottomed, rebuild at least two bridges and invest in loco and carriage sheds all of which would be investment producing a benefit in lower maintenance costs. But that would require a multi million pound capital injection!

 

Thankyou for a sensible comment - rather than all the nonsense about "Olga from the Volga" and Salt Mines etc. I think those extremely silly posts are a deliberate and co-ordinated attempt to divert the discussion away from the real issues facing the West Somerset Railway.

 

Mainly due to having inherited the 'late parenthood' gene from my father I find myself with a young family and grey hair and dont get around the other lines so know the WSR & Swanage well but the other lines much less so.

What did however strike me last year on my first visit to the SVR in 20+ years - a line similar in scale and age was the amount of investment in the railway - carriage sheds, diesel depot, The Engine House etc etc plus of course the condition of the rolling stock in contrast to the WSR

So yes as well as management the line needs a structure that allows it to raise money for investment maintenance & improvement