West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Somewhat with tongue-in-cheek, but....

In the latest (July) WSR Newsletter the Chairman himself writes "Having only just recovered from a dire financial situation....". So, there you have it, the railway is no longer in a dire financial situation, it's recovered. Where's the problem then.......

 

Quite.

Tom

 

I wouldn't disagree, but it was not that 4110 was sold, but the way it was sold that is the problem. If the board had decided to sell the loco off the railway to an organisation that had the resources to restore it, they should have made it clear that that was what they were going to do at the start.

 

I don't think it is speculation to say that the Plc was in dire financial straits even before COVID-19 struck and although it is speculation to say that the restrictions only brought forward what was inevitable, I don't think it is at all unreasonable speculation. Even the threat of disaster brought on by the pandemic has not produced much more in the way of donations than the WSR needed to raise anyway, simply to deal with the track.

 

But they didn’t know that’s what they were going to do from the start. They were open to the idea of it remaining on the railway if a group could raise funds for it to do so (but only if that group was the WSRA rather than 4110 Ltd it seems).

Ultimately though the external buyer made a better offer, and had the cash immediately available, which is what the WSR needed to survive at the time.

 

Allow me to add a third. The attempted purchase of the freehold was thwarted therefore all of that money must still available. Where has it gone ?

 

My recollection of the 4110 affair from how it unfolded on here was that neither the Plc nor the WSRA came out of it looking particularly good. It was an excellent case study in why the WSR needs reform and is totally dysfunctional generally, but less clear cut that it was *entirely* the plc board's fault, although they did behave poorly.

I read the WSR newsletter, overall it seemed fairly good, although I'm still not convinced that the WSR is uniquely unable to run trains this summer, unless purely down to loss of staff for P'way work etc. the thing the puzzled me most though was that despite the announcement of the new fundraising group, at the end we were still presented with about half a dozen links of where to donate! Surely at the most you want to be directing folk to no more than 2 places, one for gift-aided donations, that are by necessity slightly more restricted, and one non-gift-aided. I have to say though, the WSRA is doing an excellent job in proving those who say donating to a charity means the money can't be used wrong (including the HRA!). It's great to hear that gift-aided money is being used to reopen Williton works, via work being done in 4561.

 

Borrowed on the back of juicy parcels of land that can be sold off by chance?

 

Bishops Lydeard Station Shop now open on Saturdays



'We will be opening the Station Shop on Saturday 25th July 10-3pm and then every Saturday until further notice.'

Read more...

Steve
(your local paper boy )

 

Whilst I have had an insight in to the WSRs track problems in the past, I do not know the extent of the work that they tried to undertake last winter.
However if the problem is as simple as you suggest, I think a plea from an united WSR perhaps via the Heritage Railway Association would solicit support from the other heritage railways many of whom's PW workforce is largely still volunteer and indeed from the mainline maintenance co.s
Ive found that there does tend to be a sort of band of brothers attitude across the whole railway infrastructure industry and it is in nobodies best interests to see a major heritage operation like the WSR fail. And at the end of the day everybody finds an International Rescue operation sexy.
I think however that the problem is probably not as straightforward as your unfinished track project.

 

Very welcome news. Now where is my wallet, model railway purchases are calling!

 

Really?

A lot of this is 'spin' and hype.

I wish company accounts were of the form they were in 30 years ago, but despite my not being up to date with these things, I could see that what has been claimed is not substantiated.

The financial precipice was not really as acute as the current WSR board make out. The claimed 'recovery' was overstated.

And why then let go valuable PW staff, when funds ring fenced - and more funds that could have been raised - to finish the outstanding PW works?

And we still don't know what exactly these outstanding works are! Despite Frank Courtney's issue of the most recent 'Platform '.

Cheers,

Julian

 

On a separate note, the latest announcement from the WSSRT stated that the Peall Railway Trust has donated £15,000 to the WSSRT, and that, "WSSRT Trustees have agreed to contribute half this sum to the WSR Infrastructure appeal for heritage track components for this winter's work programme. The balance of £7,500 will be used to form part of the Trust's contribution to the Gauge Museum project (part funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund) with the remainder going to purchase covers to protect heritage carriages." Source: http://www.wsr.org.uk/news.htm, 20th July.

Later in the day, an update on the WSR Emergency Appeals stated that, "The West Somerset Railway Association's Rail Renewal 2020 appeal now totals £33,260,00. The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust's appeal (updated monthly or when any significant donations are made) totals £17,566.31 thanks to a very helpful, generous and significant £15,000 donation from the Peall Railway Trust." Source: again http://www.wsr.org.uk/news.htm, 20th July.

Taking the WSSRT's total donated figure reported on @Steve Edge's website on 15th July as £2566.31, versus the same figure reported on 20th July as £17,566.31, the difference is indeed £15,000.

But according to the statement from the WSSRT Trustees, only half of that amount is being contributed to the WSR Infrastructure Appeal (and is that the same as the 'Emergency Appeal'? I've lost track a bit....)

Now I'm sure this can only be an innocent accounting or reporting error but just thought I ought to point it out. Perhaps somebody reading this will be able to offer an explanation.

 

Nor have we yet received an answer (other than a childish one) about due dilligence!

 

46100 down the mainline sunday hopefully steam return to WSR one day. Fingers crossed

 

Not sure I agree. At the risk of opening up a whole new can of worms, it is perfectly possible to combine old and new in a tasteful fashion. Whitby may not be the best example, but just look at the hundreds of beautifully restored stations on the national network, the likes of which are recognised every year by the National Railway Heritage Awards: http://nrha.org.uk/. Look also at how popular a service such as the 'Jacobite' in Scotland can be. That operates out of a particularly awful 1970s edifice in the form of Fort William station, but still the tourists flock to receive that little taste of a bygone era (although the Harry Potter influence probably has a lot to answer for).

The modern world cannot truly be erased from the heritage railway scene, even the very best of them such as the Bluebell can't do that. That's because, obviously, you cannot truly recreate the past. Modernity will always be there, even if it's in the corner of the eye. In my view, heritage railways must do their best to present and recreate the best aspects of that bygone era but must surely acknowledge that it cannot be recreated in every single detail. That said, I recognise the peril of creating a poor 'pastiche'. A lot of this sort of debate should feature in the WSR's "what do we really want to be?"

 

It isn't just the infrastructure that would have to change for the WSR and a TOC to share the railway - just look at the NYMR and the extra layer of safety management that operating over seven miles of Network Rail has brought.

 

It's not an error unless I misunderstand your question. The trust has indeed "drawn in" the amount stated and we have decided to distribute it as indicated. Not all donations go to the track appeal, I think the news item makes that clear. If I have misunderstood your question let me know and I'll get a clearer answer.
Ian Coleby

 

It was never there. The money would have been borrowed, secured against the asset to be bought with it. The point is that the lease means that the freehold is worth considerably more to the Plc than it is to any other organisation or individual, therefore they can borrow more money against the value of the land than it would cost them to buy it from SCC.