West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I have to admit that I considered lengthy station dwell times to be a bonus - time for a photo and usually somebody on the platform who I hadn't seen for ages. I always enjoyed the ritual of trains crossing in the traditional manner; what's the rush?

 

Yes, there are opportunities to make use of them rather than just sitting and waiting.

But I’m a rather impatient individual, unfortunately.
If an extended stop were limited to Wiliton then it would be fine, but to also sit for 10 min at Blue Anchor and Crowcombe makes it feel a bit stop-start.

 

The problem with the old gala timetable was late running, allowing dwell times at crossing points minimises any late running caused buy various reasons, in this day and age you can’t encourage speeding or rule breaking caused by impossible timetables if there was an accident the operating railway would crucified.

 

I hear from a Steam trust Trustee that the Coup to take the Steam Trust over and get control of the PLC shares has started.

 

Well, the West Somerset Railway (or at least Blue Anchor station) appears to have made page 61 of the United States Transportation Department National Freight Strategic Plan !!
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2020-09/NFSP_fullplan_508.pdf

 

Anyone have an explanation for that?

 

Presumably some minion in the US DoT did a trawl of "stock photos" for the report without having a clue where the rail pictures were actually taken . Some of the other photos in there are not US ones either and look distinctly European (eg Pages 25 & 42).

 

I agree. It has a feel of 'get on almy and find'

It is interesting to see the WSR illustrating choke points given that they spend most of their time trying to choke one another. Even Almy's search engine knows about WSR politics.

'Choking railroad' would normally give you photos of people strangling one another, now it just shows you shows you Blue Anchor.

No doubt there will be a full on onion cutting, pearl clutching post outraged at how these inanimate search engines are denigrating the hard work of the WSR volunteers and how Almy's search engine wants the WSR to fail.

 

Takeover by who?
The plc? The WSRA? JJP? A.N.Other?

Keith

 

http://www.wssrt.co.uk/2020/09/04/a-statement-by-the-trust/

 

Thanks Ian.

Any comment @Robin Moira White ?

Bearing in mind that the entire Bailey report has not yet been released, how could WSSRT/WSRA members possibly make a proper judgement on a merger to implement a document they've only seen part of? Makes no sense to me.

Keith

 

Perhaps it was to see if anyone actually read the damn thing.

 

You will be able to see the proposals and the personal statements of the ‘14’ later today. We had already scheduled a meeting during the weekend and it is likely that we will make a public statement thereafter.

Parts 4 & 5 of the Bailey Report - which deal with the Railway’s structure - are in the public domain. Parts 1,2 &3 which deal with the WSR plc - S&DRT dispute remain private.

Robin

 

Quelle Suprise...............

 

It seems to me to be rather suprising that nobody saw this - or something like it, coming - which in itself says something about those 'At the top' Otherwise what we have on offer at the moment is a PLC led restructuring, and the root cause of the PLC issues is the lack of proper accountability.

Instead what seems to be on offer is a membership led organisation

 

Which might not be what those in their ivory towers want, especially if an membership lead organisation starts holding them to account

 

You haven't explained how members of either charity could vote to merge and implement the report, given that parts 1, 2 & 3 are currently private? They would be voting on something they hadn't seen.

Keith

 

parts 1,2 & 3 I assume do not impact the overall plan, as it refers only to the dispute between the S&DRT , and the PLC, and as such is a side matter. this is a separate matter and has to be settled separately, its nothing to do with the other organisations on the line. once this has been sorted out, then its down to the other organisations, wither they agree, or disagree with the outcome, to collectively either stand by the what the outcome is, or if it damages the WSR to then take what ever action they deem necessary to redeem the good name of the railway, but a combined charity, holding as many shares as possible, and talking with a single, clear concise voice must surely be a good thing .

 

With respect Martin, I feel you have missed the point. WSRA & WSSRT members will be asked to vote to merge in order to implement something that they've only seen part of. It's not really good enough to vote to implement something that's been kept private and then say, well we'll just fix it later if it turns out that sections 1,2 and 3 are bad. Why not get it right in the first place? You wouldn't vote for an MP who produced a manifesto with half of the pledges kept private would you?

Keith

 

Keith, with all due respect, the membership of the other organisations, can only be bystanders, only the S&DJRT and the PLC, can sort out their issue over the eviction order, If the eviction order stays, and the trust leaves, and such is the outcry over that decision and the PLC further damages the reputation of the WSR, an organisation that collectively holds 40 per cent plus other donated shares, will be in a stronger position to take the required action to take the actions needed to restore morale, and rebuild the public image of the railway.