Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Hence the RACI matrices we are quite fond of in IT circles (but which I think should be ARCI) - for any piece of work, you define who is accountable; responsible; consulted and informed.

In the context being discussed, you’d have a museum curator who is responsible for compiling and maintaining a catalogue, but the trustees would be accountable for seeing that it was done to a suitable standard.

Tom

 

I agree, but the use of language varies and many people use "responsible" to refer to the manager.

My experience is that the RACI matrix (which is the model that I think we're both referring to) is a really powerful way to get to the heart of these matters. And what I really love is that in an organisation, you can have people who are accountable for everything while responsible for more or less nothing. Ministers come to mind.

 

There is a reason why we don't call it ARCI - especially when you have arsey individuals like me around

 

I think that you are playing semantics. Ultimately the overall boss is responsible, how he handles that is on his neck.

Sent from my SM-T575 using Tapatalk

 

I got in touch with Mr Glover, the owner of this signal lever plate, and was invited with my wife to his house at Shaldon in 2012 where we were entertained to lunch. And I photographed and measured the plate he rescued from the debris at Pilton Yard. So @RailWest's lack of photograph of the reverse can be solved, below. Unfortunately, my drawing of a lever frame (based on measuring an EOD survivor at Lakeside Station on the L&HR) was only partially completed when Stephen Phillips transcribed it, and this is how it appeared in M & D page 245. The drawing has since been completed and corrected, and has had lever plates added to it based on Mr Glover's example and Mr Wheeler's pictures. My expert on signalling, Edward Dorricott, has sent me a photograph of another EOD L & B type frame in the stores at the NRM, and @RailWest has photographed another example.

 

In other news, I see that the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway is now available for the Trainz software.

 

Many thanks Micheal. Sadly it would appear to be blank on the reverse - a shame.

Not surprisingly, as fellow SRS members Edward and I are often swopping random bits of information about as it is not uncommon for one of us to find that the other has something unbeknown to them.

 

I am reminded of the situation some year ago when the then Chairman of a railway Trust asked me if I would be the 'Project Manager' for a small signalling restoration project. At first it seemed a no-brainer, given that I had been involved with it for some while and done a lot of the possible design work already, until I discovered that I would not be allowed to:-

• make basic design decisions
• carry out any diagnostic work to establish the amount of repair work necessary and hence compile an estimate for the cost the work
• spend any money from whatever budget would be provided
• direct any of the volunteer workforce to do any of the agreed work
• get any assistance from any other part of the Trust where necessary (eg building maintenance)

without first getting approval from the Committee. Furthermore, no approval would be forthcoming without the approved financial forecast, regardless of the fact that it in turn needed prior approval for the initial investigation (Catch 22 ?). Even worse, some activities required agreement between 2 or more Trustees, none of whom could reach a consensus as to the 'best way forward', yet the Chairman declined to make any 'executive decision' or put the various issues to a Committee vote.

Given that the Committee only met about once every two months and was notoriously slow in making any sort of decisions anyway, the likelihood of meeting the required target date was rapidly approaching zero. Despite which, as 'Project Manager', I would held accountable/responsible for any delays or problems. Having no desire to be the 'fall guy', I declined and walked away.

 

Hi Andy I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. We already have a museum at Woody Bay, but it is not run like a museum yet, what I am trying to say is that we need to find all the items that belong to the Trust first of all and then produce a spreadsheet of who has what and where it is.

All I am saying is there is proper way to go about setting this up and since we have a lot to do before then, this is not going to happen overnight. Since I haven't been able to reply to this today I have noticed that what I have just said has been suggest by a few other people.

 

Sounds much like this well known anecdote but maybe a few of the youngsters out there may not have heard it:-
A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes that he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, "Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man below says, "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 50 and 52 degrees north latitude, and between 0 and 3 degrees west longitude.
"You must be an engineer" says the balloonist. "I am", replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well..." says the balloonist. "Everything you told be was technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I am still lost and your information is no help to me at all. Can’t you do better?"
The man below says, "You must be a Manager". "I am", replies the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well..." says the man. "You don't know where you are, or where you are going. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met but now it is somehow my fault?"
I have had to face this so many times while I was project managing or doing estates management.

 

I've often found in the past that putting a photo into negative can sometimes show up things which may be hidden to the naked eye or in a normal photo but in playing with the negative of the photo of the reverse of that plate doesn't show up anything clearly. There is a bit of a suggestion of something in the middle but changing the colour curves in the filters didn't resolve anything beyond what you see in the negative image I've attached.

The danger is attributing possible marks from letters to just random marks as we as humans look for patterns in anything we see.

I know little about these and don't know what any makers mark would look like, but I would guess it was possible that railways themselves had generic moulds for this type of thing with foundries so common back then, and probably the moulds to make items like these quite widely available or simply copied and the name removed when casting?

If so, it's vaguely possible that centre area is where a makers mark once was and smoothed over on a subsequent casting.

 

Thanks for your efforts DaveE.

It may well be that there was never anything on the backs of those LDPs anyway, but who knows? The GWR brass equivalents often had a pattern number cast on the back, whereas (say) later SR examples had variously 'TH&S' and 'SR', or WB&SCo', depending on their origin.

In the absence of any firm evidence to the contrary, it is an assumption that the LDPs of that pattern which are seen in the photos of Chelfham and Blackmoor were indeed EoD originals, rather than later SR additions, so had they been cast with 'EoD' it would have been nice to see But maybe not every contractor was quite so fastidious, unlike (say) McK&H who, if you look at photos of what are other otherwise a typical Steven-pattern lever-frame, even had their initials stamped over all the catch boxes just to leave you in no doubt as to who made it!

 

This is probably the best result I got using an RGB multi point filter on the negative image.

It's shows a little bit better the area in the centre... But I can't get it any better to be sure. I am very aware of seeing patterns in random images (seeing faces and objects in clouds and scenery etc).

Sadly as you say, something we may never know for certain.

 

This image was slightly out of focus, scanned from a colour print, and I have located the negative, but I cannot get my negative scanner to work. It seems to me there might be some lettering in an oblong box, underneath black paint, the last letter might be R. Maybe I will to take the negative to a copy shop to have it scanned.

 

Did they have numbers under the SR?

 

If you get the true negative Mike, if you let me have a copy and I will put it through the filters I have (I have hundreds in Paint Shop), see if I can make out anything further.

Having a play again this evening with a Black and White filter on that second image I posted....

Maybe a B or an S, then an R....
And I am damned if underneath that ain't a 4 and possibly a 9.

 

Just incase anyone is wondering, the filters I have used for above are not what you see online as these ghastly "filters" in various social media platforms and it's not done by AI.

The only changes made are by flipping a photo into negative, and then altering things like the Red, Blue and Green levels, contrast, highlights, shadow etc. None of the original form, shape or size is altered nor anything added.

Being as the original is @Michael B's the ones I've attempted to bring out any detail are now his to use as he wishes. If they are of any use then that will be fantastic.

 

I would agree that there does appear to have been some letter/numbers in that area.

What puzzles me though is that in the larger type used in later years by the SRly the fixing bracket ran down the middle of the back, so any detail cast into the back had to be longitudinal down one side or other of that bracket. What we do not have - or does anyone? - is a side-on view of an EoD plate with the bracket still intact.

[EDIT] This is the rear view of a later SR example.

 

Does anyone else get the feeling Peter Miles will not go down without a fight if Charles Summers loses election, thus enabling newcomers to be the majority?

 

I guess we will find out on 11th May! The board has imposed a 150-word limit for candidate statements to be sent to members in the AGM pack. Feeling that this was insufficient to fully describe the individual candidates, Exmoor Associates asked each of them to produce a 500-word version, to be sent to EA shareholders and others. These are now available for download on the EA website: https://www.exmoor-associates.co.uk/2024/04/2024-lbrt-agm/