Masbury station appeal

Is this the Somerset and Dorset Railway Co. They have a pie in the sky, pipe dream, plan to open the entire S and D and run freight trains. In my view, they are doing more damage than good to schemes like Midsomer Norton and the Masbury appeal by interfering in what is going on.

 

Yes, that's who I'm referring to also.

The guys at Midsomer have the right idea, but there are persons who are posting on the Masbury site who are pushing this new S&D thing.

I'm not sure who are the official people and who are the dreamers, either way the dreamers are doing alot of harm to a worthwhile project.

Great Western

 

The official people are the Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust based at Midsomer Norton. They were given the offer to purchase Masbury Station. Quite frankly, the other lot, the dreamers, should get out of town.

 

There's a chap surname Sainsbury who is rally pushing all this CPO and new S&D business, I've no idea who on the official Masbury Facebook fund raising page is official spokesperson, and who are the dreamers who don't speak for the trust, that's the problem.

Great Western

 

Maybe he has won the Euro lottery?

 

I'd like to start a preservation scheme to restore part of the Somerset & Dorset. Are there any sections I could lay claim to ?
Failing this I'll get a piece of the Waverley route.

Bob.

 

I think that as railway preservationists we need to try to help to ensure lines like these are reopened,and Masbury station, which i believe was offered to them on a first refusal should be saved,otherwise the line reopening may not go ahead in the future.
But at least there are other groups doing their bit to open sections, but feel that there should be a main HQ to report too,so that preservation of the line can be continued,and that everyone is doing their bit.
All in all I hope this line reopens in the future.

 

Yes, but common-sense needs to be applied. There is no way that the complete S & D can be re-opened. It would cost a fortune. Even the line from Midsomer Norton to Masbury needs to have the infill removed at Chilcompton cutting and at Binegar, parts of the trackbed have been built on. That is only a small section of the S & D. The trackbed from Masbury to Shepton Mallett is O.K. Good luck to the S & D R P T in their efforts to re-open this section of the S & D. They have my support.
What is not needed is a "headquarters" for the separate schemes to report to. There is no need for it and it would be disruptive.

 

Hi all while I am not a dreamer. I have been in contact with the SDRHT at MSN and we are hoping to have a meeting in the next week or so. Yes Masbury was offered to us on a three months advance warning and because the offer of Masbury came up out of the blue, so to speak, we have not had the time to develop a strategic business plan and set up the fundraising to the level we would wish to have done so. Which for a small outfit like the S&DRHT is not much time and a great deal of effort to achive.

There are a lot of questions we need to ask of ourselves yet, but basically the long term view is to rebuild the S&D between Shepton Mallet and Radstock, this will be about eight miles, but it will be expensive since we have a number of road bridges to rebuild and stations to buy.

Please disregard any comments about buying Binegar and knocking down a £500,000 house or come to that matter applying for cpo's at present, we find it more profitable to talk to the land owners direct and discuss with them what we have in mind.

The situation at Binegar is more complicated that I can say here as is most of the negotiations which are on going.

Masbury has certainly put the fox in the chicken coop as far as S&D enthusiast's are concerned, but we also need all the level head supporters we can get right now.

Please check our website for current and updated information as the only source of news about the project.

As yet we have not yet set up a steering group to oversee the Masbury project, please take these comment's as mine and mine alone, they do not represent the SDJRHT in anyway, I do however have more than just a passing interest in this project and it is one I hope to be more involved with after our discussion.

Hopefully I have be able to calm a few nerves on this list and please donate to this project in anyway you can, if you would like to make a loan to the SDJRHT then please contact the Trust on the Website and speak to the management who can deal with this for you.

Thank you for your patience's and when I have more news about Masbury. I will come back to you guys.

Regards

Colin Rainsbury

ps please not my name starts with an R and not an S

thank you

 

Hi Bob if you are interested please pm me off list thanks
Regards

Colin

 

I don't understand your post. It appears to me that you are a separate entity from the SDHRT, yet you talk about Masbury being offered to us. In fact, it was offered to the SDHRT. Please clarify your position.

 

I am perhaps not the only person who is always wary when he sees a number of spelling and grammatical errors. If Mr Rainsbury and his colleagues are serious, I wish them luck but suggest that they take more care with presentation.

 

Yes you are correct, it has been offered to the SDRHT and that is where it will go. The trouble is the current SDRHT set up does not have the resources to do everything (what group does?).

It has been made clear from day one that a separate subsidiary group of the SDRHT will be required to run the project for them. As it needs to find its own source of funding as the SDRHT do not wish to draw away any current funding streams from MSN.

It is no different to having one overall body that owns everything and yet to have a number of smaller teams doing there bit for the whole project.

In my opinion there are too many S&D groups as it is. I hope that in the long run we (the Masbury project group) can bring some (most) of them back into the fold and under one umbrella organisation of the SDRHT.

It is going to be hard since so many people have different views on A) how we should rebuild part of the S&D, B) how long it should take, C) where we should get the money from and D) how we should run the project when trains start operating again.

These are just some of the factors that affect the whole S&DR Project.

If anyone has any more questions I will gladly take them and to see if I can answer them for you.

Regards

Colin Rainsbury

 

Thank you, Colin.

 

Don't worry we will do, all I wanted to do, is to calm any fears anyone has about this project on this website.

Each presentation we make, has to be tailored to the individual concerned that we send it to.

In fact nanstallon if you are free for a few weeks/months /years, why not pop down to MSN and give us a hand in writing and presenting our funding applications?

 

Colin,
In your earlier post you mentioned the SDRHT, S&DRHT and SDJRHT. I assume these are all separate but similarly-titled organisations? With this level of confusion going on I can quite understand why you would struggle to raise enough money/interest. You also mentioned a website but failed to provide a link to it.

I have no interest in the S&D whatsoever and no spare cash to splash about, so what I think probably doesn't matter to you very much. But if I were in a position to help, I would be quite unable to do so as from your posting I don't even know which group is what and which one (if any) is the "sensible" one...
Phil

 

I'd be delighted, within my limitations, to help with anything to do with the S&D, but my pension doesn't stretch to popping down to Midsomer Norton (presumably). There must be a lot of people nearer, who can at least check for spelling and grammar. You may think that I am being pedantic, but believe me - presentation goes a long way when you are seeking to present a credible image to encourage people to back you.

 

Hi Phil.

I am always interested in feed back and advice from anyone. You also have hit the nail on the head. There are simply too many groups representing the Somerset and Dorset at present, and that does confuse a lot of people. Even I have to stop and think about it at times.

The three basic groups are as follows:-

The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway Trust who are currently based at Washford on the WSR (S&DJRT)

You then have the Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust at Midsomer Norton and Masbury. (S&DRHT)

Then we have the North Dorset Railway Trust at Shillingstone (NDRT)

I have not included Gartell as that is a private railway.

You should be aware that there are a number of local group’s, who want to save their part of the S&D, but so far, do not have any connection to any of the above.

I can tell you, that the guys at Midsomer Norton are working with the other two groups to promote the whole railway.

In an ideal World, we would like to have just one Charitable Trust and just one operating Company over a number of sites. But like I said earlier, we just don’t have the resources to make that happen yet.

Regards

Colin