West Somerset Railway General Discussion

A quick look at the timetables on the PLC website shows that it will swap with the steam on the 1115 from BL today, so that tomorrow the 1015 from MD will be steam, and the 1115 from BL and 1515 from MD will be D6575. Same for Thursday.

 

Just to let anyone know who may be interested, D7017 will work an evening QB charter on Thursday 19th July. Dep BL 1750 to NF, dep NF 1828 to MD arr 2030, dep MD 2145 arr BL 2258.

 

I could not find that song, but for those who haven't a clue who the Bonzo Dog DooDah band were I offer this:

 

Probably most famous for their Urban Spaceman rendition.



(You'll be singing it for the rest of the day..........)

 

Oi ! no queue jumping .
Apologies for my previous spelling of cue , hangs red face in shame .

 

I wouldn't want to distress any snooker players.

Actually, I recall the last time I went to Dunster village I ate a cream tea so large and so sweet (honey rather than jam, with ginger scones) that I felt mighty sick for the rest of the day. So possibly I am not the best candidate for such a challenge.

 

Which shows that they always do it differently in Somerset. You should have stuck to the traditional versions. (Devonian and Cornish)

 

Given that the Devonian Period occurred somewhat before the evolution of wheat, I would be intrigued to see what a Devonian cream tea entails - although at 400 million years old it might be a tad stale.

 

Love it , nothing like a bit of abstract thread drift .

I spotted it eventually , red face , only 'O' level English but as with many an awful long time ago .

 

I thought I was watching "Where's Wally"

 

Stogumber Cattle Dock Project

Working Party 21/22 July

A reminder that the next working party will be this coming weekend. The object is to clean the vegetation off the top surface of the Dock following the successful last working party which achieved that for the access ramp.

The working party will be on site from 10am to 4pm both days and all offers of help are welcome as long as you can wield a spade or a mattock.

 

Have mine with Marmite instead of jam

 

Robin, If I recall correctly the ramp was covered in stable blocks. Does the SR team intend to put them back?

 

Ken

We have found no evidence of stable blocks. It just appears to have been a grass or beaten earth surface both up the ramp and the flat area behind the dock itself. The dock has a brick surface which it is intended to refurbish.

Robin

 

There were examples when we cleared it out 5 or 6 years ago and several stable blocks were stored awaiting reuse. Sadly a past SM sold off everything but I can assure you it was all stable blocks. I tried to get the PLC to get all the ones which were crushed just east of the TN upside station buildings but it didn't happen. The SR blocks were blue, the Taunton ones were red but otherwise identical. Ken

 

Sad that part of the Heritage could have been sold off like that. Hopefully you will be able to recall the type used, I see from a quick Google that there are varying numbers of divisions in the surface available.

 

Certainly not unique to the WSR, but shows the importance of documenting things during restoration / refurbishment work; and also raises a question of how you capture institutional memory in a large organisation like a heritage railway. You can always create replicas of lost physical objects, but only if you know what once existed. Knowledge is the one thing you can't accurately recreate once lost.

Tom

 

These were a ‘standard’ Victorian item and there are many many variations in size and pattern.

However, it seems that at least some from the Cattle Dock were reused in my garden at Station House and I still have those in stock, so we should be able to hint down a close match, of that is the way we go with this part of the work.

I have had a further opportunity to discuss this with Ken today and will pass his comments on to Station Master Bob.

Robin

 

This is one of the reasons I (somewhat obsessively) photograph such works and post those photos publicly. Much less likely the knowledge / information will them be lost.

Robin

 

I certainly agree with your last sentence.

I recall when I started on the railways back in '74 hearing from older colleagues about the way things used to be done. Many of those practices cannot legally/safely be recreated nowadays. It's a sobering thought that the practices I experienced myself are now also long gone, and will be a mystery to many brought up on today's railways.

For example there are people who do not understand the distinction between loose shunting and fly shunting. Given that fly shunting was frowned on, permitted officially only in certain locations or circumstances even when I started, and that even loose shunting is considered hazardous nowadays, it is perhaps not surprising.

Modern railwaymen are no doubt incredulous when they read of locomen routinely leaving the cab in order to oil round from the running plate, while the train was in motion.

Those brought up in the digital age would struggle to understand the paper trail involved in consigning goods by rail.

The practices involved in moving cattle by rail were also quite involved. Watering livestock if delayed on route, getting cattle up if they lie down, disinfecting wagons and loading docks with lime wash etc.