West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I wouldn't have thought that would save much money to be honest, it certainly wouldn't require any less staff. What we've found it tends to do is overall visitors to the railway aren't massively affected, but you see more people crowd onto the steam train. If there's room for that then great, everyone's still happy and you've saved a few quid.

 

It didn't help today when D6566 decided to blow up £5,000 worth of batteries (the battery box door was blown off and the top was also bent up) and had to be taken off its train at Williton and, the D&EG had to shunt their yard to get out D9526 which was receiving some TLC at the time to take over the train.

 

Most of the staff are volunteers & you couldn't afford to loose staff no matter what form of transport you use.

DJB.

 

Sorry not quite sure I follow? A steam train requires a guard, at least 1 TTI, driver, fireman, and possibly someone to light up depending on crew hours. That doesn't change regardless of what size the loco or train is. A DMU can get by with a driver and a guard and that's it. Therefore replacing a big steam train with a small one doesn't do much in terms of reducing the strain in volunteers or cost compared to replacing a big steam train with a DMU.

 

Oh you'd be surprised, Alex

We've had these discussions/arguments/debates over the WSR's timetables since the beginning.

Whether a timetable works or not, depends on a number of variables, some of which can/should be anticipated, others come uninvited. As a onetime producer of WSR timetables, I know a lot of finger-crossing is required.

This year is no different. I say leave it to the people who are responsible for such things, after all, it is their job. The rest of us clearly have useful comments and suggestions for sure, and I hope that what we say here, we are also saying to the right people. My particular observation this year is the time is takes to pass trains - poor old signalman needs a racing bike sometimes - so perhaps some way of improving this operation might help matters (and once some bright spark comes up with a possible answer, I must remember to pop that in the suggestion box).

Steve

 

This is exactly what the MLRG will not accept. They think it can be done and at double the current line speed,

 

That sounds rather spectacular!

 

Yes it does take too long, really. Long gone are the days when WSR DMUs did it in 58 mins, inc crossing at Williton. But there was no crossing at Crowcombe back then, and 25mph points at Lydeard, and no Seaward Way Crossing, so trains would still be doing 25mph (yes, a Bagnall could go that fast with certain drivers at the regulator ) when they entered the (main) platform at Minehead. No Doniford Halt either. There were fewer TSRs. So, yes, with safety always in mind, it would be good to see an initiative undertaken to improve journey times.

Steve

 

That is somewhat analogous to the problem with some of the Beeching cuts, where a branch line service considered in isolation failed to pay for itself but did contribute custom and therefore revenue to the rest of the network. If WSR service X carries too few passengers to pay for the marginal cost of running it (carefully assessed, taking full account of what the stock and personnel would otherwise be doing), how much does it nevertheless contribute to the attractiveness of the WSR for a day out and thus to the total income?

 

Re staff and volunteers. I get the impression that the Glos-Warwicks has a higher percentage of volunteers than the West Somerset. For example volunteers appear to do almost all the work in its carriage sheds whereas the West Somerset's smaller shed at Minehead is, I assume, run by paid staff. And the West Somerset also will have paid staff working in its locomotive overhaul facility at Minehead. The Glos-Warwicks used mainly volunteer labour to extend to Broadway. The West Somerset used contractors for the recent track relays at Watchet and Minehead. The West Somerset has more paid staff per mile than the Glos-Warwicks - is this so?

 

Yes, we have 5-ish paid staff, although there are a couple of regular contractors too. And for large civil engineering projects like landslips we also contract that out, and for loco engineering at the very least the boiler tends to be sent away, the chassis can be done at Toddington by volunteers, but it is also sometimes sent away for contract depending on the owning group, the work required and the urgency. Oh and one of our cafes is franchised out, but only one.

 

The GW is (thankfully) a good deal shorter as well.

PH

 

I am not sure "only one Up train before midday" - as is the case today on the SVR - counts as "intensive in the morning". I know most passengers start out at Kidderminster but there are only two Down trains in the morning - the 10.15 and 11.35.

I've been meaning to reply to @flying scotsman123 's surprise that railways might change their timetables regularly because it does in my opinion need to be done regularly, even if it can help to keep key departures the same from year to year. Requirements and passenger preferences do change over time after all.

The SVR has had quite radical timetable changes in the past couple of years - particularly the 2017 timetable which was based around the concept of all trains following the same set paths at a fixed 45-minute frequency. In my personal opinion there were a few issues with this (this thread is possibly not the place to go into an in depth discussion of a different railway's timetable planning though) and this year's timetables are very different. Moreover, the team who put them together are not only experienced themselves, but took into account a lot of feedback from other operational staff, and I think that has helped an awful lot.

 

Why were many WSR stations built so far from the town/village they were intended to serve

 

Not only the WSR, Tony, that applied to many lines throughout Britain and was a reason so many took to cars and buses. That had an effect which became quite apparent when the Beeching review was done.

 

What I was attempting to establish was that, aside from the difference in length, the West Somerset costs more to run per mile than the Glos-Warwicks partly because of the higher numbers of employed staff and possibly greater use of contractors - although of course the Glos-Warwicks has had to employ contractors on its embankments.
Then in terms of passengers carried, the Swanage, a shorter line than the West Somerset, carries more passengers. It does this with shorter trains on a more intensive service. Possibly this is because Swanage is nearer to population centres than Minehead and is perhaps a more attractive tourist destination?

 

Not just a WSR thing.

The only WSR stations that might fit your question would be Crowcombe and Stogumber - both villages are on much higher ground than Brunel's chosen route. Dunster was presumably built a mile from the village to ensure the Castle was not too troubled by steam trains and the riff-raff passengers.

Also, folks back then thought nothing of a mile walk as the non-rail option usually involved a walk of several miles.

Steve

 

I often wonder if the passenger numbers are not as good as hoped on the WSR is due to the line length. Families probably find it hard to keep youngsters interested - there is only so much grass and trees that can interest the younger generation who often seem to have a shorter interest span than older folks.