The Minutes of the Board of Trustees meeting held on 19 March 2020 are now available. Also available from the Documents page under the heading “Board Meetings”.
The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust
Year: 2020
After a stay of two and a half months in the loco compound, while the Gauge Museum was repainted and refurbished, the Trust’s sleeping car, GWR no 9038, returned to the museum on Wednesday 18 March 2020. Before being allowed back inside the building, the sleeping car was given a thorough wash and brush-up in…
Following the decision to postpone the reopening of the railway, the Trust will not be reopening the museums at Bishops Lydeard and Blue Anchor this weekend either, and similarly the formal reopening of the Gauge Museum on 11 April is postponed as well. In the circumstances, this is inevitable. All will be ready for when the railway steams again. It will …
Geoff Evens writes: “Just arrived from Isle Joinery in Exeter, the newly completed Roll of Honour frame for the original in memoriam which is to be displayed in the refurbished Gauge Museum. Harry Kirkland made the original frame for the museum in 1990. I am sure many of you will remember viewing the in memoriam…
Work on the museum refurbishment moves on a pace. We have now had a number of the new story boards installed and the majority of the outstanding painting is almost complete. It is planned that the final fit for the story boards and exhibits will take place next week. Today we had a film crew…
March 5th 2020 saw the scaffolding inside the museum finally removed. There has been much work carried out by the Steam Trust’s dedicated group of volunteers who have worked so hard in getting the inside of the goods shed cleaned and painted.
Another important milestone was passed on March 3rd 2020 in the refurbishment process in the Gauge Museum with the completion of the high level work. During the next two days the scaffolding will be removed to start to move on to the final phase in finishing the task ready for the official reopening on April…
Further to our news item on 18 January about the appointment of Alan Smithers as the new Curator for Blue Anchor Museum, Alan took up post on 20th February. The Steam Trust is now starting the process of looking at the future role of Blue Anchor on the WSR and Alan will be playing a…
The Trust has commissioned Isle Joinery Ltd., Taunton to fabricate a new frame for Gauge Museum Roll of Honour. It is being fabricated from utile hardwood, of the mahogany family; a young craftsman has done the work on it. The attached photos show how far Isle Joinery have got. The Roll of Honour shows the…
The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust has welcomed the appointment of the railway’s new General Manager, Justin Kerr-Peterson. Chairman Chris Austin said: “We warmly welcome Justin back to the WSR as General Manager and will support him fully in running the railway and increasing the number of visitors to England’s longest heritage railway this year. …
The Minutes of the Trust’s Board Meeting of 16 January 2020 have been published. Click here to open the document. A link can also be found on the Documents page.
All hands to the pumps! A concerted attack is made on the museum walls, with (R to L) Paul Conibeare, Matthew Loate and Alan Meade painting the brick wall, while in the background Peter Darke paints the north end timber wall. Upstairs Richard Gibbs and Geoff Evens are at work above the photographer, while downstairs,…
The picture shows the author and broadcaster Christian Wolmar (right) who presented the Heritage Railway Association awards in Birmingham on 8 February 2020 with James Pearson (left) and Tom Shaw (2nd from right) who were runners up for the Lord Faulkner Young Volunteer of the Year award. James is a PIC on the Gauge Museum…
As the weeks and weekends go by, we are making good progress with the refurbishment of the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard Station. As the five photos illustrate; the good team-bonding and morale, the amount of progress we are achieving and the laborious work we still have left to do. We have nearly completed cleaning…
The museum has been emptied and being prepared for internal painting. The scaffolding provides a new perspective from track level looking towards Minehead. Note the exposed doors that used to lead to an extended siding underneath the Taunton Model Railway Group building.
The Board of Trustees is delighted to be able to announce the appointment of Alan Smithers as the new substantive Curator of the Museum at Blue Anchor Station. Trustees thanked David Baker for his interim stewardship of the Museum. David will continue to be involved with developments at Blue Anchor. Alan, who, in addition to…
The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust Chairman, Chris Austin, presenting the West Somerset Railway Chairman, Jonathan Jones-Pratt, with a cheque for £35,000 as a contribution towards the WSR Track Appeal. The Trust has to date donated over £40,000. The contribution is for the purchase of heritage track components, particularly for Blue Anchor and falls within…
The pictures show a different aspect of the Gauge Museum roof, a view not seen by very many. The museum has now been scaffolded throughout and the Trust can start to get the inside of the museum repainted in preparation for the new “storyboard” approach that will show the railway and its role within the…
Following 12 months of hard work by its Project Team and volunteers, the Steam Trust is pleased to be able to publish the proposals for the redesign and reinterpretation of the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard station. This has been made possible by the National Heritage Lottery fund grant of £40,000 together with a contribution…