Thursday 26 April 2007

Everything is rosy in the Station Gardens

It's been a bit of a slog but we are on the move with the Station Gardens promotion. A date has been fixed for the special week - 15 to 22 July 2007. A leaflet has been designed and will be printed soon. The Railway Company will be completing the promotion strategy which should include mail shots to garden centres and leaflets in tourist information centres. The www.wsr.org.uk website has, as you can imagine, already posted information on several pages. I have also been busy emailing websites which list garden events. One success already! There is a poster image at http://www.wsr.org.uk/posters/gardens2007.jpg for folks to download, print and display to help us promote the Gardens Week, it'd be wonderful if folks could do this! Anyone with a blog or website can also help by listing the link for more information at http://www.wsr.org.uk/gardens.htm Anyway, the Station Gardens are open every day in the summer so folks can always visit a Station Garden before make their way by train perhaps to another Station Garden down the line. A leisurely lunch at the Washford Inn or the Driftwood at Blue Anchor, maybe, and hey that's quite a nice day out! Help us promote the Station Gardens if you can. Thanks.

Monday 16 April 2007

By train from Minehead to Bristol?

No excuses for using another picture of the Virgin Voyager, this time coming across the "ladder" at Norton Fitzwarren and joining the Minehead Branch. At the recent meeting for active volunteers, the Chairman of the WSR Plc announced the possibility of a regular diesel-powered service from Minehead to Bristol during the high summer. Not all arrangements finalised so it would be inappropriate to go into detail at this point in time but the initiative is quite a considerable milestone in the history of the "new" West Somerset Railway. From the re-birth in the early 1970s, it has always been the aim to use the Railway to get folks to and from West Somerset. Excursions have been running for years now, and the Taunton Shuttles during recent Gala events have begun to provide a "public service", but, hey, the Bristol trains, if they happen, will cut a new shine on the Minehead Branch rails.