Great Western Coffee Shop

This board has been retitled from "Preserved railway lines, Railtours, other rail based attractions" to "Heritage railway lines, Railtours, other rail based attractions", correcting a long standing goof that has irritated the pedants.

If something is PRESERVED then it is maintained it its original state.  Railway lines running seasonal passenger services for a tourist market are not preserved - many elements are modified to meet modern convenience and safety standards, and extra elements are added to attract business. The term HERITAGE is chosen to indicate they have a facade "times gone by" but man modern element and addition.

The "preserved" v "heritage" argument can be seen, for example, in the original HST power car, preserved by the National Railway Museum but then restored for heritage use by the 125 group, with the NRM claiming it back at the end of last November (2019), to the disappointment of the group. https://www.125group.org.uk/about-125-group/

Agree, "preserved" does imply preserved in substantially original condition. The fitting of replacement parts is often unavoidable, but these should be reasonably close facsimiles of the originals.
Many steam locos can reasonably be regarded as being preserved in substantially original condition.

However considering the West Somerset Railway as an example, the infrastructure is definitely "heritage" and not "preserved"
Electric lights, and concrete sleepers, and other features are appropriate on a working railway even if not original.

Hardly applies to jam, when you have added a considerable amount of sugar. By the way, if any of the assembled experts can explain the difference between preserve and conserve, in the context of things you spread on bread, I will be educated.

Err..... The GWR had electric signal lights, motor points and concrete sleepers in the 1930s, so I think they qualify as 'Preserved'..... :P

This website explains conserve/preserve etc

https://www.kilnerjar.co.uk/a-guide-to-jams

Yes, but I doubt that such modernity was much seen on the Minehead branch.
I have heard that some intermediate stations did not get electricity until a few years before closure.
One station still has a small hand operated winch intended for hoisting a Tilley lamp aloft after filling and lighting at ground level.

Plenty of Tilley lamp operations at certain rural locations well into the 1960s and probably beyond. Places like Chetnole and rural S & D stations are examples. This together with gas lighting at more urban locations within a similar period.

For the really rural spots there were examples of trains not calling after dark.

The Tilley company actualy made a special lamp for lighting railway platforms. The Challow lantern, this used the same burner as the other Tilley lamps, but had a specialy designed reflector to direct the light along a plarform, with little wasted in other directions.
I used to have one, but sold it to a collecter.

Tilley lamps of various types were widely used by the railway until fairly recently.

If you'd not said what it was I would have assumed a 'Challow Lantern' was the will o' the wisp occasionally seen by the inhabitants of the Berkshire village on moonless nights during the WW2 blackouts, flickering above the stagnant waters of the canal there.

Mark

Glad you got the village in the right (historic) county!  There's a reason that Shire Hall is in Abingdon!