Overview
A guide to help you find all 60 of the collectables around the West Somerset Railway route so you can get the WSR: Preserving Heritage achievement.
Preface
Collectables continue! And with another achievement to be there for you completionists around there! This time they aren’t too difficult, while also mixing in some new items to find (for once.)
I’m still relatively new to this so don’t fret about giving feedback. Unless it’s “don’t make these it ruins the fun!” to which I say: it doesn’t ruin the fun for everyone, and if it ruins the fun for you, just look over the intro, then go your own way to discover what you can!
Tips
As usual, it helps to reduce your scenery settings to find everything easier. Though if you are using the guide it should not be that hard to find even the collectables behind plants and such.
This guide starts in the North at Minehead and goes South to Norton Fitzwarren. Most collectables are around stations, so it should be easy to grab an all stops service and collect collectables during each passenger stop. Only those lamps out at railroad crossings require going out of your way.
The order the collectables are listed in is effectively the best order to collect them in, with the general pattern then puts the Northmost ones first, Southmost ones last.
The Collectables
This time around, we finally got some unique collectables! All of these are themed around assorted classic UK railroad props, much in the spirit of the WSR being a heritage line. (Thus, the “Preserving Heritage” achievement.)
Unlike all the other routes, there are only 60 collectables, fewer than the other route, but divided among 4 types, which does hark back to CSX Heavy Haul a bit.
What is a fire bucket you ask? Well, back in the old days, the railroads would leave buckets full of sand laying around which could be used to extinguish any small fire that may occur. Steam trains are powered by a big fire, after all.
An uncollected fire bucket is simply empty. By collecting it, you fill it with sand.
There are 15 fire buckets in total, which can be found both on the station platforms and on the ground nearby railroad buildings.
More specifically, these are classic railroad tail lamps, which should be mounted on the end of a train to indicate what direction its traveling in…as opposed to laying around on the ground. As such, to no real surprise, the collectable lamp uses the exact same model as the tail lamp on the Mk1.
An uncollected lamp is one standing on the ground. By collecting it, the lamp will vanish.
There are 15 lamps in total, almost all of them placed on the ground somewhere in the station limits. There are 2 of them out at railroad crossings in the wilderness, but literally everything else is in a station.
Back in the old days, milk transport by rail was quite common. The standard milk container was this type of milk churn featured in the WSR.
An uncollected milk churn is just an empty milk crate, collecting it will place down the actual milk churn.
There are 10 milk churns in total, all of which are on station platforms.
Instead of route maps, the WSR route has posters that need to be hung up, which fit in quite well with all the other silly old time-y advertisements placed around the route.
As with the maps, an uncollceted poster is blank. By collecting it, artwork is applied that matches with this DTG screenshot/wallpaper.[dtl-ghost-storage-bucket-prod.storage.googleapis.com]
There are 20 posters in the route, making them the most numerous collectable there is. They can be found on just about any wall or fence, even if not at a station platform.
Last time, I failed to do something that was quite standard of these guides so far: I didn’t make a map. Of course, the maps sorta turned from finding exact locations to getting a general idea, while the guide itself has the exact locations…so I made a map in that spirit. You get the general locations of everything, so you know what’s near to what, without being too big and specific.
Collectable icons point to where the collectable actually is, though they are not right on top of where they are. (Not enough room!)
[i.imgur.com] for the full size version. It is huge.
#1 Minehead
We start off in Minehead, the Northern terminus of the line. Minehead being the terminus and having a lot of facilities around leads to quite a few collectables, but not the most of any station.
Minehead has 7 collectables, which is up there. This means we got 2 buckets, 2 lamps, 1 churn, and 2 posters.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#2 Dunster
Moving out, Dunster is next. Some sidings and a depot to hide things around, so we’ve got a few collectables to find for just a single platform station.
Dunster has 5 collectables total, with 2 lamps (one of which is more out on the mainline), 1 bucket, 1 poster, and 1 churn.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#3 Blue Anchor
The next big stop is Blue Anchor. At which point I should say to get used to 5 collectables! Unlike other routes, the number and type of collectables isn’t too predictable, but lots of stops have 5 to grab….
Blue Anchor is yet another with 5: here, we have 2 posters, 1 churn, and 2 buckets.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#4 Washford
Washford might only be a single track station, but it has one nice yard, great for hiding an impressive number of collectables.
Washford has a whole 8 of the darn collectables. A whole 2 buckets, 2 posters, 1 churn, and 3 lamps. One of those lamps is a straggler out on the mainline…most collectables manage to avoid that.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#5 Watchet
With a medium sized town comes a medium amount of collectables. Here’s what to find in Watchet.
5 collectables total, that’s 1 churn, 2 posters, 1 bucket, and 1 lamp.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#6 Doniford
Probably the smallest station yet in TSW, but even then it’s not immune from collectables-just a couple to find here.
Only 2 collectables sit here, 1 bucket and 1 poster.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#7 Williton
The next big stop on the line, Williton is not just home to the diesels of this route, but also to plenty of collectables.
Due to the many places to hide things, Williton has a whole 8 collectables. That’s 3 buckets, 2 posters, 2 lamps, and 1 churn.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#8 Stogumber
As the stations thin out, Stogumber is the first one to come up in a little while. I hope you have not been walking the whole distance so far!
Despite being a smaller station, Stogumber has 4 collectables to get, 2 posters, 1 lamp, and 1 churn.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#9 Crowcombe Heathfield
Crowcombe Heathfield is nearing the end of most passenger services, and is another bigger station to search around.
So, you got 5 collectables here. 2 posters, 1 churn, 1 lamp, and 1 bucket.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#10 Bishops Lydeard
As the southern terminus of most WSR operations, Bishops Lydeard is a big place, and as a result, it has the most collectables of any station on the route.
9 collectables are here in all, featuring 2 lamps (one of which is another straggler out in the middle of nowhere) 3 posters, 2 buckets, and 2 churns.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
#11 Norton Fitzwarren
The final stop on the line, Norton is just an industrial station to serve as a connection to the GWML. But it still got some attention for both collectables and scenery.
Here we have 2 collectables, 1 poster and 1 lamp, the last 2 to finish it all off.
Click on any picture for a larger version.
Conclusion
If I’m honest, this set of collectables is probably the most enjoyable so far due to how unique they are and how well they fit in with the route. I say that, but I bet after a few 50s routes this kind of stuff would become boring…but this is the first route to delve into historic anything. And the route is quite pretty, so it’s actually nice to explore.
But that didn’t make them difficult or anything. As only a simple 20 mile route, finding all the collectables is no chore; having some notes in place, finding all the collectables was only a 2 hour walk-no trains touched at all. But I think that’s totally OK. Leave the complicated collectables to the convoluted routes, like NEC!