West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala, 27-30 March 2014

Just a few points for consideration.

Coaching stock - the railway is trying to recreate one rake of historic GWR coaches and that's taking ages, not a criticism, a fact of life when you are doing a restoration project. Getting "the right stock" in for a gala would likely be more difficult, not to say impossible, than getting the "right" loco's
Goods trains - clearly these can't carry passengers and most folks who come to the gala expect to have a ride behind their favourite loco's so it a bit of a balancing act and it's true that you can't please all of the people all of the time. Now I know it's easy to say run a more intensive service but one loco failure would throw out the whole timetable, as it is there is (just about) time to recover from a disaster. Yes if there were more loops then it might be possible but there are not at the moment.
Choice of loco - it's much harder than you might think to assemble the "exactly right" collection of loco's due to many factors beyond just cost and availability.

 

The West Somerset Railway is offering an extra level of discount on its Rover Tickets for the 2014 Spring Steam Gala. Until close of business on December 31st 2013 Day Rover Tickets are on sale at an extra discounted rate of £17 adult, £15.40 (60+), £8.50 ( 5 to 15) and £45 (family of 2 adults and up to 4 children). For 2 Day Rovers the cost will be £30 (adult and senior) and £15 child. 3 and 4 Day Rovers will be £40 (adult and senior) and £20 (child) These can be booked online from www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk (being set-up) or by telephone from 01643 704996. From January 1st onwards the normal discounts on Gala Rovers purchased in advance will apply.


The West Somerset is hoping that this offer will prove popular with both early bookers for the Gala and also with those who have railway enthusiasts in the family and are looking for a suitable Christmas gift. With Christmas in mind the WSR also has gift vouchers on sale which can be redeemed against tickets, shop goods or footplate experience courses. They too can be purchased from the website or by telephone.

Visitors looking to book accommodation will find useful help from the Tourist Information Centres at Minehead (01643 702624), Watchet (01984 632101), Taunton (01823 336344) and Porlock (01643 863150).

 

I suppose you could get away with something like 5322 in that respect, seen enough photo's of 43XX's in the Barnstaple area.

Short of doubleheading, a Beattie or 30053 would be limited in what they can do due to the lines nature.

 

Hopefully someone will correct me if wrong, but I think Tyseley loco's are hard to get hold of due to them understandably not wanting to leave them alone for any length of time, sure I read when they were loaned out in years gone by, quite often they were going out with various consumable parts in new condition and mysteriously returning with identical parts showing years of usage, despite having been out for a period much less than that.

4965 did an event at Barrow hill along with 4936 and 4953 a few years ago so it can occasionally happen, but is pretty rare.

 

It's always interesting on these sites to see the wish lists of engines that people would like to see at special events like next March's WSR Gala but there is always the stumbling block of costs. To bring in a big experess engine by road and run it for four days knocks a hole in £8 to £9k in transport and hire charges and that's before you fill the tender with coal (pricey) and water (metered and billed). It's not much cheaper once track access and movement charges have been paid on the mainline to get one in that way unless you can get a charter train for it to head just before the Gala begins. Four or five "headline" guests and you're looking at taking in excess of £35k just to cover the start-up charge for that side. Then there's the matter of is the locomotive available (?) -- the CME's on each line have to be able to run their own services and mainline passed engines aren't usually short of work on the network (and once it's "confirmed" something can still go wrong) -- and what other conditions attach to it running. Something can also go wrong during the Gala (in the case of the WSR the biggest miracle in retrospect was the Gala appearance of "Royal Scot" during the very brief window when it was a "runner" -- and don't forget the low -loader catching fire when it was being brought to Bishops Lydeard from Crewe). As said above, some railways and bases don't let their engines out much at all and there are accessibility problems with some sites. Unfortunately the magazines have traditionally referred to loco being on loan. Hired would coney a more accurate picture to the reader.
"Home fleet" engines don't run for free either. There are hire fees to owning groups with a lot of these, which will hopefully generate enough to pay for routine running repairs and the "10 Year". And they too burn coal and evaporate water. By the time you've steamed 8 or 9 to offer some variety for the visitors the Gala planners had better hope for a good turn out and spend to keep the Finance Director and the rest of the Board from getting restless
Then there's the other expenses that get clocked up such as paid advertising in the magazines, leaflets, postage etc. Hopefully all goes well and there's a profit at the end of it all but I'm pretty sure that a lot of good folk out there might feel a bit faint if they saw the budgets for big galas.

 

All of what you say is true, and it's good to be reminded of the problems and worries that gala organisers have to cope with. This thread started with a question - what would we like to see at a Withered Arm Gala on the WSR? That's an invitation for flights of fancy, if ever there was one. The impressive thing, to me, is how measured and practical most of the responses have been. I think we have all tried to consider what might be possible, and what the constraints might be on choice of on-hire locos, time-tabling, etc.

 

http://westsomersetrailway.vticket....es-to-west-somerset-railway-spring-steam-gala

Just been tweeted by the WSR...

James

 

And now some locomotive news. 2 Moguls have been lined up, neither of which have run on the WSR before. 5322 from Didcot and U 31806 from the Mid Hants. The WSR Special Events Planning Team is also nicely along the way to bring in a Bulleid Pacific. 5322 isn't pure to the Withered Arm theme but 2014 marks the 50th Anniversary of the ending of the 43xx association with the Taunton-Barnstaple Victoria/Barnstaple Junction services.

 

Barnstaple was a meeting point between GWR/Western Region, and SR/ Southern Region so there was a bit of intermingling. GWR Moguls went to Ilfracombe on summer Saturdays, and N class (virtually identical to U class which did for a while work to Padstow in 1961) moguls worked to Taunton occasionally; not too much imagination required to see them working to Minehead in an emergency even if it never actually happened. Both are eagerly awaited on the WSR, as far as I'm concerned, and I'll be there.

 

Sounds like a good event even before the full guest engine list has been confirmed. 5322 and 31806 were pretty popular visitors at the Mid Hants and SVR galas respectively last year. I've put the dates down in my diary, and am very much looking forward to it.

 

Having spent part of my youth spotting at Taunton station in the early and mid-60's I can also vouch for the fact that the 72C based U class came in from time to time with workings over the Yeovil Branch line. For some reason 31792 seemed to be the favourite for that one. Just to nudge you John you can save a good bit on rover tickets (nearly a third on day rovers) by ordering from 01643 704996 with a card.

 

If you're going to have both Southern and GW moguls, how about setting up a bit of 2ft guage track, hiring in "Lyd" and a couple of coaches and turning Washford into the exchange station at Barnstaple Town

Tom

 

Very nice idea but there is the not-inconsiderable matter of costs of that stunt unless it could be partly laid-off with the L&B, OR someone with deep pockets can sponsor hiring, low-loaders etc.

Meanwhile on the subject of station names

Once again the stations along the 20 miles of the WSR will be assuming new temporary identities during the Spring Steam Gala, March 27th to 30th.

The locations selected are a mixture of those on the “Withered Arm” of the Southern Railway/ Southern Region and a couple from the Taunton-Barnstaple line over which steam services ended in 1964 and will also chime nicely with the presence at the event of GWR “Mogul” 5322 (representing long-lost classmates which worked from Taunton shed in the final years such as 5336, 6326, 6327, 6372, 7304, 7306, 7332 and 7333 amongst others).

The list is as follows:-

Bishops Lydeard - Crediton
Crowcombe Heathfield- Bridestow
Stogumber - Portsmouth Arms
Williton - Halwill Junction
Doniford Halt - Yeo Mill Halt
Watchet - Bideford
Washford - Mortehoe
Blue Anchor - Instow
Dunster - Fillieigh (opened as Castle Hill, after a local house owned by Lord Fortescue)
Minehead - Ilfracombe (despite the complete lack of resemblence to the approach for trains)

 

It wasn't an entirely serious suggestion!

Tom

 

Thanks, Maespoeth. Sadly, I'm having second thoughts....

Nah. Keep it as 5322. If all the engines are going to be given fictitious identities, I'm staying at home.

 

Thanks John,

Checking it out there isn't a plan, despite a suggestion from outside, to renumber 5322. Amongst other considerations it worked in France in 1917-18 and in the year that marks the centenary of World War 1 we should mark something a lot more serious than which engines worked out of 83B. It can commemorate/represent the Taunton Moguls service on the line to Barum without another number being fitted (and given the length of service and interchange of parts of Swindon it may well have had/ still has bits of ex-Taunton machine in it).

 

I think that's the idea, no mention of it being renumbered!

 

Phew! Thanks for the clarification, Maespoeth. Maybe others on this forum think I'm a bit daft to loathe the use of fictitious identities, but I guess we all have our own "red lines" and this happens to be one of mine. I guess it was not an unreasonable concern given that something similar was done to 5029 at the recent "Cambrian" gala.

5322 must have got around quite a bit during its 45+ years in service (even if we leave out ignore its trip to France) A quick glance at a couple of websites indicate that it was allocated at various times in its career to Chester, Andover Junction and Swindon, while I believe that its final shed was Pontypool Road. I've also seen a picture of it on a train on the Redhill-Reading line. Nothing I can find that it was ever shedded at a West Country shed, although others may know more on this. It certainly rubbed up against a good few southern locos in its career. However, regardless of how well it fits the "Withered arm" theme, I'm sure it will go down well as a visiting engine, come what may. The sound recordists will love it, that's for sure. I saw it doubled-heading with 34007 Wadebridge at the Mid Hants gala last year, and as the two locos slogged up the 1 in 60 towards Medstead, no prizes for guessing which engine I could hear first!

 

Why do a few numbers bother you so much? It's absurd to "reconsider" attending a gala due to a few digits. I'm surprised you're not complaining about station names, too. Just sit back and enjoy the show.

Seriously, just calm down, think about what you're doing, and after you've seen sense, head over to the West Somerset this spring. You won't regret it, and, if you really care so much, then take to iPhoto or Aperture (if you have a proper computer) and pretend they were never renumbered after all, if, indeed, they are about to be.