GWSR Photographic Pass & Gala Days

I used to have a GWSR pass, but gave it up when I was refused entry to the railway on a Gala Day without buying a ticket - even though I had no intention of travelling and just wanted to photograph with the aid of my pass (for which I had paid).

Does this rule still apply?

 

If you're trying to get on a station site, yes, as far as I'm aware. If you want to take pics lineside then a pass should be fine. I believe there are quite a number of publicly accessible areas lineside anyway without a pass. We don't just not let people on for fun, it's hard enough getting TTIs for normal days let alone galas, so it just makes it easier, ad well as for customers who won't have to continually produce their tickets if they're going up and down the line a whole day.

 

I haven't been to the GWSR for a number of years now due to one thing and another, but was unaware of this. If true, its a great shame - almost like a Sky Sports mentality regarding football, cricket, etc. I know there was a platform ticket system in operation at Winchcombe, but was under the impression that Toddington was fairly open access. I even remember climbing on the footplate of 9642 stood stationary in the car park without requiring a ticket in the not so distant past...

Do traders still occupy the main car park during galas? If so, are these stalls also only accessible to those with a ticket to ride?

 

Yep, main Toddington Car park has traders and a big marquee usually, and usually P&O, although wondering if they might drag out something else this year. All stations are open access during normal running days, just on gala days site access is restricted to ticket holders.

 

Not quite sure of the relevance of the comment re TTI's or publicly accessible areas. I was talking about Photographic Passes.

 

It's been so long I've completely forgotten the thread of my point I was trying to make!

Apologies if I wasn't clear. Photographic pases are only needed for lineside locations. These are valid all year round, gala or not, as you can no longer buy passes just for galas.

On normal days all station areas are freely available to visit, and you can photograph trains coming through.

On Gala days station areas are only open to full ticket holders. This is because galas are very busy, and it would be quite easy for someone to wander into the station on the pretence of "just looking" and then hop on. With increased passenger numbers on trains it makes it more difficult to check tickets as regularly so you could be riding for free for some time before being discovered, which can be heightened by a shortage of TTIs. This is why even folk with photographic passes are not allowed in during galas. I hope this answers your question.

If you want to photograph guest engines on the GWSR without paying a full ticket, you can still either go lineside during the gala, or each station has a conveniently located road Bridge, or alternatively, often the weekend before or after they're still running on a normal day.