SVR Autumn Gala 17-20th September

So my thoughts on the gala from someone who was mostly working over it (all 4 days, and only 1 round trip Friday and Saturday evening/night as a passenger):
Plenty of people on all 4 days which meant the car park at Kidderminster was full by about 10 am on Friday and Saturday. I would strongly suggest to people that next time you come by train where possible (one gentleman I talked to on Friday said with parking and fuel for him it was about the same cost and he hadn't had to worry about where parking by coming on the train).
While dull, the timetable did have enough padding to ensure late running was near non-existent on Friday to Sunday. The hourly service wasn't that bad as often on a gala full line services are less frequent than this to enable the capacity for locals. Personally I would have prefer a couple local services just to spice it up more.
We were blessed by the weather really, the forecast of rain never come and other than mist in the mornings and some cloud on sunday, it wasn't that bad. From the sounds the numbers for gala will be very good. Hopefully, a noticeboard issue will be out in the next couple of days.
Also 4566 and 46521 doubleheading was lovely and can we keep 46100?

 

My photos/video from the gala are being worked on at the minute, but first a small request, if I may...

I had another major technical problem on Saturday afternoon, when my microphone failed to pick up some of the sound on a shot of 46100 passing Orchard Crossing - it was probably the best performance of the entire gala, and I'm rather annoyed that the recording didn't come out.

If there were any members of Nat Pres that were at Orchard Crossing for 46100 (the 13:28 ex-Bridgnorth) and recorded the audio, would they be so kind as to PM me please, as I would like to piece together the shot, just so I don't have to consign the one of my favourite shots of the weekend to a deleted scenes video!

Many thanks!

James

 

Referring to Kje7812's comments about travel to the Gala, for the first time I came by train, not fancying the stress of possibly finding the KDR car park full.
For me the return rail ticket to KDR worked out cheaper (admittedly with a Senior Railcard discount) than bringing the car, and is something I will do again when I visit the SVR for a day riding the trains on an ordinary non-Gala day.

The Gala was superb, particularly the Scot, but travelling on an ordinary service day can sometimes bring back the quiet "branch-line" days of yore if you pick your train times carefully.

Well done to all those who put in the hard work to make the Gala a success. I hope the passenger numbers total when known will justify the effort.

46118

 

I don't normally attend the autumn gala, there is usually a clash with my scouting commitments, but this year I was able to get down. Had an enjoyable couple of days, helped by the weather of course. It made a pleasant change to attend an event where everything ran on time & the timetable could be relied on. Too often I have found that running goods trains leads to delays & to extended gaps between passenger trains meaning you cant get to where you want to be (or maybe that's just other lines).

my small selection of pictures are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/48546196@N06/with/15292444424

Phil

 

I had a fantastic time at my first full SVR Autumn gala, the highlight being the all night running which I thoroughly enjoyed, would definitely like to do that again. I agree that the ticketing for things like that might want to be looked at; I was surprised there was no ticket that included the whole night until dawn without having to buy a full day ticket for two days. Whilst the timetable allowed me to just about do everything I would have liked a better compromise between locals and full line services which would have made the weekend even better and alleviated crowding. The fact that there was a loco and a whole rake of coaches not in use most of the time made this particularly annoying. Having said that, given that it was virtually all whole line running I think the constant double header worked really well and looked absolutely fantastic.

 

I agree about traveling to the event by train, which I did, however if you end up staying until Monday morning and are not in Kidderminster it becomes a bit of a bind getting back to the national rail network.

 

Are the visiting locos heading back home straight away? Just wondering whether any might work this weekend? Probably a daft question.....

 

Thanks! I'd love to catch 46100 again over that fabulous line!

 

The Brit is going tomorrow morning I think (or that's what RTT had it as). The Scot is staying for a bit but conflicting accounts on length and not sure about 46521.

 

Thanks. I'll keep an eye on the usual sources just in case!

 

A set of my photos from the gala weekend can now be seen on my Zenfolio website at: - http://mickrogers.zenfolio.com/p202928796



Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to bring off a great event.
Cheers,

 

That's a cracking photo - you have to look quite hard to see signs of modernity. The murkiness makes it, IMHO - I suspect the same shot in colour with a bright blue sky wouldn't be so arresting.

Tom

 

Thanks for the favourable comment Tom though I feel that much of the credit must go to the extra thick early morning Severn Valley fog!

 

If you stay in Bridgnorth then you can always get a bus to Wolverhampton. If you travel late enough there is the added bonus of a visit to The Great Western--the pub that is. On non running days it's about the only way to get to the north end of SVR.

 

Or bus to Shrewsbury.

 

A little late but here are my collections of images from the excellent SVR Autumn gala. First up is the collection of images in and through the night, always the SVR's specialty. The full collection can be found here https://flic.kr/s/aHskkkJu4P

Working the nightshift by Inspiring Images, on Flickr

Steam steam everywhere ... by Inspiring Images, on Flickr

20150918-LAP_9597-Edit.jpg by Inspiring Images, on Flickr

 

While I'm not normally a fan of those brightly illuminated night shots I have to admit that the b/w shot of the flying pig is absolutely brilliant!

 

[QUOTE=" not sure about 46521.[/QUOTE]
46521 has gone -- heading north along the A442 through Telford ( on a low loader for the pedantic ) at about 10:00 this morning ....

coincidentally I then got held up between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster by Erlestoke Manor's tender heading south

 

You need to look at the work of 'O Winston Link', though I agree most night shoots on preserved lines are lit way over the top .