Swanage Autumn Steam Gala - 12-14 October 2018

bloody hell calm down man hope your not going to drive your taxi while your so wound up

 

It doesn't matter how much you paid to get there, how much it cost to ram food down your throat or whatever other interests you spunked your money on,
You my friend are trying to create an issue , where there isn't one, unless your that deluded your asking the railways to cover you for those aforementioned expenses,
Shall we start a slate for you down at the bluebell then ?
Your an idiot.

 

Exactly its just another way they can moan about the railway.

 

now you are showing what a nasty piece of work you are

 

Not sure what your problem is with me, spread across a number of threads. Reported to admin. And FYI I was actually there yesterday and paid £30 to travel.

 

Yes what can appalling response that was. If you read mine I was there all day and go every year. Just trying to help planning for the future.

 

Not pig ignorance just common sense good regulating from somebody who goes every year.

 

Had better than expected weather yesterday after leaving Somerset in heavy rain. £3.50 for a day’s onsite parking is very good I thought. For me the Duchess was the star, what a beautiful loco, this and the return of 34072 was the reason for the 250 mile round trip. And the bonus of SKP on freight was a delight. Great gala, Will be back next year for the diesel gala.

 

Quite chuffed with this pic from Saturday, me and my new fangled camera are slowly getting there. Awaiting the road!!

 

Please do, I'd rather enjoy that, any chance of sorting my train fare out too while your at it? Thanks in advance oh if you could sort one out for the Mid Hants if it's not too trouble while your at it...

 

As a gala passenger and a Bistro dining train user on Saturday I would say my wife's comment was that actually she had preferred having her soup whilst stationary as it was easier to consume. Meanwhile the train manager who does an excellent job on the dining trains was very apologetic about us only having a single out and back trip and presented every couple with a letter apologising and enclosing a voucher for exchange for a free family ticket valid until 31 December 2019. My daughter's comment was that it is not that something went wrong but how it's dealt with (excellently from the perspective of this diner's family). Yes communication could have been better and it may have been wiser to cancel some trains earlier, however, there are logistical issues about the track and signalling and getting everything stored in the right place for the following morning. From my conversation with the diner loco crew apparently the logistics of operating Harman's Cross were what led to the extended delay on Saturday as they tried to make changes to get the diner loco back in time.

Hopefully lessons have been learnt but as others have said an excellent weekend with good food on the diner (which also has a very reasonable price relative to many other railways) and this time with steam rather than the more usual Bistro diesel haulage. With luck the railway will have made a healthy profit despite the weather and the vast majority of us have enjoyed the weekend.

 

Visited today and this would seem to be the case as things slipped significantly again, they were around an hour late when I left at 7pm. I imagine the volunteers don't enjoy the late running any more than the passengers, with loco crews, signalmen, station staff and others ending up getting home later than they bargained for. I certainly intend to visit again as it is a lovely well run railway, I am sure they have already began looking at this gala and will learn the lessons for next time.

 

All in all I felt it was a great event, great day riding on Friday and dipping in and out for photography the other two days. Many thanks to all involved in making it such great event ,best gala since I lived here.

Will post some images when I have looked through them.

 

Everything going over the road, Seems to cock the timing up, surely if you had some trains terminating at Norden and not going to the River all day, this would negate the slippage, Had a 3 Day rover but didn't bother with the Sunday after all the delays on the friday/saturday. maybe an idea to stick the goods over the road in future, easier to cape then and refund people their £5 supplement,

 

The heavy trains over the road are a highlight of the gala for many though. The trains over the road were making up time and waiting outisde Norden on a lot of trips so not sure it would help. If anything the Corfe Shuttle seemed to be slowing things down.

 

Why not just finish on an earlier train rather than waste a ticket :/

 

Exactly what we did

 

Hang on - are you serious? Were they actually charging a supplement to go "over the road"? On top of £30 for a ticket? I was at last year's "end of Southern Steam Gala" and don't remember paying any supplements (or maybe I just avoided the TTIs). I realise the costs involved in staging steam galas and think £30 is just about reasonable for a day rover (although more than other railways are charging this Autumn) but to stick an extra supplement on to travel on what is after all part of the railway, even if it's not in daily use is not. I don't believe the West Somerset charge any more for the Norton Fitzwarren bit for example.

It's a bit like buying a ticket for a concert and being told you've got to pay more if you want to stay for the encores! Can anyone confirm whether that was the case?

 

Probably right but the freight didn't help either as it had to use a platform to load/unload the brake vans. Even if the Frome trains could recover lost time by skipping the trip and waiting at Norden, the shuttle would still be a problem as if one round trip was caped then the engines would be out of place. It all comes down to an over ambitious timetable but at least the railway made the effort and everybody worked very hard to put on a great show.