SVR General Discussion

The NYMR did its bit with this rendition of the Jimi Hendrix song ‘Purple Haze’:

 

I knew there was a facebook post I couldnt remember what it was. Another, small but still prominent was a photo of No. 70 used as background on the one show this evening.

 

Fair play to the SVR. I have nothing against what they have done with 34027. Excellent PR for the railway.

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Have to say it’s good publicity.
My only criticism is no Nick Owen on Midlands Today? What’s happened to the Midlands favourite Luton fan?

 

June's Branch Lines is out! View at https://www.svrlive.com/bljun22

 

Very positive feedback for the Jubilee event 4000 visitors and great to see 41% were first time visitors - possibly the most important statistic. 71% came purely to see the purple loco...

And also good to see a healthy profit from the diesel event, I do hope these profitable events are not being offset by the daily running days and high fuel costs - although with 1501 and 7714 holding the fort on these hopefully costs are being kept to a minimum.

 

Finally, definable proof of the success of it. Fair dinkums to them.

 

It may offend some of the purists but to survive innovation in offering has to be the key to bring in new visitors. Hopefully with a lot of heritage around such as displays, museum etc then they will want to come back and explore further.

 

Run that through the sense checker, if it wasn't for the purple loco only 1160 of the visitors would have come on a four day bank holiday weekend. Average 290 per day, about enough to fill a train.

Difficult to say, but that sounds light to me. How many would be expected on a normal Spring BH weekend? Without casting any aspersions on the SVR or its veracity in conducting its research, I suspect there's an element of confirmation bias in the responses ('now I'm here and seen it, that's the reason I came'). It's all rather moot now though.

 

I think the 'Elizabeths travel free' for the Bank Holiday was inspired too - I know of two families with 2 children each that travelled for the first time on the railway as a result of that offer. Thats 2x Adults and 4x paid for children extra for the two 'Lizzies' travelling free.

 

Or maybe the question should be how many attended any Heritage Line over that weekend. Lots of other non railway stuff going on. Down here in Swanage the Friday was the busiest I have ever seen it from a car perspective due to a large 600 person street party. None of those of course would have been on the train due to the timings conflicting. They may have picked some up via the Norden P & R, but I suspect the benefit to the railway was limited if any.

 

The Seven Per Cent Solution, a 1976 Sherlock Holmes Film shot on The Severn Valley Railway and at York Station is being released on Blu Ray in September. On the SVR 46443, 46521, 48773 & 45110 (disguised as foreign locos) were used for a chase sequence. At York Station two NRM locos were used for filming; No 790 "Hardwicke" & Wainwright Class D 4-4-0 No 737. For the new release the Black Five now has a prominent place on the Blu Ray box cover. Below are some stills and pictures I found of the railway sequences and the new Blu Ray cover. Was anyone on the forum involved with this Film which has a very impressive cast list? I can't wait for the Blu Ray to arrive later in the year as I have not yet seen this Film but have heard very good things about it.

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Thanks for that. Much appreciated. I have just found that out after conducting another search. I have now included them in the post above.
I have just found some good information about the railway sequences in the Film here:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...oQFnoECAcQAQ&usg=AOvVaw133UnHixQHpUXUIIU4jWCZ

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Looks more like 42968 with Fowler tender on the cover. I haven't seen the film in years, it'll be good to see it again.

 

The cover image appears to be a Black Five with a Fowler tender. A bit of Photoshop in use perhaps?

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I was involved before and after the filming, I was tasked to repaint both of the Ivatt class 2 locos. For the repaint for the film I worked with Bob Timmins to apply the red, for the repaints back into proper colours that was solely down to me. I ended up painting 46521 three times in a little over 18 months !

 

Thanks for sharing this. It certainly must have been a very big budget Film as they relaid part of the original Severn Valley Railway line from Hartlebury to Bewdley and beyond via Stourport-on-Severn for these shots below. Did SVR Volunteers relay the track?:

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How did they get permission from the ORR or its predecessor to have one train chasing another on the same track?