Severn Valley Railway Spring gala 14-16 April (plus Pendennis Castle trips 13 April)

I am not on Facebook but can view most things on Facebook as long as they are publically viewable.
I have no issue with the railway publishing the latest information on there, but agree this should be linked from the main website instructing people to check there.

 

There may be trouble brewing with that. The latest version of Android (so far only pushed out to Pixels) seems to stop viewing Facebook full stop without logging in.

To me it seems heritage railway websites have definitely gone backwards over the last few years with the information they have on them and the ease to find what little is on them.

Andrew

 

That's your choice though, isn't it? You could argue the same of the internet as a whole - it would be safer to unplug your router and go off-grid, but you'd lose out on more information. It's for everybody to make their own decision on the risk/benefit balance of technology, but getting left behind on principle is a part of that risk. You could chose to rely solely on the magazine adverts to get this info, but would you pay for the magazine with cash or hand over your card?

 

Just searched for the SVR on facebook. I had to wade down quite a lot to find the direction announcement. It’s not exactly easy to find is it. And it only appeared last night. And the timetable is a bit light on detail. Compared with availability of a working timetable up until a few years ago it is clear that in this respect the SVR has gone backwards.

 

Tbf with respect to the timetable, the working was only sent out Sunday/Monday to staff.
I do agree that it could just say what it set it is.

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While I agree it'd be nice to know the stock etc, I'm not sure I'd call it a backwards step to have the loco allocations available a good while in advance, free of charge!

 

A couple of snaps of Erlestoke on test and Pendennis on one of todays Excursions:

 

Who said anything about free of charge? Who said anything about a good while?
Have always happily paid for a wtt. As long as it arrived before the Gala, that was fine.

Martin, with his photographers hat on, would probably like times of both arrival and departure, loco and stock allocations and loco directions.

The website mentions Local services, Full-line services, Heritage goods trains, Double-headers and Non-stop expresses and railtour recreations. It is surely not too much to tell us when these things happen? The timetable on the website is a bit light on detail. Will there be a better one printed for on the day?

Tickets, travel and hotel are expensive. Is it too much to ask to want to plan what to see and ride on, rather than pointing your camera randomly and seeing a tender first working?

I spend a lot of time on Facebook, and visit the SVR website a few times a day too but I still didn't see the announcement of loco directions. Fortunately I visit this website too otherwise I would have missed it. If the official announcements are now coming via facebook, please tell us.

 

Yes, thanks for all you have done, Martin. I will visit as many of the attractions as I can. I will read between the lines as to where to photograph certain engines and it will be an enjoyable weekend. Thanks again for filling in some of the gaps.

 

Never has been for a Spring Gala has it?

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For a railway seemingly strapped for cash a pdf download of the WTT at say £2 a pop would have cost next to nothing and generated some positive cashflow and goodwill.

Like it or not this is the information age and there are a large number of people who would appreciate info on loco directions, stock, etc, and if you are advertising things like named train/railtour recreations then people should have this information in advance to enable them to plan the day accordingly.

One further point, why do railways (the SVR is not alone here) leave it so late to finalise WTTs, surely the outline of the event is known well in advance and the WTT should be available, subject to minor tweaks & usual caveats re failures etc more than a few days in advance

 

I remember quite vividly some lively debates on here regarding the rights and wrongs of charging for this information at past SVR galas! The document sold was the full WTT given to staff, for the ASG especially, (with all night running) this was quite a weighty document. There would then be complaints of too much information and it costing too much!
Somewhere there is a happy medium and in the digital age possibly selling file sharing access to save printing costs and allow people to access what they wish. It could also be updated right up to the day if needed.