Severn Valley Railway Autumn Steam Gala 18-21th September 2014

Any news on when the WTT or even the basic timetable will be released, I want to spend hours pouring over it just to annoy my wife

 

The website says early september which I know is now. I spoke to the person writing this year's on saturday and he had sent the final version off to the relevant people on friday which hopefully means within the next week or so the public and working timetables will be appearing (it is of course only 2 weeks on thursday if you count the preview day).

 

Thanks, I will have my lined paper and various coloured pens ready to come up with a schedule and an alternative schedule

 

The 4F has arrived at Bridgnorth.

 

Im looking forward to the 4f missed 44422 when it was down there crikey 21 yrs ago! Also looking forward to the M7. I do like the smaller locos they have a bit more personality ( for me anyhow).

 

Tickets received today but no WTT.

Will phone them Monday but seems strange

Don

 

Agreed, I'll post if I hear anything. From the sounds the guards department have been told their turns and sometimes they find out quite late so again hopefully it won't be too long.

 

Same thing happened last year. WTT turned up roughly a week before the event.

 

Things like this - the lack of a timetable (public or WTT) less than 2 weeks before the event - really do not help the railway or preservation movement and make it look distinctly amateurish.

Can you imagine any other major tourist attraction not being able to provide information regarding its signature event of the year less than 2 weeks beforehand. Im not talking loco/stock allocations or l/e moves here Im talking about basic information about the service on offer.

 

Reported on SVR forum that the Public timetable is expected to be available for download/viewing on the SVR website tomorrow.

 

Problem is the earlier the WTT is out, the more time there is for loco A to fail, loco X is unable to attend and is replaced by loco Y and before you know it, what's used on the day bears little resemblance to what went to print 2 months beforehand, although the TT largely stuck last year, there was plenty of musical chairs with the visitors and the Duchess throwing a wobbler.

I find half the fun is having purchased a WTT and 2 day rover at Kiddy on Friday afternoon, jumping in the first departing train and making up my moves on the run so to speak, usually trying to work out where the best spot for forward facing night shots that evening will be before the service winds down into the overnight trains.

 

That is precisely my point, the railway should be able to put up its attraction opening times, train times, details of refreshment facilities etc weeks ahead of the event to give prospective visitors a details of what is available at the event - to entice the visitor to come to the event. In all honesty this should be available months in advance. As I said at the early stage it doesnt have to include loco or stock allocations ie the finer detail that can change as the gala gets nearer or even as it unfolds.

But can you imagine other tourist attractions saying that we are having a big event, the biggest of the year, but we cant tell you what is on offer until 10 days beforehand you will just have to wait an see. It doesnt look good and deosnt help to sell the event.

 

It is surely possible to allocate locos to trains in terms of identification letter(s) such as for 11 locomotives A - K so that WTT and public timetables could be issued well in advance and the actual letter values be issued in the final week - or as soon as the locomotives are confirmed. I respect the thought that locomotives may fail beforehand thus alternatives need to be sought hence the balance needed by the organiser to publish as early as possible to attract visitors but late enough to advise the latest information.

But that should not detract from the possibility of publishing train times and stock allocations much earlier than hitherto leaving only the list of engines to change - and that be published as a separate listing / website posting.

 

This is getting annoying no idea of times so no idea of when I want to arrive and therefore potentially missing deals on advanced train tickets, as others have said pretty poor show that they can't even get a basic timetable with less than 10 days to gi

 

Im just gonna rock up Friday purchase my Rover and take it from there, still havn't decided what night (if any) I'll stay over. Yes I understand why some folks want know why xxxxx is working from y to z ,but to me bashing was never that easy and set in stone it's always more fun when theres a cock up and timetables have to come out and be consulted, moves re worked out. As I say I have no plans apart from keeping it fluid to me thats the fun

 

Thats a fair point mate, I will say thats somthing I haven't looked at, in that case Im with totally with you, My attention at the mo is distracted by whats visiting for diesel gala.