SVR Pacific Power 22nd-25th September 2016

Unfortunately for me the only way I can now rearrange my holidays from work is if someone who works a similar amount of hours and in the same department as me, either swaps holidays or leaves.

I've been trying to find someone to swap with since Tornado was announced. I currently have two choices:

• Wait for someone to leave and I book their previously booked holiday.
  
• Go one of the events at Didcot/Lynton & Barnstaple/Vale Of Rheidol/another railway instead and hope I'm not working during the November event.

Do I have the confidence to book holiday for the 2017 Autumn Gala? At the moment no, but Seven Valley have about seven or eight months to give me that confidence.

 

OK, I agree - the trains with 60103 and 60163 will be specifically ticketed so they may not be overcrowded. It's the possibility of severe overcrowding on the other "normal" trains that worries me. Not to mention this also happening on station platforms, etc., by hordes of people who have come just to see Flying Scotsman and not necessarily take a train ride. Like I said in my previous post, I genuinely hope for the railway's sake the September event goes well but it could also spectacularly backfire (hopefully it won't).

Hotels and B&Bs may be flexible, however I think as far as most workplaces are concerned once you've booked your leave in advance it's very difficult to change it.

I will be going to the ASG in 2017 when hopefully things will be back to normal. I just hope what's happened this year doesn't create a precedent for the future.

The SVR has alienated a lot of its loyal and regular supporters by taking this decision, to cancel the 2016 ASG in this way is a PR disaster for the railway.

 

There are plans to limit the number of tickets on the other services but we shall have to wait and see how these work out

 

How much are the timed tickets likely be

 

From what I recall from my working days, there was never much competition for leave in November.

I was always delighted if any of my staff wanted leave in November and/or January as it made it easier to agree to requests for leave in the popular months from those with family commitments.

 

The NYMR is charging £38 per person during their week with FS, but fundamentally

 

I don't think anyone's completely happy with the way things turned out, but I really don't think the railway had much choice - to have turned Scotsman down would have lost us the opportunity to give a lot of people, mostly non-enthusiasts, the opportunity to travel behind it, and to visit our railway, and at the same time give us a fair bit of much-needed income -- far more than a normal gala would do.

We didn't have a choice of dates for it to come, and I think initial thoughts were that as it was the Autumn Gala, it would be a significant attraction, but would fit into the gala; subsequent events showed that this would be impossible, and a stand-alone event for Scotsman was the only option, and the November gala date was then added.

Controlling the number of people expected to come will be a significant problem, which I know is being looked at hard.

It would have been better if the railway had been able to announce the change earlier, but I understand dealing with the NRM re the visit has not been straightforward, and is still on-going.

Despite what some people appear to think, the railway has no desire to alienate its normal supporters, but I'm afraid it really had no sensible alternative but to make the change. Thankfully it's for one year only!

I think the public seem to be more hyped-up over the loco than a lot of enthusiasts; it certainly doesn't do a lot for me - I'd rather have a Duchess any day! I had a day driving it on one of its previous visits - interesting to have done so, but I've no great urge to repeat the experience!

The above has been posted on the SVR unofficial FB page and also the unofficial forum by a very long standing working member who also happens to be on the marketing side of things, usually found tweaking the website.

We all appreciate it has gone down like a ton of bricks. From all points its becoming clear that the NRM have dictated the dates rather than the SVR. None of us are happy about the decision to move the gala and bringing the A1 in at the same time but I bet if the SVR didnt have the A3 people will be saying "well why didn't you have Scotsman?" You're damned if you do and damned if you dont......

Can a railway like the SVR miss out on the opportunity to have the A3 and the A1 together for the very first time in preservation?
If the NYMR are charging £38 a head to travel behind FS. If you take a rough guess of 450 people on an 8 coach train. That is 17k per round trip. Can any railway/ business turn down that kind of income?
Its only a change for one year. Next year will be back to normal, whatever normal is.

 

I suppose I should be grateful, I was already considering just loitering around this year (making use of station cafes!) but my only hangup was that I really enjoyed the night runs! Will keep an eye on the November event, although unless anything particularly exciting comes along, will probably wait and do the 2017 gala properly. By that time hopefully I'll be able to drive myself there too!

 

SVR is doing 4 round trips per day for 5 days. Do the maths.

 

Me and my mates would be up for that!

 

Though 450 for a 8 coach set is probably a little high, 350 to 400 is better and fits the numbers for Santas.

 

Which makes the five days worth about £280,000 if you assume similar ticket prices to the NYMR event.

 

I think where the SVR may be copping more of a hit than might be expected is that the ASG last year was a bit...meh. It was still a good event, obviously, but it lacked something on previous offerings. To have a poor gala followed up by a no show of a gala probably makes people more reticent about praising the SVR, and also means there is now a massive heap of pressure on 2017 to be good.

 

There's the answer. Now what's the question?

 

Quite, a no-brainer really and if it allows a more sensible event in November and in 2017, then frankly it's fine with me (maybe a bit grudgingly so but oh well)

 

For the sake of comparison, to earn the same gross income estimated for the scotsman hauled services the SVR would have to sell 11,765 day rovers (at the adult pre book price).

Puts some perspective on the economics...

 

Ever since going to Retford shed back in the late 60's and hearing the foreman say to my Dad who was asking if we could go round the shed that "Scotsman was on No2 road" almost as a boast I've been hook line and sinker a huge admirer of the loco. Seeing it there still fairly fresh from a Doncaster overhaul with what looked like an inch thick coating of dead and dying flies on the front buffers stood next to an ROD 2-8-0 enforced the fact that this is one special lump of metal! Back in those days she was a proper glamour puss adored by the public who watched every move all enforced when the BBC made its film about the non stop Kings Cross to Edinburgh run. Now almost part of the British personality am I glad she has hijacked my favourite few days of the year? Well in a word no not really but I suppose you can see how the SVR management has been shunted right up to the stop blocks at Bridgnorth and damned if you do damned if you dont! Hopefully all will work out well we will get an extra November event (which hopefully gets to become a regular thing) and the railway gets to make lots of money! As they say sh1T happens but life goes on and unpopular though this is in reality I think they have made the right decision in difficult circumstance. After all how are they going to make enough money to rip up even more 60 foot bullhead and replace it with welded flat bottom....!!

 

I hope that was a tongue in cheek remark about the flat bottom. The alchemy that was this topic on the unofficial SVR facebook page was ridiculous.

 

If you work in Retail you can only hace a certain number of weekends off so they are chosen carefully. Holiday stops start of November due to the run up to Christmas. Thats what anoyed me when i first saw this, the dates had been anounced, the ASG is preservation premeire gala never would have thought that it would be changed. Holidays had to be booked by end of April and once booked are hard to change. Any way i have calmed down now, and am rebooking for a few days on the ELR to take in the Diesel Gala something i have always wanted to do. Work will not let me have November off so the Tank Gala is no go for me. I will be back next year but yes the SVR has lost some goodwill.

 

I think everyone, including the NRM, simply underestimated the media hype which is surounding FS. The problems at St Neots highlight the issues regaqrding safe operation of the loco. Enough has been said about trespass on ELR to not repeat it here other than it must be acknowledged as an issue.

At the 2015 ASG there was great critisim of the SVR for overcrowding. Reapraising the issues of having Tornado and FS I can understand why our management made a stategic decision to change the format. Should the SVR be critisised for both overcrowding and the attempts to control it by reformatting. It appears from this thread it can. 6 months notice has been given for the change in format, is that reasonable?

I have sympathy for those in jobs where leave is difficult to rearange .These changes would not have been made to spite the enthusiasts but from a pragmatic review of the issues surounding these two locomotives.

THE ABOVE IS PURELY MY PERSONAL OPINION AND NOT AN OFFICIALY APPROVED RESPONSE