SVR Diesel Gala 19th-21st May 2016

Good to see, at last, a railway not trying to milk enthusiasts by charging for the gala brochures.......

Well done SVR .... You have my business

I wonder if any other railways will follow SVR's ground breaking idea?

 

The brochure looks nice but unfortunately is out of date with the changes to the lineup (also some grammar/typesetting errors in places).

 

Shocking! Next time, they probably won't bother.

 

We would still need it for staff so would still be produced. As for loco allocations I will note what they shove on the front and so long as it has a vac bay and is big enough to haul the train thats all I need to know

 

It's not your standard ASG WTT style thing, it's a 32 page booklet with a page on each visitor (at time of printing as the 73s are stop press additions), an introduction from Johnathan Dunster and a couple of pages on the diesel depot.

 

Today has gone ok: weather a bit poor this afternoon and the visiting 20s having trouble earlier which caused some delays which carried on till the end.
Passenger numbers appeared very good for a Thursday.

 

Fantastic day yesterday, I know the weather wasn't the greatest and the blue 20's had a problem, but they replaced the 31 on the last round trip from Kidderminster so everything that should of worked did !! Only 2 minutes late into Kidderminster on that journey as well, so all lost time pulled back.

 

Lots of passengers today, unfortunately one of the 73s failed earlier leading to a 30 minute delay for most of the afternoon.

 

Well, yesterday was my first diesel gala and on the whole I thought it was very good... aside from the 20s having a few problems, leading to 30 minute delays through the afternoon.

D1015 sounded superb on the 14/47 from Arley to Bewdley, trying to make up time. I haven't heard much in the way of Westerns in the past, but I'm really rather impressed... the acceleration away from Northwood Halt was astonishing. The 68 made some good noise too, but for me the star was D9002.

Here are 4 shots of D9002 yesterday (I'll get a few more throughout the evening and will upload later)... taken at Bewdley, Victoria Bridge and twice at Safari Curve.



James

 

Well I went on Friday and I have to say I was very pleasently surprised at the connections there was only one that didn't make and that was due to the 73 becoming overwhelmed between Bewdley and Kiddy so I can't blame them for that and the crowds on the TC would indicate that it would have been a sales success for them. Good day out well done SVR

 

According to the SVR staff the brochure was funded by Today's Railways UK magazine that gave the railway a few hundred pounds to produce it. They also said that other mags were approached but no one wanted to know.
May be worth emailing the magazine, which was at a promotional price during the gala, to say thanks. I notice in the copy I bought today that it has become much more heritage diesel traction orientated under the new editor, which may be why the mag decided to fund the brochure.

 

I went yesterday . A great event . Well done to all those involved

 

Nice to hear people liked it after the moans I saw on FB and elsewhere over the withdrawal of the 40 and 26.
Yesterday was very busy even with the weather being somewhat wet and dull. Not exactly sure the reason why the timetable began to slip, possibly just sheer numbers and some tight connections at Kiddy.

 

Some delays were due to over-crowding and the guards refusing to start trains until their area of the guard's van was completely cleared; having sampled this on one train some of the passengers couldn't see the problem which made clearing space even more "diplomatic".

 

Railways don't tend to charge for this info at diesel events as diesel enthusiasts aren't willing to pay for it. Steam enthusiasts however seem to think it is completely out of order to suggest getting anything for free and therefore get charged for the info, no matter how irrelevant, bulky or out of date the brochure is. I bet the SVR will still charge for the steam gala WTT.

 

The only one is charged for is the ASG WTT (partly to recover the cost printing the copies for staff).
The Spring is generally not made available to public, though it usually is smaller affair anyway. Of course, this year is somewhat different with FS in September and the End of Season gala in November, which I suspect will be closer to the Spring gala than a typical ASG.

 

I attended the SVR's diesel gala for the first time in several years and I was very impressed. Fantastic range of loco's, interesting timetable and the organisers seemed very well rewarded as a result. The timetable with cross platform changes at Bewdley and quick, but guaranteed, connections at Kidderminster & Bridgnorth, is something the steam gala could learn from. The drivers certainly seemed in the spirit of the occasion, the thrash from the pair of 20's up Eardington was worth the trip alone!
It was a good idea to bring in some air braked stock, but the rake was too short resulting in overcrowding, not helped by the window bars. Hopefully something that can be addressed next time, which I will definitely attend.

 

Your comments re the bars on the windows of the 4-TC are a little unfair given that the set is owned by London Transport (now TfL ?) where clearances and limited and much tunnel travel is involved when used for TfL charters.

 

On the Kiddr connections Lewis Maddox and I did through the FB account highlight that there is a loop outside the station and in the event of late running connections there couldn't be guaranteed. At the other stations the token exchanges give one more of a chance!

Patrick