Severn Valley Railway 2019 Spring Gala

Good day today, everything ran to time even with the failure of 1054 - not sure if that lead to the 1210 Kidderminster departure being cancelled, certainly didn't pass anything in the loop at Highley on the 1325 off Bridgnorth which we should have done.
One change from previous years that I didn't realise until I got there, the car park on top of the hill at Bridgnorth is no longer free, now it is a proper car park they were charging £4.

 

I would like to echo what has been said above but a couple of friends of mine missed their connection into Birmingham as a result of being held outside Kidderminster for 8-10 minutes on the last train in from Bridgnorth. Ironically they'd stayed on till then having earlier had the option of departing about 1730 but due to the very punctual running up to that point they'd stayed on. I really do think the railway needs to think about the implications of people missing their connections home and having their experience tarnished as a result of missing trains on the mainline at the end of the day due to poor performance. One of our friends is now getting home two hours later as a result!

Before that we'd had a really great day and two of us are returning for hopefully more of the same tomorrow!

 

Actually thought the timetable was very good - it worked well and everything seemed to be on time. Can understand that some may be disappointed with the lack of later running but you have to consider how many extra volunteers you would need to do that and whether the passenger numbers would justify it. Anyway the gala was very well patronised today and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Visiting locos were good and star of the show for me was 75069 which I had never seen in steam before. It had scrubbed up very nicely. Does anyone know why it was carrying a wreath on the smokebox?

 

Enjoyed the visit to the SVR, tried 2 good pints of mild, 1 at Bewdley, and 1 at Bridgnorth in between travelling and taking photographs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16582147@N07/albums/72157679371096668

 

I believe the wreath is being carried in memory of Ron Gardner, a long serving SVR volunteer who was heavily involved with both standard 4's on the Valley.

 

Not impressed with the timetable and why was the first train out of Kiddy a one coach autotrain!!
It was totally rammed
Only hope lessons will be learned for future galas
Apart from this an enjoyable gala as always but could have been so much better
To answer a query, the 1210 from Kiddy was cancelled due to the coal tank failure

 

With regard to the finishing time: I was the afternoon turn signalman at Arley on the Saturday of the 2018 gala, and I suspect if the finish time had been much later than it was, I might have been trapped at the station overnight by snow! The lane out of Arley is rather steep; as it was, the snow was settling but the road was usable.

As for conservative point to point times: I recall by mid-afternoon at the Autumn 2017 gala trains were running an hour late due to insufficient dwell time and shunting time; hence why more time has been allowed since. It's standard at galas for full length down trains to use P3 at Bewdley to make disembarking and changing trains easier, but that still leaves people arriving on locals in P1 having to use the footbridge to change.

 

My picture of 4144 at S.V.R. gala after doing the 9:50am dep from kidderminster and back to kidder supposedly due out at 2pm to bridgnorth along with 75069 attached at bewdley unfortunatly at kidder theres been a points failiure on the throat of kidder station halted todays gala trains until further notice no departures fro kidder 2pm onwards, unless further up the line trains are been run round at bewdley.

 

Yep 75069 just gone past me at Northwood heading north with the local set. Hope they can fix the problem!

 

Well 1 train at a time in out of kidder i reckon out of platform 2 platform 1 is out of use 4 now so no shuttle i guess neither allowed to kidder.

 

4144 stuck on kidder throat at the points at 3:30pm todays S.V.R. gala

 

Engine is now back at Bewdley MPD receiving attention, doesn't look like its going anywhere else for today.

 

Turned out ok i managed to get the 3:30pm 7802 to hampton lode and 2857 to kidder.

 

A set of images from the opening day of this gala can now be viewed on my Zenfolio website at: - https://mickrogers.zenfolio.com/p224420066



My thanks go to all at the SVR who helped in putting on this event.
Cheers,

 

Still the best gala with best locos.

 

My video and a couple of photos from my visit to the gala on Friday.

 

Unfortunately in life --it happens. For your friends' train to be delayed by 8-10 minutes is not really excessive. It sounds as if your friends took a bit of a gamble and lost. <BJ>

 

Thanks to all involved for getting the Coal Tank back in action for today, she is a very elegant machine! Weather much better than forecast with the rain not setting in until about half 3, the sun even appeared at times! SVR Facebook page reporting that all is planned to run as scheduled tomorrow after the problem at Kidderminster today.

 

At the Gloucestershire Warwickshire gala last year, we were on the last train back from Broadway and we're held for 40 mins just outside the station. They couldn't let us in before the other 2 trainsets were shunted away, one of which was running late - there were a few frustrated people on that train as you could virtually see the car park! But as you say, it is a gamble you take - by their nature gala timetables are out of the ordinary.

 

The weather looks good so far too!