If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

Severn Valley Railway 2019 Autumn Gala 19th-22nd September

Discussion in 'Galas and Events' started by Kje7812, Jul 30, 2019.

  1. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Messages:
    3,080
    Likes Received:
    1,291
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Very comfortably early retired
    Location:
    1029
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Rather more than a couple of thousand each
     
    Hampshire Unit likes this.
  2. daveb

    daveb Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2005
    Messages:
    943
    Likes Received:
    484
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Wimborne, Dorset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I was a bit surprised to find that, when ordering the WTT from the website, I was required to tick which four of the four days I wanted....?
     
  3. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2006
    Messages:
    6,122
    Likes Received:
    1,655
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Railway Technician
    Location:
    8C / 5D / 27C / 71B
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    It's mid-September, so must be time for the annual "Knock the SVR for charging for a WTT"...

    Something that raises significant income for the event. When 4000 people attend, even if only 10% of people buy one that's £2000 earned. Anyone prepared to donate that so they give them out for free?
    Those asking for a slimmed down version, clearly hasn't organised a gala. When you've got one of the biggest events of the year to organise, is your time best spent organising the whole event or producing multiple versions of the same thing for all the niche customers attending?
    Printing costs will be much reduced, as bulk order they can just ask for however many copies and get it done. Instead of splitting it into X Full, Y Half, Z mini versions.
    And issuing an electronic copy is opening up for copies being posted elsewhere. Best to protect your revenue streams than risk losing them. Waiting a couple of days for it to arrive in the post is no big deal, if that's reason for not attending you have bigger issues than the Royal Mail.

    My only complaint is that the Le / ECS moves aren't "greyed" out (or highlighted grey) as per SVR live, marking out which trains are for public use and which aren't. Not everyone knows the various codes, and when altering your plans last minute as you travel has been known to cause confusion / missed connections.
     
  4. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2006
    Messages:
    6,122
    Likes Received:
    1,655
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Railway Technician
    Location:
    8C / 5D / 27C / 71B
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Limitations of online booking system. The same product will appear no matter which day you select (spoken from experience).
     
    michaelh likes this.
  5. Will RL

    Will RL Member

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2017
    Messages:
    714
    Likes Received:
    1,060
    Location:
    Midlands
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
  6. acorb

    acorb Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2007
    Messages:
    2,505
    Likes Received:
    3,248
    Location:
    Powys
    I am sure this conversation takes place each year!

    It has been a fiver for years now, given the steep inflation on everything else steam related this now must be considered a bargain given the amount of information it provides.

    No other railway comes anywhere close to the number of trains that run over an SVR autumn gala - so therefore it will always be a significant document which comes at a cost.

    If all you want are loco allocations then these are traditionally available for free on Hampton Loade platform on the day. Not as useful if you want to plan in advance granted, but a useful reference on the day.

    Personally I like the element of surprise and the challenge of working it all out!
     
  7. daveb

    daveb Member

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2005
    Messages:
    943
    Likes Received:
    484
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Wimborne, Dorset
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Actually you need to select all four days. Until you have, the "click to book tickets" button doesn't appear. The problem is that it's treated as a ticket (which it's not) rather than as a commodity.
     
  8. theonlyadsrulz

    theonlyadsrulz Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2008
    Messages:
    270
    Likes Received:
    491
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Bristol
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    While I fully appreciate the time taken to just write and produce a timetable for this event, having done similar for an event at my own (much smaller) railway this year, is there not an argument in favour of a slimmed down version being printed? In terms of this year, I imagine a vast majority of the people attending the event who have purchased it, won't get past the first 7 pages of the WTT. Having counted the remaining pages, there's enough there for nearly an additional 4 copies of a slimmed down, just the timetable version! Regardless of the cost saving, the amount of paper saved by doing that would surely be a benefit!

    The SVR will know how many copies of the full WTT it requires to cover crews, staff etc with a few spare, and likewise they will know roughly how many people buy a WTT each year, so an investigation into the potential saving of printing a set number of full versions and a higher number of "just the timetable" versions and then publishing the findings would surely put this part of the argument to bed! Though I'd be surprised if they'd hadn't actually done the research already!

    That said I think the answer here is to conduct a non-binding opinion poll and let the people decide...just need a snappy slogan and a big, red train...
     
    gricerdon likes this.
  9. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2006
    Messages:
    3,080
    Likes Received:
    1,291
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Very comfortably early retired
    Location:
    1029
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    You've put your finger on it.

    The people who want the WTT for free are the same people who turn up, enjoy the spectacle - but don't buy a ticket and are unwilling to pay a penny towards it
     
  10. Andy Louch

    Andy Louch Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Messages:
    275
    Likes Received:
    396
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired (best job I've ever had!)
    Location:
    Spratt and Winkle
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Tickets and WTT arrived this morning. Outline plan drafted (which will no doubt change!), bring it on!!
     
  11. Andy Louch

    Andy Louch Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Messages:
    275
    Likes Received:
    396
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired (best job I've ever had!)
    Location:
    Spratt and Winkle
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Apologies for duplicate post...
     
  12. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2005
    Messages:
    5,283
    Likes Received:
    2,650
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired Rolls-Royce engineer
    Location:
    Bath Green Park / Mangotsfield
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I hope that you're not suggesting that Gricerdon and myself are freeloaders. Both of us have made comments about the WTT but I can assure you that both of us will be travelling on the trains at the gala.

    The reason that I am getting impatient is that I am abroad from this weekend to Friday 20th and so am eager to study the WTT before I visit the gala on the Saturday. <BJ>
     
    gricerdon likes this.
  13. keith47424

    keith47424 New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2018
    Messages:
    3
    Likes Received:
    1
    And like I have said. I do not begrudge paying the fiver. I would just sooner it be available online rather than by snail mail. SVR manage to do it online for their diesel gala so why not the steam gala?
     
  14. Ben Jenden

    Ben Jenden Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2019
    Messages:
    850
    Likes Received:
    628
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Croydon
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Now, I also don't begrudge about paying £5.00 for the WTT. But I do have a couple of minor disagreements with the way it is sometimes produced. In comparison to last years ASG timetable. However I am more looking forward to next weekend. It will sure to be a show
     
  15. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2006
    Messages:
    5,922
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    East Grinstead
    I received my working timetable today.
     
  16. Matt37401

    Matt37401 Nat Pres stalwart

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2014
    Messages:
    15,330
    Likes Received:
    11,666
    Occupation:
    Nosy aren’t you?
    Location:
    Nowhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Then there's the inevitable failure or two that makes a working timetable about as much use as a copy of the Beano...
     
  17. gricerdon

    gricerdon Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 10, 2018
    Messages:
    1,572
    Likes Received:
    726
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gricer and Grandad
    Location:
    Wallers Ash
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Yes busy planning my day now and as usual spoilt for choice. Do I max out Bulleid mileage or go for choice? I can now also buy XC tickets in advance before they rise in price again.
     
    Ben Jenden likes this.
  18. Ben Jenden

    Ben Jenden Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2019
    Messages:
    850
    Likes Received:
    628
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Croydon
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I normally go for locomotives that are the visitors or I haven't seen before (or not put a lot of focus on) or I focus on locomotives that are more towards the end of their boiler tickets (1501, 1450, 2857, 43106). I believe all have a couple of months, to a couple of years left on the clock). But we all have a loco we are looking forward too at some sort of gala or so.

    I have a couple of locomotives in focus.... 6960 mainly.
     
  19. Ben Jenden

    Ben Jenden Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2019
    Messages:
    850
    Likes Received:
    628
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Croydon
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I just thought I randomly post a image of one of the visiting locomotives (76017) on its home-line (Mid Hants) to whet appetites for the gala. - 76017 is perhaps one of my true favourite Standard class locomotives. Fantastic machine for definite.
     

    Attached Files:

    green five and Colin Allcars like this.
  20. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2005
    Messages:
    5,283
    Likes Received:
    2,650
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired Rolls-Royce engineer
    Location:
    Bath Green Park / Mangotsfield
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    It would be good to see 76017 and 43106 stabled next to eachother. <BJ>

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Colin Allcars and Bluenosejohn like this.

Share This Page