Severn Valley Railway’s Open House Weekend 1st/2nd April

This doesn't look to have been mentioned, so maybe a new thread for it, April 1st/2nd

open access to both Diesel shed at Kidderminster and steam shed/works at Bridgnorth, £25 including travel on the line
'You’ll see the work that goes into getting carriages ready for service, how we create new boilers for decades-old steam locomotives, uncover the state-of-the-art facility that houses our diesel locomotives, see the locomotive shed at Bridgnorth and much, much more. And you’ll encounter plenty of steam engines and diesel locomotives during your visit as well! '

https://svr.co.uk/event/open-house-weekend-2023/

 

I've posted something about this elsewhere on the SVR general chat thread, but for those who haven't seen that, as part of the SVR open house weekend, which is April 1st and 2nd, we are trialing guided tours around the engine house.
This is a volunteer lead scheme, and while the tours will be free, but we will be accepting donations.
The plan is for operational staff, such as footplate crew, to give a brief explanation of the history of Highley, the SVR and the exhibits in the engine house, to hopefully make them become more alive.
We are planning to time tours to suit the trains.
It would be nice to meet a few of you in person

 

An excellent initiative, well done

Details of the event are at https://svr.co.uk/event/open-house-weekend-2023/

Note that it's substantially cheaper to book several days in advance. The front page of the website also says every ticket 'pre-booked' online gets a free return ticket, valid for 12 months.

 

The Carriage and wagon at Kidderminster will be open both days, 10-4. LMS 24617 will be in the final stages of its long awaited internal overhaul. You will be able to walk through the coach and see the amount of work that has gone into it.

 

I can now announce that the folks doing the guided tours of the Engine house are also running a raffle, so far the railway have pledged a Family 12 month unlimited pass, and Stourport Photo Centre have pledged some unique mugs with a Kenny Felstead photo (hopefully Hagley Hall) on one side and an 85G shed plate on the other. Incase anyone is wondering, 85G never existed, and is often considered to be what Bewdley would have been had the depot been there in BR days.
I'm trying to press gang a couple more people into giving us stuff, so watch this space.

 

Bloody rail strikes starting to annoy me now, can’t get to this event at SVR on the 1st nor ELR Flying Scotsman trip on 20th March who are they supposed to be getting at? Government and Rail companies? No sad old passengers the ones hit
Now got to get a refund from both Railways so they suffer as well

 

60103 not running 20 May at ELR.

 

People threatened with losing their jobs are suffering more.... I very much doubt people getting to heritage railways are the main concern.

 

Too right. And I don't want to see maintenance cut and no other rail staff on the train apart from the driver. That isn't modernisation, it's rationalisation. We can all see where this is heading, another Potters Bar. The rail staff have my full support for this alone, it's the safety aspect which the media ignores for some reason - yet this affects all rail users.

Incidentally, we got the train to Crewe last weekend to join the CME - every service train was packed despite the hikes in prices. Apparently passengers haven't returned since Covid which is why cuts need to be made..

 

Passengers mostly have, revenues haven’t.

DOO has been safely in operation since 1983 and people travel on them every day. Other rail staff are and would be on trains.

 

Many existing DOO trains have only the driver on the train despite assurances that there would be a second person rostered doing tickets.

 

It is very noticeable when I leave Wales (where agreement was reached some time to always have a second person on the train), that I rarely have my ticket checked. Perhaps the revenue issue and this are linked? TOCs are now paid a set amount to run services, there is little motivation for revenue collection. In my part of Wales a large number of tickets are sold on the train because the ticket machines don't always work and all the remaining offices are shut. People know that the on train staff will not sell the most expensive ticket option unlike the machine. The human touch.
If you want to shut ticket offices you must make tickets simpler. My local office used to save people loads, just by selling the cheapest ticket or suggesting splits. There are websites that will do this, but most don't know about it. I saved £15 for our party of 4 to Crewe last week, just by splitting the tickets at Shrewsbury.
DOO is acceptable on inner city and suburban services where journey times rarely exceed an hour. It isn't acceptable to have no on train staff on cross country and long distance services. And it will happen, despite assurances it won't, because it is legally allowable. Once TOCs find they can get away with it, it's another cost saving.

 

Those who are joining us for April 1st and 2nd, the lads running the guided tours of the engine house are running a raffle, first prize is a 12 month unlimited family pass, second prize is a limited edition mug featuring a Kenny Felstead photo of 4930 one side and "85G" (what Bewdley would have been had it had a shed in BR days) on the other and some other small prizes donated by the engine house.
There will also be a very small number of the mugs to buy, with all proceeds to the railway.
Come and have a go, or join one of our engine house tours, or just come and say hello.

 

Well, you heard it hear first, we've managed to secure some Fantastic prizes for the raffle being held at the engine house on April 1st and second.
The undoubted star prize is a Footplate ride for one person (subject to certain conditions)
Other prizes include an unlimited one year family pass, a limited edition Hagley Hall / Bewdley MPD mug with a Kenny Felstead photo (supplied by Stourport Photo Centre) and a carved stone garden ornaments/ slab with GWR roundel on it, courtesy of the engine house and our resident stone mason.

 

Has the diesel shed been taken off the areas you are allowed to visit?

 

40106 failed at Bewdley. Waiting for another diesel from Kidderminster.

 

10:15 service cancelled, 11am next departure from Kidderminster plus no hot drinks hot water boiler in buffet car leaking
Standing room only as passengers from both services all on one service now

 

The teams of volunteers and staff have worked incredibly hard at Bridgnorth and in Alveley Woods, in difficult weather, to get all the winter works done in time for the full line opening today. Kudos too to the volunteers who have taken on the carriage cleaning and bar/buffet work.

 

I know I was on it
Passengers were originally told steam and 40106 had failed,
Hence why I edited post