Severn Valley Railway Spring Diesel Festival 18th to 21st May 2023

A pint of cider!

Sent from my moto g(7) play using Tapatalk

 

On the SVR are 20142 (now on some turns tomorrow), 20189, 31270, 37263, 43186 Taunton Castle/43188 Newport Castle/HST, 43465, 43484, 47712/DBSO set, 56051 Survival, 73951 Malcolm Brinded and 73952 Janis Kong (both for display).

To follow 57307 (in traffic from Sat), 60XXX (from Fri) and 88oXX (from Sat, interweb wibble suggests planned 88001 might be replaced).

From FB, late changes for Thursday:
0800 ex KR & 0930 ex BH - now 31466 vice 31270*
1130 ex KR & 1530 ex BH - now 31270 and 31466 double headed.
1130 ex BH - 20142 and 33108 double headed
Afternoon double headed Class 20s will be 20142 & 20189

Updates to follow on 20048 (wiring repairs)
*31270 hasn't had its planned test run after tyre turning at TYS

 

Delays due to trespass on the mainline at Kidderminster and all lines including the SVR being blocked. Block lifted but knock on delays continuing.

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I went to the SVR diesel gala yesterday Thursday 18th May, I only had a certain amount of time there due to it being a nearly 4 hour train journey there and had used Split Train tickets so had to leave at a certain time, some stupid trespasser ran amok at Kidderminster on both main line and SVR rails in the morning, and the train I was on was delayed for 50 minutes, and with the delay on both railways I was unable to get my full round trip in so decided to stay at Kidderminster all day, even though I had a rover ticket

Think everything I saw is below
D821 Greyhound leaves Kidderminster with a GWR observation coach to attach to the front of service train
https://tinyurl.com/4dc5847c
D1062 Western Courier
https://tinyurl.com/43krtkeu
40106 Atlantic Conveyor & D1062 Western Courier
https://tinyurl.com/4spb2mrd
13201 pulling 73951 Malcolm Brinded & 73952 Janis Kong with 43186 Taunton Castle departing Kidderminster station
https://tinyurl.com/sb82hnfx
47712 Lady Diana Spencer arrives with the Scotrail Push-Pull coaches at Kidderminster
https://tinyurl.com/4jnxj5y6
56051 Survive on the Scotrail Push-Pull set
https://tinyurl.com/2p8wxcce
31270 Athena & 31466 depart Kidderminster with a double headed service to Bridgnorth
https://tinyurl.com/m7sxf8y8
D821 Greyhound departs Kidderminster for Bridgnorth
https://tinyurl.com/2p9979pj
33108 & 20142 Sir John Betjeman arrive from Bridgnorth at Kidderminster
https://tinyurl.com/5fmuzv4k
37263 after failing earlier in the morning is now fixed depart from Kidderminster station to Bridgnorth
https://tinyurl.com/4z373hdy
43188 Newport Castle with Welsh Dragon logo and dedicated to Geraint Thomas Tour de France winner 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ycyskmke

Neil

 

I went to the SVR diesel gala yesterday Thursday 18th May, I only had a certain amount of time there due to it being a nearly 4 hour train journey there and had used Split Train tickets so had to leave at a certain time, some stupid trespasser ran amok at Kidderminster on both main line and SVR rails in the morning, and the train I was on was delayed for 50 minutes, and with the delay on both railways I was unable to get my full round trip in so decided to stay at Kidderminster all day, even though I had a rover ticket

Think everything I saw is included
D821 Greyhound leaves Kidderminster with a GWR observation coach to attach to the front of service train
https://tinyurl.com/4dc5847c

Neil

 

Good grief that was busy today, not sure I've seen that many people at an SVR gala of any type for a number of years.
Great selection of locos, some good thrash (especially off the 37), but the timetable was
overly complicated in my opinion. It was losing 10 minutes per hour throughout the day and was pretty much an hour adrift by the time I left. The volume of trains through Arley was simply too much and there was no catch up space to regain lost time. As an example of the congestion - the 15.30 ex Bridgnorth took nearly 2.5 hours to reach Kidderminster - way too much time hanging around. Couple with extended dwell times for the large numbers of people - it was never going to work.
Hopefully these things will be addressed for the future, as this was a brilliant event otherwise and has hopefully been well rewarded financially. For shear variety of locos, not sure any other event could match this.

P. S Hats off to the mainline companies for their continued support, the 88 drew huge interest as did the 60. And yes, the HST had plenty of punters too throughout the day!

 

The challenging economic times' leading to regular services being reduced seems to be pushing ever more to galas. Organisers always want to put on a good show and if everything works it runs to time. But from either attendance or webcam viewing the best you seem to get is one day of a gala where everything works as planned.
Not sure what the answer is really, if you cut out too many trains to build in a catch up period or two, those that do operate will just be rammed to standing and that will make the experience unpleasant.

 

Yes, & I certainly wouldn't wish to prevent innovation and planners trying something new. It is a difficult balance, but there were a few grumbles today from folk who had connections to make or couldn't get all the locos they wanted due to the late running.

 

As an aside, the new fashion accessory for Lineside photography seems to be enormous mono-poles, at least 4m high. Great bits of kit no doubt, but please don't be like the muppets just outside Highley and erect them directly underneath overhead power lines, must have been less than a metre's clearance...

 

Some footage from the Friday and Saturday of the gala. Great to see such a large turnout, hats off for everyone involved in putting the event together!

 

Natural selection

 

Mr Darwin did live just up the road…

 

A great day up at the valley on Saturday. The weather was tremendous as were the stars of the show, the locos, so well done and thank you to all involved from all the companies represented for what you did.

The free ticket offer for pre-booked tickets was a nice touch, so we will be making the 3hr trip again later in the year for a more leisurely ride.

My only criticism, and one that has appeared on other forums too is the ticketing situation. The pre booked ticket line to obtain the armband stretched back well into the mainline carpark from around 8am, resulting in first two trains being missed. Apart from that, it was well organised and definitely well attended so hoping the SVR made a good profit.

A selection of the photos taken follow with the full set on the flickr site.

 

I think the main concern on Saturday was a poorly designed timetable that tried to squeeze a gallon into a pint pot - there was too many trains resulting in delays mounting during the day. All started well at 09:00 but by dinnertime the delays were 30 minutes but by the time I left at 18:00 the delay was upto an hour. Given that I could only visit on one day out of the four hence had to plan locations and trains these delays meant that my hopes of photographing the GWR trainset were dashed and I had to choose locations different from those I had planned. Perhaps a lesson to be learned is that - sometimes - less is more.

 

On the Saturday, 20048 failed at Bridgnorth with a brake issue which obviously delayed things more.

 

Not usually one for diesel galas however I did pop out before work to see the HST that I've probably dispatched at work countless times as well as the very smart Class 47 with a few other services in between:

 

If those were taken on the Saturday, then I would have been on that Western and what a racket it made too. A far more enjoyable sound than the rather drab and soulless class 88. Great pics.

 

To be fair the Western is putting out 2700bhp from its pair of Maybachs, the 88 is making do with 940bhp from its secondary power source

 

Don't get me started, I get anxiety just seeing some images people post that are clearly from poles in the vicinity of power lines. I don't use a pole in my photography, but if I did I would be very careful about where I put it up.

 

What was even more daft was they could have gone either side of the power line and got virtually the same shot, but no right underneath was the place they had to go..