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

Thanks for the warning about timetable congestion and delays! I visited on Sunday, which had a good visitor turn-out but was not crowded,. However, delays still built up during the day, reaching 40 mins on my late afternoon finish at Kidderminster. The problems seemed to be at the southern end of the line, which had a 30-min interval service, with alternate trains going through to Bridgnorth and the others to Arley/Highley. I don't recall the "double crossing" arrangement at Arley being used for previous galas. It didn't seem to work satisfactorily, building-in lengthy waits even without the delays.

I've enjoyed a number of SVR diesel galas, largely because of the frequent interval timetables allowing easy travel up and down the line. On this occasion, the timetable planners perhaps squeezed in a few too many trains, but they will doubtless review for next time.

Overall, still a very enjoyable gala. I particularly appreciated being able to ride in an HST on the SVR, recalling numerous main-line journeys. And the Scotrail-liveried set was an unusual and interesting sight in Worcestershire!

 

Severn Valley Railway’s Diesel Festival breaks loco and visitor records
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2023/0...festival-breaks-loco-and-visitor-records.html

6,500+ visitors, excluding shareholder vouchers/passes, the highest number of visitors the SVR has ever recorded for a diesel event. 44% more passengers than budget, 35% more ‘secondary spend' than last year. [For comparison the 2023 Spring steam gala was ~5,002 but over 3 days and the 2022 spring steam gala was ~7,500 over four days.]

Note the comment: “As with the Spring Steam Gala, there are some learning points to take on board and we will action these for future events."

TikTok train spotter Francis Bourgeois has an 'absolute blast' at Severn Valley Railway
https://www.expressandstar.com/ente...s-an-absolute-blast-at-severn-valley-railway/

Instagram star Francis Bourgeois visits Severn Valley Railway
https://www.kidderminstershuttle.co...ancis-bourgeois-visits-severn-valley-railway/

 

I thought it a well planned and run gala. Late running yes but not materially more than your average gala. Two points I thought stood out operationally which sometimes fall foul at late running events; 1) The order of the trains and passing points remained as timetabled; 2) Connections were held at Kidderminster (except one notable exception on Saturday), Bewdley (by all trains using the island platform) and Arley. For those planning moves around multiple locos, the timetable structure remaining as booked and connections being held are likely more important than running to time. My son and I enjoyed it immensely.

 

Intriguing question, but is this the first time a diesel gala has outsold the corresponding steam event?

No doubt these are very impressive and welcome figures, the organisers should be very proud of themselves. Hopefully a very healthy financial return too.

 

Apologies for the dodgy quotation above, something went awry with my editing and can't seem to separate the quote from my post.

 

I assume your question is whether the Diesel gala has ever outsold the Steam Gala?
Since 2016, when the Spring Diesel gala was (re?)introduced, twice for certain has the SDG beaten the SSG.
2016 - SSG: 3537, SDG: 4670
2017 - SSG: 4537, SDG: 4810
Not sure of the 2018 and 2019 SDG figures.

I will say that IMO in terms of scale, since 2016, the SDG is comparable to the ASG and the SSG to the ADG.
For ASGs since 2008, only 2008 and 2015 have great numbers being 7596 and 7300 respectively, while 2011 is also stated to be 6500.

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2018's SSG was 4,541 (the Gala was hit by heavy snow, resulting in reduced attendance) which exceeded the Spring Diesel Festival's 4,142.

2019 SDG attendance was reported as 'solid'!

 

Very descriptive

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So, it's not the first time that the Spring Diesel event is more popular than the SSG but it's first one where it's ASG level numbers wise.

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Just a note that the steam (5000) was over three days to diesel's 6500 over four.

 

Nice Black 5 and BRCW Type 3 reference there regarding numbers and Traction Patrick

From my time at Kidderminster (which was 25 years ago now) It was always a big thing with the DTG and the 50 fund about putting on a gala in May as a bit of way of promoting the diesel fleet before the diesel running days through the summer.
I know things have changed a bit since then but it’s rather nice to see that the thinking behind it’s been vindicated.
I’ll sign off with my usual quote ‘Railway history did not end in 1968’

 

Thanks everyone for the informative replies. No doubt this year's gala has set a new benchmark. I can remember a time not that long ago when diesel galas were considered 'marginal' and had been scaled back to just one low key event a year, which had steam at the weekend too - 'for those that didn't like diesels'!

Quite the turnaround.

 

That was a huge source of frustration for those I worked with at the time, we did get our own back the one year by using the 800 as Kiddy station pilot during an ASG. (1998 I think)

 

So, roughly, about the same per day. Also, three visiting locos for the steam gala vs 10+ for the diesel gala.

 

The two events are IMO complementary. They’re also quite different models.

Diesel locos are a fraction of the cost to operate and good relationships with operators can mean the hire and transport costs are different too. The secondary spend from diesel followers is I gather usually higher. I suspect the cost of firing up 18 steam for some very limited turns would be uneconomic.

I wouldn’t get too tied up on comparisons though. The key is I guess leveraging the biggest surplus from each, which means different events - shorter or longer, more or fewer guests etc.

 

There is a page on the history of SVR diesel galas on the SVR Wiki.

https://www.svrwiki.com/Diesel_galas

The SVR seems to blow hot and cold with diesel galas. The last time there wasn't a diesel gala at all because of a perceived "lack of interest" was as recently as 2006. 10 years later in 2016, there were 15 guests.

 

One of the more interesting things to me on the attendance numbers was it was only a week after the Swanage Gala. From posts on more diesel based forums these appear to be the two most popular, so many must be happy to fork out money for both.

 

Since 2006 there has been a huge culture change, led very much by the professionalism of the SVR diesel groups. Back then diesels were tolerated, now they are essential part of services, indeed taking the lead during last year's droughts. The development of world class facilities with the new depot should also be commended. Last weekend's figures were just the icing on the cake, but demonstrate that diesel heritage is now just as important as steam.

 

But those visitors (as in locos and stock) can come in rather easily by rail, Don’t forget there’s also that rather nice TM facility that can also be used to do work on those visitors too, it can be a useful bargaining chip.