Severn Valley Railway Autumn Steam Gala 14th-17th September 2023

Are tickets for Saturday available on the day?

 

Yes, the website says tickets are available from booking offices on the day.
https://svr.co.uk/event/autumn-steam-gala-2023-2-2/2023-09-15/3/

 

Thanks for that link.

 

Superb weather for the gala yesterday, suspect photographers will have been having a field day... they were certainly in all the fields . Looking forward to the results.

Not as busy as expected when I got to Kidderminster about 10:30, no queue out the door for tickets or for refreshments.
Picked up later in the day with trains pretty full but with some seats still available, we had to share compartments/tables but didn't have to stand even when boarding at intermediate stations.

Timetable as usual slipped throughout the day and our last train back to Kidderminster had multiple long stops from Arley all the way back to Kiddy (including one awaiting a platform where I saw our planned mainline connection go sailing past, but oh well!).

A great event, the SVR doing what it does best! Looking forward to the next one!

 

Some delays on trains about 40 mins behind timetables.

 

Hows the big Bagnall got on?

Chris

 

Apart from some lineside fires yesterday got on well it seems. Just left with the 15:50 to Bridgnorth from Highley 55 late

 

I’ll find out who was on duty and pass on your compliments

 

Heard talk of a medical emergency on one of trains which led to delays today, hope all concerned OK.

 

Seemed to be performing well, but not one to serving soup behind!

 

Another cracking event, the timetable was adventurous and provided plenty of interest, although unfortunately there was no room for recovery.
Mayflower looked superb and was as smooth as silk, all her trains were full to standing. Omaha was a great visitor and also drew a lot of interest. 41312 looked really at home on 3 Mk1s and sounded fantastic accelerating away from the stop at Eardington. 401 was noisy & another unusual visitor, it showed it's power on a few occasions.
From the home fleet, Hagley Hall was finally let off the leash a bit at this event and made several very vigorous climbs of Eardington - sounded fantastic. 43106 on a a 3 coach local put the 'flying' into 'pig' and really turned back the years once again, I am going to miss this loco - just seems to get better!
The SVR really is the best in business when it comes to galas, this was my 30th Autumn event and it never fails. The special atmosphere of the after dark trains was back too, especially with the shunting of the goods train. The trains seemed well filled (including into the night), so hopefully it is a financial success too. Thanks to everyone involved.

 

An awesome gala, spent the past two days there and as ever it didn't disappoint. Great to see an ambitious timetable in force with lots of different attractions along the line. Ultimately it proved a bit too ambitious with delays racking up to 90 minutes at times last night and up to about 55 minutes today. I'm sure those involved in the planning will learn from this going forward, a bit too much shunting at night in my mind (always takes twice as long as during the day) and a few tight shunting moves at Highley and Arley.

Perhaps a desire to get away from the long station stops of the past but also maybe a reality check that they were there for a reason...you know it's got fairly bad when delays can't be fully picked up overnight.

As I say it was generally a really good couple of days, I hope that timetabling improvements can be made going forward but this felt like a proper SVR gala after a long four year wait for the overnights to return. Highlights were the morning run from Bridgnorth up the bank on Friday with Hagley Hall and the Ivatt 2 from Highley to Kidderminster at about half 12 today. Great effort as ever from all involved though, will be back soon!

 

43106 arrived with the 21:55 arrival into Bridgnorth at 00:18...

 

and as of 01.33 we are still stuck at Bridgnorth, aboard the 23.20 from yesterday.

 

Finally away at 01.58, 1 hr 40 since we got in. I was disappointed by the apparent lack of urgency and passenger care. Something similar happened at Kidder yesterday around 21.00 when a guard let a train depart while the incoming one was held at the gantry. That left 70+ passengers stuck on Kidder platform for 2 hours. A good gala in many ways, marred by poor timekeeping.

 

Christ what a night last night is all I'm going to say. - been told the S160 has failed overnight and won't be out today

 

COPIED FROM SVR MEDIA PAGES

Good morning! It’s the final day of our Autumn Steam Gala and we have some changes to the timetable following the withdrawal of 2253 Omaha due to injector issues.

Locomotive Changes:
- 4930 Works 7714 Diagram.
- 7714 Works 4930 Diagram until 10.18, then 2253 Diagram from 12.06.
- 75069 Works Booked Diagram until Bewdley at 11.01, then works 4930 Diagram.
- 41312 Works Omaha Diagram until KR at 11.20, then waits at KR to pick up booked working Double Heading with 43106 at 14.50.

Timetable Changes:
- Extra service at 10.30 from Bewdley to Kidderminster l. L
- Cancelled trains: 11.48 Bewdley – Highley, 12.58 Highley – Kidderminster, 14.35 Kidderminster – Highley, 16.00 Highley – Kidderminster

Without 2253 Omaha operating, it’s quite the juggling act to keep things moving, so we thank you for your understanding. We hope you enjoy the final day of our Autumn Steam Gala, still with plenty of action!

 

Just wanted to say a big Thankyou to you all for having patience and baring with us this weekend.

For galas gone by we have tended to recycle old timetables used for previous galas, such as Spring this year recycling a Spring from around 2014. However for this ASG we decided to go a bit off course and write a brand new timetableZ I think we’ve all accepted as a gala group that it hasn’t worked. It’s spiralled every day in to an unacceptable delay and we have got lots of feedback, points of order and issues to discuss when we have our debrief meeting.

Please enjoy the last day today, we will do our best to keep it to something like right time!

 

I really enjoyed my day yesterday despite the late running. It was my first gala at the railway since covid and didn't disappoint!

I loved visiting Eardington station for the first time, including visiting the lamp room. Seeing Mayflower going up the hill banked by 75069 was the highlight of the gala for me and is the first clip in my video, which is now live:



Thanks to everyone involved for putting on such a great show!