GWSR General Discussion and Operations

It was on the Facebook page initially but by the time I'd gone back to copy it, it had gone!

 

I think it's a good idea. BR Blue is very much part of preservation.
We need an intercity set somewhere next!

 

Well, blue & grey can now be seen as a vintage livery and hence a legitimate choice. We should perhaps be grateful that GWSR was outside the NSE area, so you will hopefully be spared any proposals to use that livery!

I believe that GWSR is also re-painting more coaches into blood & custard livery, so there is going to be considerable variety of carriage colours. Is the plan to try to keep coach sets to one livery, or to accept trains of mixed colours?

Although not myself a big diesel fan, I visited the GWSR diesel gala on Sunday and enjoyed the frequent train service up and down the line. The event seemed well organized and managed, with good time-keeping through the day. The only down-side was the long waits at passing places, particularly northbound at Winchcombe and Toddington, but I assume that was necessary because of the uneven section lengths and to provide some contingency.

I was surprised by the fairly light train loadings on Sunday. Perhaps more folk attended on Friday & Saturday? Some potential attendees may of course be away on summer holidays - it is unusual to stage galas in July. I also wondered whether, in the absence of any Deltics and absence of any Western Region Hydraulics, the line-up was not sufficiently appealing to some diesel fans?

Anyway, I hope the weekend's takings were sufficient to break even and cover costs.

 

The aim, according to the C&W blog, is a policy decision to phase out the maroon livery, which weathers far more poorly compared to chocolate and cream or blood and custard. Its a fair point, given how often one sees rather tatty-looking Mk1s in maroon at any number of railways.

 

Yes, set 1 (7) will remain chocolate and cream, although it's been a bit mixed recently due to shuffling of coach types. Set 2 (7) which was maroon is going all crimson and cream - we're well on the way with that, 4 done, 2 more in the works to be complete by the end of the year. The third set (between 5 and 7) will still aim to be chocolate and cream, but will probably end up a little mixed most of the time, and the fourth set blue and grey - I'd like us to try and marshal any remaining maroon coaches into that set too while we have a couple in blue & grey, but that will depend on other practicalities of course.

 

That rationale for reducing the use of maroon livery makes a lot of sense, and I don't in general have a problem with it. One point/query, though: maroon livery was a historical artifact, in wide use on coaches, one of some duration. It would be nice if there were some examples of it on actual coaches on heritage line(s). Will there be any coaches painted in maroon on the GWSR, to preserve that history? (Yes, yes, I know there are many pre-grouping engine liveries which are not now extant in the vintage world; the maroon coaches were very widespread, though.)

 

It is currently planned to phase maroon out, but I suspect it'll be some time before the last one disappears, and by the time that comes to pass who knows, maybe plans will change again! It would be nice to have a rake of each livery, but the challenge is then keeping rakes in uniform colours. Yes I know they often all got mixed up, but in the rose-tinted world we recreate on heritage railways, it looks a lot better if they're not all jumbled up.

 

Severn Valley has a maroon Mk1 set

 

Severn Valley '1960's' weekend with the additional draw of Flying Scotsman and the attendant publicity plus the GWSR not allowing free (or chargeable) platform access would deter the casual visitor.

 

Maroon 'goes off'. Does anyone remember the (in)famous Derby Maroon set. I rode it from St. Pancras to Derby one Boxing Day. Colour had faded to a sludgy dull red / brown. Not a good look.
Pat

 

As far as I was aware platform access was free during the diesel gala. It's only really the steam gala where we're a bit more restrictive due to all the off train "extras", some of which cost a fair bit of money to provide.

Sundays always seem quiet for us, certainly Friday and Saturday were much busier and the event overall has been judged a success numbers wise, both passenger and profit.

 

Link to the blue and grey paint donations page
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfun...rwickshirerailway?utm_medium=CR&utm_source=CL

 

The paint company chemists need to get busy, then!

 

It's maybe something which the "paint company chemists" have their hands tied against by modern day legislation. Like lead.

 

Maroon does fade but I don't think it is as bad as blue in this respect. Certainly blue paints of old used to fade quite badly and is a reason why so few locos were painted blue. The KESR changed their house livery from blue to green for this reason. Green is one colour that doesn't tend to fade, hence a popular choice for many companies, both on main lines and in industry.

 

My father was a signwriter (until the 70s) and he took a dim view 0f blue paint which he said faded very badly...

 

Apologies if thats the case - I've been turned away before so assumed it would be the same for this event. I think either free access or platform ticket only access generates more than it loses, I invariably spend on a railway even if I dont travel and I think thats true of most of us. There will always be 'free loaders' but the sales generated from 'casual visitors' surely generate income the railway wouldnt otherwise have had and served to encourage future visits and travel even if not perhaps at the gala.

 

On 2 steam days, 7903 and 3850. On 1 steam days, just 7903. That's for up to and including 10th August.

 

Railway livery policies certainly change from time to time - probably when board membership changes. If you go back a decade, both the WSR and DFR were dominated by chocolate and cream coach sets, but both seem to have increasingly used maroon in recent years. So as you say, GWSR policies may also change again in the future. Perhaps, as with the MHR, a Sprinter might arrive?

Mixed rakes of maroon and blue/grey were commonly seen in the late 1960s and so would be historically authentic - behind either steam or diesel.

It is certainly true that green, alongside black, was the most popular colour for locos in Britain throughout the steam era. But that is not true for carriages. Prior to WW1, nearly all companies used red or brown as their basis coach livery, sometimes with lighter-coloured upper panels, and sometimes using varnished wood finish instead of paint. The picture changed from 1915 with the adoption of green by the LSWR in place of its previous two-tone brown - first for electric stock, then for loco-hauled coaches.

I think Southern Green stock would have worked into Cheltenham over the M&SWJ line, but no sign of any on the GWSR.

EDIT: In case anyone is curious, the Cambrian and Highland were the other companies with green coaches, while the Furness & SDJ used blue.

 

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I’m just catching up with reading some railway magazines from earlier this year and in Heritage Railway’s cover of the Cotswold Festival of Steam there is the line ‘Both SVR locomotives double-headed with no.7714 inside for operational reasons.’
I’m used to ‘operational reasons’ on the big railway but can anyone clarify what was the actual reason here?
Thanks!