Severn Valley Autumn Diesel Bash 2nd-5th October

65 years of the class 37 is this year's theme.
Details follow later in the year: https://svr.co.uk/event/65-years-of-class37/

 

D6948 announced as the first guest.

 

37250 added to the lineup.

 

Line-up now standing at:
37248
37250
37263
37264
37423
37508
37688
37901
37501

 

There will be a West Coast one, too.

 

37518 and 6 Mk1's just passed through Lancaster to Kidderminster.

 

Does anyone know which way the B End will be facing on 37688?

 

Kidderminster.

 

I see from wnxx that maybe not that unusually for a diesel gala there was some unacceptable behaviour.

"I would like to thank everyone who has supported the Severn Valley Railway this weekend at our special event to celebrate the Class 37’s. Your support is very greatly appreciated. We hope you have enjoyed this event as much as we have planning and delivering it.

I would also particularly like to thank our friends at West Coast Railways Europhoenix Rail Ltd Rail Operations Group David Burley
Matthew Thompson Colin Hatton
The Growler Group (Class 37) - 37215 & D6948 North Yorkshire Moors Railway Wensleydale Railway Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway John Harris, Steve Beniston, Vince Minto and Kevin Jones for providing their locomotives and arranging their movements.

However, there has been some unfortunate rowdy behaviour experienced, particularly in the Railwayman's Arms at Bridgnorth Station SVR yesterday evening which was very unpleasant for our staff and dedicated volunteers. PLEASE DO NOT BEHAVE LIKE THIS ON OUR RAILWAY - it’s not acceptable!

Also, one of our wonderful LNER vintage coaches was damaged on Friday with a toilet door being broken completely. This may have been accidental but it wasn’t reported at the time and therefore we are unsure of the circumstances.

Therefore this is a polite request to please TREAT OUR VINTAGE CARRIAGES WITH RESPECT! This will now take several days additional work for one of our skilled team to repair, not to mention the additional cost too.

Thank you for your support in these matters.

Jonathan “Gus” Dunster
Managing Director
Severn Valley Railway Holdings Plc"

 

To be honest, in recent years I thought diesel galas had improved, but always seems to be a to be a big drinking culture with these events and a minority seem to be unable to cope and behave..very sad to see

 

Thursday and Friday with the old school cranks, no problems.

Saturday with the kids who get giddy after a half a shandy is another story.

Yesterday again no problems.

I really think there’s a problem with the YouTube generation who think they can get away with what happened in the past and it won’t have any consequences.

When you see a teenager with a Tee shirt with ‘Window Hanging Appreciation Society’
I really thought ‘prat’s like you are going to screw it up for the rest of us aren’t you?’

 

I changed carriages due to some idiots.

If spotted by the ORR on Youtube, as happened at the Swanage earlier this year, the could easily complain about the SVR not controlling the behaviour of window surfers. Unfortunately, policing such idiots either requires an undesirable demand on volunteers or the engagement of security staff.

 

I'm not entirely sure I draw that conclusion from that case, unless the interpretation is that the operator is automatically responsible for whatever happens on their trains, regardless of whether the action could realistically have been prevented.

 

One could argue I suppose that stopping selling booze to people with a history of being unable to take their booze might be seen as a realistic way to prevent the situation.

TBF its not entirely limited to diesel events, many years back I recall being of a service train to a narrow gauge gala and there were a group of blokes in railway branded workwear regaling a carriage full of families with high volume discussions of race, sexuality and other such similarly sensitive natures. I fear its more to do with the habit of some chaps to feel the need to show off in front of their mates.

 

Is that pretty much now the situation that it is always the operators fault already?
You can have all the signage and announcements you want but if people choose to (or are too drunk) & ignore them it is still the operators fault it seems.
Think apart from the GWR issue, numerous level crossing incidents, trespass leading to injury due to a damaged fence still being the fault of NR or an FOC. Trap and drag incidents where people try to force doors open or even the infamous Merseyrail Incident.
Of course "ambulance chasing lawyers" have not helped either.

 

Several sets of stock didn’t have a buffet on them due to lack of a buffet crew.

For once though I agree with Martin about regards the £1million fine though, there are young kids out there watching the behaviour of myself and my friends on social media in the past and thinking it’s acceptable Today it’s not.

Several old school crank mates of mine have been known to tell our younger enthusiast friends that if they want to stick their body out the window then they’re more than happy to throw the rest out (usually with a few expletives thrown in)

I sound like a bloody hypocrite but we didn’t have something called ‘Social Media’ at the time. We also didn’t have the ORR on our back.

Seriously Kids, quite literally wind it in otherwise your going to bloody spoil it for the rest of us.

 

If it is a relatively small group of regular idiots then surely they can be identified, warned and potentially banned from future events?

There was loud group of youngsters in the lead carriage of the double header on the Saturday night of the steam gala. Weren't especially offensive, just annoying and very juvenile.
The guard eventually intervened after a complaint and moved the worst offender to a compartment on his own, presumeably either to pass out or sober up. Given the contents of their bags they had planned an all night session, but were already too pi$$ed by 8pm..
I don't want to discourage youngsters, it was refreshing to see so many at the steam gala, but I didnt need to get completely rat faced to enjoy myself at a gala 20 years ago. Drink and heavy machinery dont tend to mix.

 

Your last line has summed it up. Ultimately companies have to prove they have made all reasonable efforts to keep public safe (invited, sensible or otherwise..). What 'reasonable' means is ultimately is open to legal interpretation and is where these lawyers make all of their money. Previous legal cases tend to set a precedence, which is why the GWR case will make a lot of operators of traditional stock very nervous.

 

Whilst I agree with you and your first paragraph, I’d have to ask how do you police it?
At work we have an evictions WhatsApp group that can send out pictures of those being idiots to various places in Cambridge in real time, could this work in a place with limited mobile signal and a turnover of staff?

What’s to stop someone being turned away at Kidderminster then turning up at Bewdley?
Hate to say this and coming from someone who makes a living from flogging booze but I really think a little bit of self policing might be in order.