SVR Spring Steam Gala 16-19 April 2026

Just to add my thanks to all involved for four excellent days.



'Little and Large' arriving at Kidderminster on Sunday morning.

 

have just seen a video clip of that consist climbing to Bewdley tunnel. Outstanding.

 

I have uploaded my vlog of Saturday afternoon to YouTube

 

Well a full wrap up is in order I think....I'll try answer some questions/queries from above as I go but I will just start by reiterating my thanks to everyone (Volunteers, staff, passengers, etc) for your support.

Thursday

• Generally this ran well despite the 7714 failure. Luckily the 3 timetable planners were all on BDY shed when the 77 had just finished prep so it was fairly easy to spring a plan in to place. As it happened all the locos ran a public carrying service in the end, so for those with Brakevan ride tickets a bonus of being able to get every loco!
• The Triple Headers - Well what an absolute failure these were in the end!! In short the Pug has 'dumb' buffers, these are too short when coupled to an SVR/Mainline Loco, and the coupling can't be tightened enough, so as such it creates a safety risk of the coupling riding up and coming off the hook mid-section (The ORR wouldn't be happy!). So in the name of Safety these got binned sadly!
• Reference use of P1/3 at BDY and how we plan that - Basically we use 3 as much as possible but of course the shuttle required much more use of 3 for quicker shunts to the Rock to water small locos.
• 7714 on Goods - Post an issue with tyres a couple of seasons back it is limited to fitted workings only.
• 7714's repair - This was nothing short of a miracle. The whole of the old grate out, a full new grate machined/fitted, and hauling a passenger train within 6 hours. ESMP/Bridgnorth Shed Staff deserve a medal for that!
• Hampton Loade 2 coach Shuttle - This pair were a late change and it wasn't anticipated the gangways wouldn't line up! Absolute pain but we just about managed.

Friday

• Well we think we've nearly found a WTT that works! It certainly held its own, with a maximum recorded delay of 12 minutes, and more importantly it finished 2 minutes early (Small wins are well liked!).
• I personally had a cracking afternoon on 813. What a brilliant machine.

Saturday

• 1450 didn't want to play! A Broken Spring Hanger bolt, meant I abandoned my 2857 Sales Stand duties and rather quickly picked up pen and timetable and started to figure something out. As the Hall had brought 1450's booked set in this was an easy spin around to buy us time to find a diesel, and of course it meant 4930 could still pick up its booked 2000 working, which was important for staff and loco finish locations! Very kindly the TMD boys dropped their work plans and got the Class 17 out for us, although we couldn't man the whole diagram so we lost a BDY-HY-KDR to a cancellation. It did give me the pleasure of being able to put 1Z99 in to the WTT (the 1642 BDY-KDR), yes small things please small minds!
• With the above we knew it wouldn't really recover time till the service thinned out, but with some handy diagramming we were able to get a few double crosses in place and get things back to time. I know we had some comments regarding the Manor and 813 up trains being held for ages, but the whole thing with our line is you have to sacrifice a service or two, to push the rest through for their turnaround times, which is how you make time. The Manor was booked 95 minutes at KDR between 1940-2115 so by sacrificing this to a 70 minute delay it allowed everything else to catch up.
• Pleasingly we finished dead on time with the last one in to KDR, and all of the staff deserve a huge thanks for their efforts.
• A lot of comments regarding 'it didn't feel so busy as previous galas' - These prove we did something right, as it was just as busy, but we upped capacity as much as we could so we provided a lot of more seats, etc to get people moving round. Seems to have worked.
• Highley Shunts slowing it down - This is a natural area of time loss, and is just something we 'put up' with. We did build a lot of time in to the HL and AY crosses this time to try combat this. It worked to an extent.

Sunday

• We never really got going and never really made it back. The DMU was late starting due to issues, the prep on 71000 took longer than booked, and just generally it was a slow start.
• I fired Judy on the run with Duke of Gloucester - A true highlight of my time on the SVR. What a machine! I then swapped to the Pug for the afternoon and likewise, what a machine!
• The 813/1450/7714 Triple run got lost to the 1450 failure - It is on our bucket list to repeat! - Not for Summer though.
• One train terminates at Highley, and the next Northbound is from Hampton - Well yes unfortunately thats the only way possible to run those Hampton Shuttles. Has to be a break in the WTT. Not always ideal we know, but they are popular, so we do tend to keep the North end of the line the same pattern.

Gala's for me are not just an event anymore, they are a chance for the amazing team I get to work alongside to really put on something special, and its a privilege to be part of. This weekend probably marks four of my favourite days in 11 years at the SVR, and with what we have in the pipeline for Autumn I have no doubt another 4 days of happy memories are on their way....On that note we laid out a rough Autumn WTT today, and some of the feedback from this thread has been put to good use!

 

My own efforts from the weekend, many thanks as usual to all the staff and volunteers that make these events possible! No surprise that both trains ran by the visitors seemed to be most popular, and Sunday morning's unique 'Duke & Judy' combination being of particular interest!