KWVR June Gala or not

Read 'Push and Pull' today and the railway is reverting to spring and autumn steam galas. Anyone know why?

Regards

 

The Railway has two steam galas planned this year.

They are:

Winter Steam Gala: Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th February
Autumn Steam Gala: Friday 8th, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th October (NOT the weekend earlier, as previously advertised in error on the KWVR website).

The concept of a June steam gala stemmed from our 40th Anniversary celebrations in 2008. The Railway's Council agreed that, exceptionally, there would be three steam galas that year, i.e. February and October (as per the previous pattern since 2003), plus the specially themed 40th anniversary gala.

The Railway was and is very proud of its 40th anniversary celebrations. There were however, some well publicised disappointments / frustrations, viz: the derailment of 47760 at Oxenhope on the Saturday morning, and the failure of 30777 Sir Lamiel on the evening main line run. The effect of these were to limit the scope of the planned main line steam runs, which had been planned as one of the main "showpieces" for the event.

What the event did demonstrate was the market demand for an occasional, novel form of "add on" main line activity (previously demonstrated by the NYMR with Whitby - Battersby, and the SVR with Bewdley - Birmingham, during their "flood" year gala).

The KWVR therefore wished to have a further attempt at the main line "add ons" and these were successfully achieved with the June 2009 gala. The gala had to be held during June as otherwise, if done in February or October, the evening Ribblehead run would be in the dark! The Railway reverted to the "two galas" format as each gala involves huge manpower requirements and some element of financial risk, hence October was dropped for a year.

The Railway may well consider something similar in terms of main line running in the future but for now we have felt it time to revert back to the February and October format. If we did the main line activity every year there is a feeling the attraction might wear off in the already crowded main line market. Also, getting main line approved locomotives available at that time of year at the right time, place and price (and with sufficient variety, again, to maintain attraction) can also be difficult.

Thus, no one is saying "never" to another main line based June gala, far from it, but for the time being the format is returning to the February / October pattern.

Julian Jones
KWVR 40th anniversary co-ordinator
KWVR Railway Press Spokesman

 

OK I understand why and thank you for the prompt reply. One effect of this is though that I won't be renewing my membership. My reason is that there are lots of galas in the southern half of the country in October and so there is no need or incentive to travel 200 miles north to the KWVR's event. My membership of the KWVR is therefore irrelevant to me and might as well be 'transferred' as it were to a railway that is closer to me.

I think that I might take issue with your comments re the 2008 gala. It was indeed unfortunate that the 47 fell off the rails at Oxenhope and 'Sir Lamiel' failed. But these matters are completely separate from the gala itself. They could happen at any time and I thought that the railway earned a good deal of credit for the way it coped with the resulting emergency. Personally I'm not the slightest bit concerned about the 'mainline features' of the June galas, I went to the event because I thought an early summer weekend break would be nice and I like the Worth Valley for itself.

I have always thought that the insistance of the steam railways that the steam galas should always occur when it's cold and there is a greater probability of rain is perverse. Far better if they happen in the summer warmth and when there is a greater chance of it being dry! I supported the 2008 and 2009 galas for that reason, I won't, for I have no need, support the KWVR in its change back to the usual format. I have no doubt that others will take a different view, but from 200 miles away that is mine.

Regards

 

I've always believed that having early and late season Galas and other events was to boost passenger numbers when the railway would otherwise be quiet.
Even though it's fairly close, I would be most unlikely to visit the K&WVR in February unless there was a Gala.
Fair enough though, travelling a long distance at that time of year, especially if you have to plan things like accommodation well in advance, isn't something that I'd do either. After a couple of disappointments with the weather in March at the West Somerset, I've not been back there for the Spring Gala for quite a few years.

 

I recall reading that the WVR pioneered the concept of an out of season gala in the 1970s. The logic was that it would steam all available engines after their winter break to test them for the season ahead and realised that this could make an attractive event on an otherwise quiet weekend.
Paul

 

Maybe not entirely in keeping with the subject,but what's the chance of running mainline shuttles during the diesel galas?

 

It's not an area of planning I have any involvement in but I will gladly pass your suggestion on.

Thanks

Julian