SVR General Discussion

We’re in different times at the moment though. Every railway has limited stocking facilities so can’t stockpile on site. What some railways are doing is forward ordering coal for call off from the dockside when required to guarantee the supply. As you say it is money up front but that’s the way it is.
Personally, I didn’t think we’ll have a coal shortage; it’s just the price that will hit us. At least in the short term.

 

The price is a big issue as its going to be shipped half way across the world to get here so the transport costs and its not the greatest for the climate either. There should be work on a replacement as that is the only medium term future for steam.

 

Hey Folks,

Trying to track down some information on the 15" gauge scheme at the Severn Valley back in the 1990s, there's a thread here if you can help: https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/severn-valley-15-gauge-proposal.1420893/

 

The advice for shareholders that have not yet received their tickets for the new running season is travel with your shareholder's pass.

 

Royal seal of approval:

 

Forgive my slightly beer addled brain, could the SVR use the by Royal Approval Crest on 34027?

 

The first paragraph here would suggest not.
https://www.royalwarrant.org/
"A Royal Warrant of Appointment is a mark of recognition of those who have supplied goods or services to the Households of HM The Queen or HRH The Prince of Wales for at least five years, and who have an ongoing trading arrangement."

 

Don`t get me wrong Steve, but how could you be so sure about that?

 

I didn’t think so either, but thanks for confirming it.

 

For anyone interested there’s a video here showing Taw Valley’s transformation…
I’m guessing @Victor might enjoy this one,

 

Simply because, if they were, we would have significant numbers of that generation wanting to get involved, both as volunteers and simply members of clubs and societies and the evidence doesn't support that.

 

I don't entirely agree with you there Steve. I never cease to be amazed at the number of really keen youngsters that do get involved. Of course you can never have enough volunteers of any age, but the quality of those youngsters is excellent. Alas they are often unable to stay too long as they go through life's natural cycle of finding employment, raising a family and becoming responsible for others in their lives. Look at the number of young loco dept volunteers at Grosmont who have gone on to find employment on the "big" railway - that does rather impeed their ability to volunteer as much as they might like to, but it does not mean that they are not wanting to get involved. They are still the volunteers of the future even if they cannot volunteer at present.

Peter

 

I’m with Peter, on my last visits to the Bluebell, North Norfolk and Severn Valley there were plenty of folks who how do I put this are the right side of 30 doing the front of house stuff.

Behind the scenes on other social media platforms the likes of Simon and James do a great job of promoting 35028 as do those behind 60163 and 2007.

My Dad has various younger friends who manage to work for the likes of Saphos as a day job and look after a certain black A4, then in their spare time do things like look after a certain black A4.

Then there’s the likes of the GM of the other SVR down in Kent who regularly keeps us updated with the goings on there.

Much as I’m not keen on him, GBRf have signed up a certain Mr Bourgeois to promote their business on the big railway on social media. (It’s another way of making trains interesting)

Seriously Steve the youngsters are out there, trains are really cool at the moment. I’m not having a pop at you but maybe those railways your involved with could possibly improve how they recruit and retain those that come along and want to join in?

 

Very well said Peter!

 

I've no problem with you disagreeing with me and I accept that there are a lot of youngsters interested in steam and railways. I just don't think that the numbers who are interested today are anything like the numbers that there were in my youth. In those days there was little else to do to interest the young, apart from train spotting, fishing or kicking a football around. My response to the original post was to give a possible reason for the decline in the railways membership.

 

Personally, I think we've purple painted ourselves into a corner with this.
Even if you give the benefit of the doubt and believe that it will generate more in ticket sales than it cost to paint, we are now faced with the choice of either using our most unecomical loco at a time when we are trying to save coal, or not using our new star attraction.

 

This one hasn’t been properly thought out has it?

 

To be fair, when the idea was announced in mid-December 2021 it looked like a cheap way to get some good publicity, even if it upset a few purists. The coal problems only really came about after the Ffos-y-fran colliery washing plant broke in January and Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Its easy to criticise with hindsight.

 

Fair point.

 

The decision was the correct one with the information available when it was taken so know one should be blamed for it now. I dont think small coal savings by using different locos are going to have much affect in the long term.