WSR 2011 Spring Gala

The first part of my video from Sunday is on Youtube now...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7We2thm1JSg

 

Thanks for that WSW. It stands up quite well to previous efforts, especially when considering the initial uncertainty surrounding locomotive acquisition. All I can say is well done to all concerned, and I've booked time off for the Autumn Gala. It'll be interesting to see what the theme will be, but I hope there's room for at least one Southern locomotive!

 

Firstly the Blubell and the Swanage are a lot closer to home. Secondly the WSR summer timetable includes diesels which I cannot find any degree of affection for. The Bluebell is always an all steam timetable and the Swanage doesn't start running its dmu until around 17.30, by which time I'm ready to go home. The WSR is 178 miles from home so it means overnight accomodation - to see diesels! No thanks!

The SSG was a success for me, and I enjoyed it. But I do think that SEPT have put too much emphasis on punctuality which has affected the frequency of service. The WSR must be one of the few railways where the steam gala timetable is less intense than the summer timetable; something I find rather odd.

I'm pleased that the number of visitors has held up this year, particularly in view of the competition, but I do wonder whether there where more visitors in the first weekend than the second. I certainly got the impression that there were fewer than usual visitors during the second weekend, both MD and BL were far less crowded that usual. Normally it is quite impossible to set up a tripod at BL, this time no problem at all.

I did note that the turntable facility is still being misused with an engine arriving MD tender first, being turned and then departing tender first. Completely crackers! And it is that sort of thing that caused me to give up on my membership of the WSRA, the association just doesn't listen, but that's its business not mine. Not any more anyway.

I enjoyed the gala, but I found that I had to spend a lot of time driving to get to where I needed to be to get the film I wanted. MH is 178 miles from home and I did a total of 625 miles in the weekend, so 269 miles was spent driving from one location to another to make the most of the timetable. Going to WSR galas is an expensive business! Quite often there were clashes in the timetable which made it impossible to film at desirable locations because I would have had to be in two locations at once and towards and beyond mid-afternoon there was a lot of tender first running in both directions, leading to periods where, from my point of view, it was a little boring.

So, it could have been better, but it was still worth going to, and anyway, that's where 'Britannia' was, looking excellent in the plain black livery.

Regards

 

I uploaded another short clip featuring 70000 & 9351 at Crowcombe Heathfield on the last morning =
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02pYn8AEiLI

 

It can at first glance be annoying when you see a train arrive at minehead tender first only to be turned and depart tender first, however if you think on a bit, this is the only way the train facing can be changed at the moment, so the move is actually to position the train for the return run in this event. Secondly you usually find this balances out during the day as you get one arriving smoke box first and then being turned to depart smoke box first. As a general rule I prefer trains all to be facing one way myself usually, but when you look at the geography of WSR then it make sense to run the way they do with use of the turn table. If you was there Sunday you will have noticed they turned all loco's arriving smoke box into minehead so they departed smoke box first, resulting in all departures from minehead being smoke box first. Which I would like to thank WSR for their consideration to Photographers along with excellant time table that provided facing details along with the loco and times. First Gala time table I have seen anywhere to do this and was purely for our benefit. I must admit I do dream of the day when the Triangle is also in operation and am all smoke box facing time table as a result, however I suspect in practice the logistics may not allow this but time will tell.

The number of trains in the day is also limited by the number of daylight hours, as such Gala's being out of season will not match up to high season as there aren't as many daylight hours.

Price of fuel these days is not easy, neither is for the railway, as such if you live a long way away from an event, even further for myself in this scenario, then the best advise I can have to to opt for one, position yourself as close as possible on the weekend and finally use a car that gives good MPG. At the end of the day the railway is where it is and unfortunately despite how much money we or their volunteers spend in travel and accommodation, they make no revenue from this expenditure and as such its Bum's on seat's that count's mainly for them, so I can only say Hat's of to WSR for extra effort in our direction.

On a sideline note, with the price of fuel and electric cars coming out out I have worked out I would need only 9 cars to attend the event, or one car and a week to get there and back, well that's progress for you!

 

Think about it ! If only the engines arriving chimney first at Minehead are turned, then very soon (by the end of the first day) every engine faces out of Minehead, and remains that way for the rest of the gala - Presumably this is what you want ?.

The WSR policy is generally that every engine should be seen running chimney first in both directions over the course of time. In practice this means the number of chimney first and tender first departures from Minehead are broadly equal. Of course the situation will change when the Norton triangle is also available - roll on the "chimney first" gala.

David

 

My final video, part 2 of the 2nd Sunday is now on Youtube. I for one am looking forward to next March when I can visit again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q2LlBEi7C4

 

I agree with you that the WSR's practice of including the info re chimney/tender first is a great help and one which other railways could do well to copy, although they did get one wrong on Saturday! I also share your view that they triangle might not be as useful as enthusiasts are hoping as there isn't such a great deal of time for servicing engines at BL and the time taken to go around the triangle might prove to be too great unless an additional engine is in steam. Time will tell.

On the topic of variety of locations, my preference is for as great a variety in my sequences as possible. I know others have favourite locations which they stick with but I like to have variety in the shots, of location, engines, panning or not, include the entire train or not etc. A consequence of this is that I do a lot of travelling which can get a little tiring by Sunday! Incidently, the 625 miles covered last weekend was done at 53.4 mpg so there is little wrong with the car, but it does increase my carbon footprint!

I agree with your reservations re electric cars, personally I feel that they will always be a niche market for urban use, and other technologies like hydrogen/electric will be the future for longer distance travel.

Regards

 

there were 117 train's that ran the full line during the gala (all 6 day's) out of these 61 were smokebox first and 56 tender first also not forgetting the auto and good's shuttles 38 smokebox first and no tender first working as it was coach first!!!! 193 train's altogether and 99 the correct way round and 56 not the correct way round!!!!! well done wsr on a very good gala with a timetable that work's and can be remembered by everyone!!!!!! i hope it's the same next year?

 

Uploaded a few still pics, finally!!.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldsteam/sets/72157626462792398/