If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

Severn Valley Railway 2019 Autumn Gala 19th-22nd September

Discussion in 'Galas and Events' started by Kje7812, Jul 30, 2019.

  1. lil Bear

    lil Bear Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2006
    Messages:
    6,122
    Likes Received:
    1,655
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Railway Technician
    Location:
    8C / 5D / 27C / 71B
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    The pubs last orders are 11pm IIRC. The on-board buffets generally finish around 10pm (or have in previous years). This isn't late for a weekend. If people are drinking beyond these times it is regularly stuff they've brought themselves, something which the SVR will struggle to police themselves.
     
  2. Andy Louch

    Andy Louch Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Messages:
    275
    Likes Received:
    396
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired (best job I've ever had!)
    Location:
    Spratt and Winkle
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    A few of my efforts from Friday and Saturday....

    SVR 4144-4 Bewdley South 20092019.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

    CLN_WVR, JBTEvans, gios and 1 other person like this.
  3. Andy Louch

    Andy Louch Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Messages:
    275
    Likes Received:
    396
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired (best job I've ever had!)
    Location:
    Spratt and Winkle
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
  4. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    7,498
    Likes Received:
    5,455
    Not always I can remember in 2010, behind Leander the Buffet car was open until 3am as the steward said as he was travelling anyway and everyone was having fun he'd stay open - the guy was a legend. Everyone was behaving mind so not sure he would of been so keen if that wasn't the case.

    You are right though, some people do need to exercise better self control, that is something the railway cannot really control unless you start going down the festival route and ban all external alcohol but then you would enter the world of bag searches etc which seems extreme for a railway gala!
     
  5. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2013
    Messages:
    10,437
    Likes Received:
    17,937
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Cheltenham
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Yes I've known buffet cars still serving until at least midnight, as you say, depends who's on and how much they're enjoying themselves!
     
  6. Fred Kerr

    Fred Kerr Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2006
    Messages:
    8,239
    Likes Received:
    5,250
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Freelance photo - journalist
    Location:
    Southport
    Replicates a situation I had at a Police Training School where the bar remained open until the early hours; when asked how long the bar would stay open the barmen declared - "as long as you're buying" !
     
    flying scotsman123 likes this.
  7. Wyreman

    Wyreman New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2015
    Messages:
    112
    Likes Received:
    103
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    near Bewdley
    Some thoughts of my own on the ASG...

    Went on Saturday only this year. Slightly regretted not being able to do Sunday... until I woke that morning to the sound of rain hammering on the windows! I was lucky and didn't experience too many problems on the Saturday, with the only major disappointment being not getting a ride with 34092 at any point. (Was Wells back late in the evening as advertised? Timetable had slipped so much by then that I cut my losses and bailed around 8pm.) I did eventually manage a ride behind the Q Class though, which was probably the thing I most wanted as there's only one of that but several Spamcans!

    I've always avoided the overnights, partly because of matters already extensively discussed in this thread. I like steam at night, but I get enough drunken rowdies on post-football trains on the big railway, so no thank you. Not sure there's a quick fix to the alcohol issue though. Decided to experiment with the 0532 instead as a way of getting a night train feel - having it start from Bewdley probably meant a different audience from the overnights, and it seemed to be the case. Quiet and relaxing, and seeing dawn break over the misty Severn Valley was magical. I'd definitely go for a similar train in future.

    Did the walk-on breakfast thing and was extremely impressed with the standard of the service. A lot of tips were given, mine included, and quite rightly too. Spent most of the rest of the day between Arley and Highley. For an ASG Saturday with such brilliant weather, the crowding really wasn't too bad, certainly not as painfully wedged as when 70000 and 46100 were here a few years ago. Testament to a well thought out timetable I think, at least until the Hampton points problems messed things up. Did need to stand a couple of times, but that's all part of the fun.

    Most people I talked to or overheard seemed to be maintaining good humour in the face of the various problems as the day wore on. Maybe people found it easier to cope with the delays and loco changes because of the fine weather. Sitting peacefully in the garden at Arley was sheer pleasure early on Saturday evening - perhaps less so had Sunday's weather appeared on the scene early! The SVR did reasonably well with keeping people informed, especially families who were fretting to get home, though as ever information was a bit patchy in places.

    Finally, I was happy with the loco line-up, when it was all running at least. I accept the point some make that this is a GWR branch line, not the Great Central, but even so I like the variety of seeing a few bigger visitors at gala time. I hope 813 is back for the spring gala, though, as there aren't many chances to travel with that. Silly to pretend that this gala was without its problems, but I don't think any of them were disastrous and I had a good experience on the whole. Hopefully the numbers will add up to a satisfying total when they're all suitably crunched. As always, thank you to everyone who worked hard to make it happen.
     
    gios, Mick45305, Fred Kerr and 5 others like this.
  8. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    Nice photos @Andy Louch . May I use the 7714 image in the gallery on SVR Live please?

    For all, I've put together a gallery of what I hope is some less usual images, from a range of contributors - over 20 photographers' work shared https://www.svrlive.com/. If others are happy to allow photos to be used, please can you let me know? TIA

    Patrick
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 24, 2019
    Robin likes this.
  9. Forestpines

    Forestpines Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2009
    Messages:
    1,681
    Likes Received:
    2,438
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    Somewhere in the UK
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    From my non-travelling perspective Sunday did seem relatively quiet, although really that just means "everyone who wanted could get a seat" rather than "carriages were empty". The dull shower weather presumably put people off, although thankfully the thundery downpour that occurred an hour or two before dawn wasn't repeated later in the day. Trains were running pretty much bang on time as far as I remember, maybe 5-10 minutes behind occasionally
     
  10. Ruston906

    Ruston906 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 11, 2011
    Messages:
    455
    Likes Received:
    99
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Worcestershire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I was there on Sunday I enjoyed the day it was not crowded but the trains hauled by the visiting locos were full early on in the day. A shame that the Q was not running this may have stopped a few people who had not pre booked. The gala was good a nice balance of different locos that had not visited the line before.
    I think the whole point of a gala is to have locos that you would not expect on a rural branch line in Worcestershire.
     
    Forestpines likes this.
  11. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2006
    Messages:
    5,921
    Likes Received:
    3,827
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    East Grinstead
    Mick45305 and Will RL like this.
  12. Andy Louch

    Andy Louch Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2012
    Messages:
    275
    Likes Received:
    396
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired (best job I've ever had!)
    Location:
    Spratt and Winkle
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Hello Patrick, yes by all means. I have a few more which I will upload to Flickr in due course.
    Best wishes, Andy
     
  13. Rick.E

    Rick.E Member

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2009
    Messages:
    479
    Likes Received:
    84
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    RETIRED
    Location:
    WARWICKSHIRE
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
  14. alts1985

    alts1985 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2007
    Messages:
    1,821
    Likes Received:
    590
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Store Manager for the Co-operative Group
    Location:
    Stevenage
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    6026 King John and Forestpines like this.
  15. David likes trains

    David likes trains Member

    Joined:
    May 31, 2014
    Messages:
    804
    Likes Received:
    3,317
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Colchester
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
  16. Will RL

    Will RL Member

    Joined:
    Jun 12, 2017
    Messages:
    714
    Likes Received:
    1,060
    Location:
    Midlands
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Incredible morning shots!
     
  17. bobsungod

    bobsungod Member

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 2007
    Messages:
    486
    Likes Received:
    1,820
    a surreal morning at Eardington 253A8097.tif top shot.tif final.jpg
     
    FJR8642, CLN_WVR, lil Bear and 18 others like this.
  18. steamvideosnet

    steamvideosnet Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2011
    Messages:
    1,968
    Likes Received:
    2,476
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Southampton, UK
    A few shots from the gala. A massive thank you to everyone involved in the gala...

    svr autumn 2019.001.jpg svr autumn 2019a.001.jpg svr autumn 2019.006.jpg svr autumn 2019.007.jpg svr autumn 2019.011.jpg svr autumn 2019.012.jpg svr autumn 2019.017.jpg svr autumn 2019.018.jpg

    James
     
  19. acorb

    acorb Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2007
    Messages:
    2,505
    Likes Received:
    3,246
    Location:
    Powys
    Some really special photos posted above - would like to treble like if I could! One or two I am very jealous of and wish I had taken.
     
  20. David likes trains

    David likes trains Member

    Joined:
    May 31, 2014
    Messages:
    804
    Likes Received:
    3,317
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Colchester
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Thanks Will, with that weather forecast plus the all night running the opportunity was not to be missed!

    Great shots James, our paths definitely crossed for this one when I nearly fell in the river...
     

Share This Page