Avon Valley Railway - END OF SEASON GALA - 10/11th November 2018

Yet again a great gala the smaller engines are ideally suited to the line spent Saturday riding on the trains and Sunday taking some photos thanks to the crew of the Terrier for providing smoke on the departures from Avon Riverside.

 

Nice gala, the vintage bus link from Keynsham was a great addition. Shame there were no additional attractions at Bitton this year, I’m sure last year there were model railways in the big tent which has since become a canopy. It’d also be good to see some publicity for the railway’s aspirations; new sheds at Bitton and an eventual extension towards Bath, etc. A hint of ambition might even persuade me to get involved!

The ticket prices were understandably high for a gala that two guest engines have been shipped in for (good guest engines, too!). But just having day rovers at £16 each available made it too expensive for us as a family. I bought a ticket and took the kids but my wife decided to sit it out. A slightly less expensive round trip only ticket would have persuaded us both to ride.

It would be good to see an Ivatt tank back at some point. You can’t beat authentic motive power as a crowd-puller!

 

Avon Valley Railway Steam Gala 2018
Great Day Thanks to all the Volunteers

LB&SCR A1X Class 0-6-0 No.32678 Terrier Tank Engine by Talking to Bears 00 posted Nov 11, 2018 at 6:32 PM

LSWR 2-4-0T No.30587 Beattie Well Tank Engine by Talking to Bears 00 posted Nov 11, 2018 at 6:31 PM

Avon Valley Railway by Talking to Bears 00 posted Nov 11, 2018 at 6:32 PM

 

Very good visiting engines this year. For a small railway the AVR certainly knows how to organise such an excellent gala each year.
An adventurous timetable but it ran like clockwork. When I visited on the Sunday the trains ran to the minute.

Also well done to the railway in the way that it marked the centenary of the end of World War 1. Very impressive and professional.

<BJ>

 

Here's my video and a few photos from the event on Saturday. Great to see a good number of people about, even with the varied weather we had on Saturday! I was on Driver For A Fiver duty on the Sunday so if any of you came up to have a go at driving 'Karel' then I hope you enjoyed it! Roll on next year and the 150th!

 

A couple from me on Sunday: